03-28-13 Can the snow go somewhere else?

Another day started in sub-par temps. The snow beneath our tent had not melted and the water in our water bottles froze (which we purposefully kept in the tent). Even our shoes and shoelaces froze! On the plus side, the cold makes us get out of camp quickly though, and we were out of there in record time--one hour after wake up--sounds slow, but try packing all your belongings, dressing, and taking your house down in that time.

Initially, the trail was not kind. The soupy parts of the trail had re-frozen and the snow was packed solid. We did a lot of slipping and sliding on all the primarily north facing slopes. Made it over Standing Indian Mountain (elev 5,498) in time for lunch.

By the time we hit the Carter Gap Shelter, we logged our biggest mileage day, 12.5 mi. The tent site was deluxe in comparison to the previous day, and some fellow hikers got a campfire started.