4-19-15 Mt. Rogers

I hiked out of Damascus at around 10 am in clear weather and by noon it was overcast and by 2 pm down pour. I stayed at the first shelter I came to which was about 9 miles out of town. There was about 9 other hikers and we all collected wood for a bonfire when the rain stopped. I managed to take down a dead pine tree by throwing a piece of cord over a limb and making it sway back and forth until it snapped. The next morning the temperature dropped to 40 as I climbed white top and the winds became gale force, it was hard to keep on my feet. Then on my way up Mt. Rogers I slipped on a rock and my toe caught under a root and I fell forward twisting my ankle badly. By the time I made it to the shelter on top of the mountain I was near hypothermia and my ankle had doubled in size. The rain was violent all night and cleared by morning, I was never so tired in my life.