Mon, Jan 16 2017 - MLK Day: Unicoi Gap to Tray Mountain Shelter (View Original Event Details)
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What a fun day it was! We glimpsed a bit of blue sky through the car windows on the drive up to Unicoi Gap, but that was it for the day. At Unicoi we were greeted by some cold, wet fog, and we stayed socked in all day by fog, clouds, mist, and some outright rain. Rocky Mountain lived up to her name; going down the backside was even more technical than going up. We picked our way through the wet leaves, over and between the rocks (some more wobbly than others) as we made our way down to Indian Grave Gap. Just a brief pause as it was raining pretty good by this point and we were looking forward to some shelter. So we barrelled up Tray Mountain, the rain stopping and starting just long enough to take raingear off or put raingear on as the case may be.
We enjoyed lunchtime cozied up in the Tray Mountain shelter, then headed on back down Tray Mountain. The rain had stopped but we were still up in the clouds, the low visibility making ghosts of our fellow hikers disappearing and emerging through the mist. We regrouped at Indian Grave Gap, then the TLs freed everyone to go up and over Rocky at their own pace. A couple folks took the governor off and powered away into the whiteout. We all stayed together in subgroups of at least 2, at times sharing lively conversation and at times alone with our thoughts. We saw a few birds and fewer people, having the trails mostly to ourselves today. We all gathered back at the cars and wished one another farewell. Until the next time.
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