Our first two days of traing were on "Leave No Trace."  It was a great class lead by Pam Rodgers and Mike Brown.  They left us with excellent skills to share our knowledge of the Leave No Trace Ethics.  On the second day of the class we got to teach ourselves!
Plan Ahead And Prepare . Travel And Camp On Durable Surfaces . Dispose Of Waste Properly . Leave What You Find . Minimize Campfire Impacts . Respect Wildlife . Be Considerate Of Other Visitors

    Our next two days was filled with a very thorough Wilderness First Aid class.  The class was taught by Phil Hart of the Wilderness Medicine Institute Of NOLS.  Caleb and I got the opportunity to use some of our Wilderness first aid Training sooner than we thought.

    We hiked from Newfound Gap to the Mt. Collins shelter in high winds, cold temperatures and rain.  The trail was in good shape.  The next day we hiked to Double Springs Shelter.  We encountered some blowdown along the way that we cleared.  We had a couple trees that were too big for us so we will report them and let the sawyers come in to clear them up.  Saturday (our second day out) we had very heavy rains and high winds. 
    Saturday night we had four hikers come into the shelter in pretty bad shape.  They were unprepared for the unpredictable and often severe weather that we experience here in the Smokies.   It was about 35 degrees out.  The hikers were wearing jeans, cotton, tennis shoes, loafers etc.  They were plenty misrable.  The next moring we evaluated the situation and it wasn't good!
    At about 7 Sunday morning we ahd 4 inches of snow outside.  It was about 20 degrees and snowing hard.  One of our hikers was experiencing moderate to severe hypothermia.  He had been vomiting during the night and couldn't get warm.  All of the hikers were completly saturated and were experiencing mild to moderate hypothermia.  They were all dehydrated.  One of the hikers had injured his knee.  He was mobile.  Caleb and I distributed as much of our dry clothing as we could without jepordizing our own personal safety and did our best to get the hikers warm and dry.  We started getting them hydrated and got some carbohydrates in them.
    While I communicated with NPS dispatch Caleb fashioned gaiter/socks out of trash bags on the hikers feet to protect them from freezing.  As dispatch coordinated with Lawenforcement Rangers, Caleb and I got our hikers moving, warm, dry, hydrated and ready to hike out.  We got the go ahead to hike out to Clingmans Dome parking lot which was about 3 miles away.
    We headed out in about 8 inches of snow and high winds.  We stopped every 10 to 20 minutes to make our hikers drink, rest, eat a little and give us a chance to continue to evaluate them.  About half way our hiker with the injured knee weakened and Caleb carried his pack the rest of the way out.  We made it out to Clingmans Dome Parking Lot through 8 to 12 inches of snow, 2 to 3 foot drifts, high winds and 10 to 20 degree temperatures.  We were concerned about frostbite and hypothermia but on turning our hikers over to the National Park Service they all looked pretty good. 
    We were met at Clingmans Dome Parking lot by Rangers Curt Dimmick and J. Marsh.  We rode down to Newfound Gap in four wheel drive trucks behind two snow plows.  It was a good ending to a long, hard day.  I learned a lot on Patrol with Caleb Gray.  He made some good decisions and should be commended.  Our hikers learned more about hiking the Smokies in two days than most people will learn in a lifetime.  I believe that they will pass on what they learned and prevent many hikers from coming into the Smokies unprepared.

    We were glad to get our hikers out of the backcountry.  What an unexpected turn of events on their Spring Break.  I go out on patrol again on the AT this Thursday.  I hope to see you on the trail!  Lets hope this coming patrol is less eventful.  Be safe and Leave No Trace!