Day 26

We decided on a medium long day of 13.9 miles.  First, the weather is good and second, if we do this we can get into Hot Springs to the Laughing Heart Lodge for a bed and shower on Monday night. Hot Springs is a small town of less than a thousand people, known ( you guessed it) for its hot mineral springs.  We can eat at a restaurant there as well.  I’m getting really tired of trail food and boy do I need a shower.  The stink is real especially when you can smell yourself.

We did get some trail magic.  Someone left apples and snacks at a crossing.  I grabbed a green apple and peanuts.  Both were great but the apple was sweet and tart just the way I like them.  Thinking about apples all day after that.

We passed another milestone early today.  We went past the 250 mile mark.  Whew!  

We had good weather.  It’s a little cool but you stay warm while hiking.  We crossed Max Patch which was really pretty but very windy.  I had to strap my Tilley on so it wouldn’t blow off.  It was way too windy to have lunch there so we hiked down a ways until we found a place sheltered from the wind.

The Sun was warm and we would have stayed longer but we have miles to cover.  One section near the end of the day was a steep climb of nearly a mile.😩

Not much wildlife to be seen today except for a small garter snake about 28 inches long.  With its green coloring it blended in with the foliage and I only noticed it when it suddenly streaked off into the woods when I was right up on it.  I could have touched it with my trekking pole.

We ended our day at a camp site at Kale Gap.

My back is aggravating me today.  I am hoping it doesn't develop into a real issue.  I’ll evaluate it tomorrow and see if it gets better.  More worrisone is that I was very woozy while putting up my tent tonight.  Everytime I bent over to put stakes in the ground or secure part of the tent I felt feint.  I had to sit down a couple of times to keep from feinting.  Once I got the tent up and had some dinner I felt better and the dizzy spells passed.

Time to sleep.  💤 .

Day 25

The skies cleared in the morning and we started on our way with stunning views as we walked the ridge.  Today we finish the Smoky Mountains.

The first part of the day was mostly downhill.  

My back is sore.  Not sure why.  I have been losing weight so maybe the pack needs adjustment.  I took ibuprofen last night so I could get to sleep.

As we got lower the flora became lusher and we crossed over a number of steams like this.  Spring is beginning to take hold.



Crossed a few streams via a log bridge or hopping on stones  We also were walking under the green canopy of the surrounding trees and bushes.  Ground flowers of many types are blooming.

Around midday we exited the Smokys at Davenport Gap.  We put the other half of our permit which we deposited in the box when we entered the Smokys in the box at Davenport as we left.  Not sure why it’s necessary but perhaps to be sure you make it through successfully.

We were disappointed we did not see any bears in the Smokys.

Not long after that we cross the Pigeon River and route 40 before starting our ascent of the next mountain.  It was a pretty river and I would have gone in if it was warmer.



We stopped at Standing Bear Farm hostel.  Its pretty unique and well known on the trail.  It’s a funky place that is run kind of like a commune.  It has several buildings including a bunk house, supply center, a house for recharging electronics, a place where you wash your dishes when you finish eating (you wash your own), a privy or port a potty,  and a small house where you can get something to eat.  You can tent there as well.

It’s a very unusual place but the people there were groovy man.  We had been hearing different things about the place.  Some good, some bad.  It was definitely a place on my list to see so I was glad we took a short side trip to stop there.  It was early afternoon so we resupplied, had burgers,  washed up a little and moved on.

It was a long hike today and late in the day I was beginning to feel the grind.  But we got a surprise.  Some good old boys were riding their four wheel ATVs down the trail.  There were five ATVs in all.  Sandy had hiked ahead of us as usual.  She was typically faster than us.  So it was just ADD and me.  They stopped and offered ADD and me a cold beer which we accepted without hesitation.  They were very friendly but definitely locals out for a joy ride.  I would have taken their picture but they are not supposed to be there on ATVs so I opted to pass on that.

Just a little before we came to our stop we got our first bear siting. 😊

By the time I got my camera out he had moved away but I got a picture before he walked off into the woods.

