Yesterday was a rough day. The warming temperatures started to melt the snow and going up hill felt like I was learning to walk all over again. The snow had become very slick and my shoes just could not a good grip. Before I started the trip I knew I might have cold and snowy weather so I bought a pair of Gortex socks to help augment my light weight extremely porous trail running shoes. I should have used them. Up until this point I thought they might have been a waste of money. By the end of the day I had given up trying to stay dry and was slogging through two foot snow banks, slush and mud with reckless abandon. My feet stayed warm while I was moving, but were soaked to the bone and got very cold if I stopped for a break. At the end of the day yesterday I went down to the water source to fill up and decided to just completely dunk my feet, shoes socks and all, just to get the mud off. Completely soaked! Overnight it got down to about 22° F and my shoes were hard as a rock in the morning. It snowed about 6 more inches overnight and I decided to try out the Gortex socks for the day. I was glad I did. They were truly a lifesaver, I even think they were better than Gortex boots. At the end of the day my shoes were soaked again, but my feet and socks were dry. 
I was glad I had them. I got an early start today to take advantage of the cold temperatures as it's much easier to hike on frozen slush! I ended the day at Derrrick Knob Shelter and by 8pm we had to squeeze 28 people in a shelter made for 12. The tough walking conditions caused many people to do shorter miles than they had hoped.
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