march 6- neels gap

We woke up very cold. It had snowed during the night, so my boots that had been waterlogged from the day before were now frozen solid. After trying for more than 15 minutes with numb fingers to get my boots on it finally worked. Since the boots were frozen my feet quickly numbed from the cold. We got our hanging food bags and slowly packed up our things, which was difficult because of the cold. It was so cold during the night we thought we were going to die in our sleep from the cold. Seriously. In all the books about the appalachian trail, nobody ever mentions the cold. Well bill bryson does in his book, but he says it was a freakishly cold spring. Everyone else paints a sunny picture of a happy green forest where nothing goes wrong. Maybe they are scared to talk badly about the trail, maybe their years were just so much more pleasant, or maybe we just started much earlier than most people do. Either way, these past 5 days have been the most brutally cold days ive ever experienced. We walk all day until were sore, then set up camp, and get into sleeping bags that are in no way warm enough for the weather were encountering. Ever night i wonder if this will be the one i just dont wake up. We both dread the night for that reason. A sleepless night of shivering, and sporadic situps or pushups to raise our body temperature to the point where we might be able to feel our toes. Thats why today, after the coldest and windiest day of hiking, where it was too cold to even make breakfast, and where our water bottles were frozen solid in the morning so we hardly even drank any water, we both bought sleeping bag liners, and DJ bought a new sleeping bag. Its huge, a 15 degree big agnes with a sleeve in the bottom for a sleeping pad. I hope hell be comfortable in it. Im going to continue with my sleeping bag. Coupled with a liner it might be tolerable. The liner says it adds 15 degrees to the comfort of a sleeping bag. Plus ive been spending a few minutes each night trying to "reloft" my sleeping bag, by pinching the stuffing and trying to pull it apart to fluff it up. the cold wont be a problem tonight though. Were staying at the hostel at neels gap. Attached to the outfitter store theres a 16 bed hostel. For $15 plus a $5 donation you get dinner and breakfast a bed to sleep in. I took a shower here for the first time in 5 days. It was the greatest feeling ive felt in a long time. The warm water was something that just doesnt exist on the trail. The closest i came to a shower on the trail was was my face and crotch in an icy cold stream. Theres alot of other hikers here. Its such a comfortable place i dont want to leave in the morning. Just stay for a few days until my blisters go down and my knees and back stop hurting, but that wont happen. we have to continue as soon as possible, and check out is at 9am. We should be reaching a town in 4 days or so. So we might be able to find a hostel there. Hopefully the next 4 days will be easier too. Today I sent home 8lbs of gear that i wont need, And there less food in my pack than when we started. My pack weighs just under 50lbs now. Much less than the 65 i started with. We also did our laundry here. So our clothes are once again clean. Weve been wearing the same clothes since thursday.