I was pretty exhausted after walking the 17.6 miles to Groundhog Creek Shelter.  This was our longest hike so far.  We camped outside the shelter for the night.  My back is a little worse so I took some vitamin I.  We discussed getting to Hot Springs NC a day earlier and the taking a zero day when we get there.  Everyone was too tired so we tabled it until the morning.

Time to sleep. 💤 

Day 24

So glad we got in the shelter last night as it rained buckets with strong winds.  We stayed dry but it was cold up at that higher elevation.  Sleeping bags kept us warm and my new pad did not leak.

The bad news is that we hiked in the rain and even a little hail today. It was another weather crazy day.  We left camp late because there was a rumor that the rain would stop later that morning and in fact it slowed down and it looked like it might clear and we got some views.

It didn’t last. The storm rolled back in and temperatures dropped.  It even started hailing!  Winds picked up and were very strong.  Strong enough to push us and make us work to not be blown off the trail.  We could see the clouds blowing right by as we hiked along the ridge.

Then Mother Nature teased us again by slowing the precipitation.  It wouldn’t last.

The trail became a creek and there was no hope in keeping our feet dry.  We slogged on to our destination which was Cosby Shelter.  It was only 7.7 miles so at least it was a shorter hike.  We got there around 2:30 wet and cold but thinking about continuing on given the early hour and slowing rain. Two folks we had been leapfrogging had just left to hike on.  Then we heard the thunder and the skies opened again.  Our decision to stay was easy at that point.  But it was cold.  This is the third straight night we stayed in a shelter and these are the only nights we stayed in shelters so far.

Shelters are three sided structures with one side open to the elements.  This one had a big tarp to enclose the open side.  It also had a fireplace.  Yea.  I got a picture of it the following morning when the weather cleared.

Some dry kindling was left in the shelter and we scavenged wood from the surrounding forest.  We found enough dead wood we could dry and we got a fire going.



Felt good to sit by it to keep warm and out of the rain.  Everyone slept in the shelter and I guess there were about 15 of us including a thru hiking family of 5.  Kids ages ranged from 13 to 7.  Amazing.  Three hikers we have been camping with occasionally, Jimmy Trails, Wheels and Chris (Cousin) were there as well.

The storm is supposed to blow out tonight and we should see sun tomorrow.  We should also finish the Smoky Mountains and May get close to mile 250 sometime tomorrow as well.

Time to sleep.  💤 

Day 23

We are off early to beat the storm.  As we were starting we saw more deer 🦌 around our shelter but still no lions or tigers or bears 🐻. Our destination is Tri Corner Knob about 12.5 miles. Weather is good to start but a little chilly but it warmed up quickly 

Along the way is Charley’s bunion.  It’s an outcropping of rock with fantastic views.

Lots of good views today 

Storm clouds and strong winds were beginning to mount as we got to our destination.  We claimed a spot in the shelter, cooked our meals and got into our sleeping bags.  

As we were falling asleep the storm rolled in pouring buckets of rain with ferocious winds.  It’s good to be in the shelter.

Bad news is that the storm is going to last until well into tomorrow.  

We will deal with that tomorrow.

While I am enjoying my adventure I am missing family and friends a lot.  😘 

Time to sleep. 💤 

Day 22

So long Gatlinburg!  It’s a fun place and I wish I could stay another day to see a little more.

As luck would have it we scored a free shuttle back to Clingmans Dome to continue our travel from the first Baptist Church people.  The same group who gave us a free breakfast in Franklin.  They picked us up at the local outfitters store where we resupplied.  About 10 hikers got a ride most of whom we have seen along the trail.  We are waiting in the picture for the ride in the van in the back. I got a new air mattress at the outfitters there as my other one started leaking again.😡.

