Thursday march 28

Headed from birch camp to Spence field shelter. left at 840, arrived at 340. Miles 171.7 to 182.5 from springer mtn...I left motivational notes for zag at Mollies ridge shelter and  Russell field shelter.. Tempting her with promises of a roaring fire in the fireplace and images of warm, dry house shoes, electric blankets and a full glass of scotch (vivid imaginations, right?)
Terrain gentle but changed from beautiful snow-covered to slushy mess as it warmed up throughout the day. Tonights total is18 people in a 12 person shelter..nobody wants to tent on snowy, slushy ground. All the smoky mtn shelters have fireplaces which are quite useful for sock and shoe roasts each evening...one or two pair of scorched socks and shoes is a small price to pay : )
We just heard the road from newfound gap to gatlinburg is open again after all the snow...woo hoo...now we can get to town and pick up food and medication..
It's 24.3 miles to newfound gap from here. The plan is to get to derricks knob tomorrow, but if we could push a little farther to silers bald, then to Mt Collins shelter, we'd have a short day on Sunday and get on down to gatlinburg...that's a big "if" we can agree to go on past derricks knob..rumor is it's very steep and this slosh makes for a slippery sliding day...poor traction makes for slow going. These hikingpoles have saved my life multiple times every day.
My feet were soaked today, even with the turkey bags...I think they've meet their match with the slush. I removed the wet stinky toe tape, used alcohol hand sanitizer on my feet (I know it says it's for hands, but trust me, my feet were better off for having been sanitized)...a hefty dusting of powder and dry socks made the world seem a lot better....and a brief warming at the fireplace.  Of course, all this must be done AFTER I've gone to get water for the evening and next day andgone to the privy. I want to keep my dry socks dry, so any outside journeys necessitate rebagging at the very least.
I find myself limiting water intake before bed so I don't have to visit the privy during the night.
Pic is sock roast in progress...