The three of us had been planning a night hike in the Shining Rock Wilderness (North Carolina) for weeks. The plan was to hike to a SB6K peak to see the Leonids meteor shower between November 13th and 20th. The forecast called for a cold front moving in on the night we chose but we were not going to let that delay our trip. After setting up a base camp, we did an easy night hike to Little Sam Knob summit and stretched out on the rocks to view an awesome, clear, star studded sky. After a couple hot chocolates we noticed what looked like a black wall approaching from the west, wind was picking up and the temperature was falling quicker than the shooting stars we were enjoying. Hello cold front! We hiked back to base camp and warmed up around a nice camp fire before calling it a night.
I woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of sleet and snow hammering my tent. By sunrise we had a significant amount of snow on the ground, strong wind and the temperature was in the single digits. It was very cold but a beautiful scene! When we hiked back to the trail head, the U.S. Park Rangers had left a note on the truck informing us that the Blue Ridge Parkway was now closed due to bad weather. The note stated they had left the gate closed but unlocked for us to exit through. After a few tense moments driving on the snow and ice covered parkway we made it to safety.