 

It was another good weather day.  The Smokys have given us good weather so far and we are almost halfway through.  Stopped at  Newfound Gap for lunch.  It’s  a favorite spot where locals can day hike from.  US 441 crosses here.  It connects Gatlinburg TN with Cherokee NC.  So people drive up here to see the sights and hike or travel between the states.  The Appalachian Trail straddles the Tennessee and North Carolina line so we go in and out of these states quite a bit for a while.”

Hiked 10.8 miles to Ice Water Spring Shelter and because it was threatening rain and very windy we decided to stay in the shelter.  It’s the first shelter we have actually stayed in as we usually camp outside. The shelter is also at about 5,900 feet elevation so we are pretty high up in the mountains  No one noticed any mice that night.  It did rain but only a little overnight but we got there, claimed a spot and made dinner before any rain.

Tomorrow we plan to hike 12.8 miles to Tri Corner Knob Shelter.  There is a big storm coming tomorrow night so we want to get to the shelter before it hits.  It’s supposed to be a pretty good storm so we plan to get out early ahead of it.

Time to sleep. Zzz 

Day 21

We revised our plans to shorten today’s hike.  We had planed to hike past Clingmans Dome but when we realized we could also find a ride to Gatlinburg from the Dome we jumped on that.  So we packed up and left Derrick Knob Shelter and set off on our 10.1 mile hike to Clingmans. 

It was another nice day with sunny skies and temperatures near 65.  We are traveling at a higher altitude and the hike included more switchbacks but still a few straight up climbs.

No lions or tigers or bears for us yet.  A couple of hikers reported seeing a big wild boar 🐗 approaching 300 pounds.  We had seen evidence of them tearing up the ground looking for food but no siting of the critters ourselves.

At the higher elevations, ground flowers have broken out and are flourishing before the leaves break out on the trees and block the sunlight but the trees are starting to get buds so it won’t be long.

We made it to Clingmans Dome.  We completed two milestones.  First is climbing up Clingmans, the highest peak on the AT and second highest peak in the Eastern United States behind Mount Mitchell in NC.  The second was going past the 200 mile mark of the trail.  Clingmans has an observation tower at the top with magnificent views.

It’s also filled with tourists who can drive up to a parking area near the top so there are lots of people here.  

As luck would have it we scored a ride to Gatlinburg from a couple who were there sightseeing. They drove us about 15 miles to a hotel in Gatlinburg.  He is retired from Bell South telephone company but she is still teaching.  They were here on vacation.  We gave them the trail name of Mr. and Mrs. Dial Tone.

So we made it to the Microtel for a night in bed.  Got to Gatlinburg around 4:30pm.  No washer and dryer here so clothes are hand washed in the sink and dried using hair dryer or hanging overnight.   My hand dryer blew a fuse but I was able to get another from the front desk,  It still took a while to dry the clothes with the hand dryer so I passed on going out with Sandy and ADD after dinner so I could get this done. Took a long shower which felt great.  Had pizza for dinner.  I ordered a large pizza which was pretty good.  I packed out about half of it the next day.  That turned out to be a great idea.

Gatlinburg is a tourist town with amusements like wax museum, pinball hall of fame, arcades, and lots of restaurants.  Pretty ticky tacky but looks like fun for a day or two.  It’s not very big.  I didn’t have a lot of time to explore the town but got to see a little when we were out for dinner.

I need to stop at outfitters for gas for stove in the morning before we catch the shuttle back to Clingmans to resume the hike.

The Climb to Clingmans Dome was a long one but not as hard as I anticipated.  Should be done hiking the Smoky Mountains in three maybe four days.

Time to sleep 💤 .

Day 20

Beautiful day today.  Mostly sunny and high temperatures reaching the 60s in all but the highest elevations. 

You are required to stay in the shelters if there is room in the Smokys.  If the shelter is full you can camp around it.  Lots prefer to camp around it because of shelter mice, snoring campers and cramped quarters.  Fortunately for us, Mollies was busy last night and it was more than full so we camped nearby. However, shelter people get a quicker start as they don’t have to break down a tent or hammock.  They just pack their sleeping bag and scoot.  We took a little time and were on the road a little after 9am and most had gotten a head start on us.

