We hiked from standing Indian shelter to carter gap. I must say the terrain in north Carolina slopes more gently than in north Georgia...it's a good thing, too, as we didn't get out of camp until 11am..don't be alarmed..it was 19 degrees last night..very difficult to get out of my toasty bag and into freezing hiker clothes..my compression shorts were frozen solid so I had to switch to plan B...the backup underwear..so we walked..pretty UN eventful...crossed some beautiful streams..2 new Olympic sports I propose: mud skating and rock hopscotch...
The picture is of something we keep seeing. It's ice that comes up out of the damp ground..(water expands as it freezes) and this just shoots right up out of the ground..so beautiful and bizarre..I'm sure there must be a name for it, but no one here at the shelter knows..so let me know if you know..
It's a form of hoarfrost called frost flowers or feather frost. Here's a link that describes water freezing as it squeezes out of pores in the wood.
ReplyDeletewww.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/frost/frost.htm
I love following your blog! How did you ever decide what to pare down to make your pack lighter? It looked like you only had essentials, especially with uncertain weather conditions...