There is wildlife on the trail!  As we were breaking camp some deer came in to check things out.

There were two of them and they didn’t seem very afraid.  Nearly walked right up to us.

The major mountain on the day is Thunderhead Mountain  but we got our best views from Rocky Top. Rocky Top is a sub peak of Thunderhead.  The open summit area of Rocky Top provides nice views of Cascade Cove, Fontana Lake and Clingmans Dome.  This picture is looking back at Fontana Lake.

I think I said that I expected today to be a little easier than yesterday.  Wrong!  It wasn’t as much elevation gain but they were all straight up and down the mountains.  No easier switchbacks. 🤨. It was hard but we managed to cover the 12.8 miles as planned.

We got to our destination at Derricks Nob around 4pm.   It was busy as most who left Mollies like us in the morning had this as their destination.  A lot of tired faces. Today was tough and I really feel exhausted.  We are changing our plans for tomorrow to reduce our  planned hike.  It also includes Clinmans Dome which at 6,612 feet of elevation, is the highest mountain on the AT.  It’s a few hundred feet higher than Mount Washington.

My feet and legs are very tired but no blisters or issues with plantar fasciitis yet.  One finger is infected and I needed to drain and dress it when we stopped to camp.

Everyone is calling it a night early due to the long day.  Me too.  I’m beat and sore.  Zzzzz.

Day 19

Happy Easter Everyone.  I miss you all and hope your Easter is great. 

Back to white blazing and so long to our hosts Steve and Maggie.  The Nantahala Mountain Lodge was awesome.

We also had to say goodbye to Belinda aka Lady in Waiting and Will aka Dilly Dally as they head back to the trail but at a spot a few days behind us.  Nice people from Illinois. It doesn’t appear that they will catch up to us but you never know.

Steve shuttled us to Fontana Dam to start the next leg of our journey.  Morning skies are partly cloudy and no rain is forecast for the next several days.  Hope that’s accurate.

Fontana Dam is a hydroelectric Dam built by the Tennessee Valley Authority and is on the Little Tennessee River.  It is the tallest dam in the Eastern United States.  This is what it looks like from the dam:

We walked across the dam and from there we jumped into the Smokys. 

It’s just past the Dam where we officially enter the Smoky Mountains.  I’m squatting a little to not block the sign.😂

Temperatures jumped around all day.  When the sun was out and we were at lower elevations it was warm.  As we got higher it cooled down and  got a little windy so more layers were required to stay warm.  By mid morning we looked back to see the Dam from where we started this morning but we have much further to go before we reach today’s destination at Mollies Shelter.

We were at an elevation of 1,700 feet at the dam.  We climbed up to Mollies Shelter at 4,600 hundred feet and are camping there.  Total hiking miles were around 12 but it was all up hill.  The trail had a lot of hikers as many had holed up near Fontana to let the storm pass and all jumped back on the trail now that the weather is better.

You need a permit to thru hike the Smokys.  20 dollars gets you 8 days to hike this park.  You leave half of the permit at a box when you enter the park and carry the other half before depositing it in a box as you exit.  Good thing we had ours as Ranger Hal was checking permits about four miles in.

Along the way we came upon a big fire tower at the top of Shuckstack peak but we decided not to spend the energy to climb all the way up.

We got a pretty good view from the first landing.


At least one hiker reported a siting of bears not too far away from our camp site.  We have not seen any.  There is also a warning of bear activity in the area.  

The Smokys require all food bags to be hung on bear hangs so I did my first bear hang today.  Prior to this I have been just securing my Ursack to trees but not hanging it.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day and we have targeted Derrick Knob Shelter as our next stop.  It will be another 12 mile day but not as much climbing.

Legs and feet are tired but doing reasonably well.

Time for bed as it’s hiker midnight ( 8pm) and I’m tired.  💤 

Day 18

Steve shuttled us to Fontana Dam to start our 8.5 mile slack pack day back to Yellow Creek.  Right out of the gate we ran into trail magic.  Coffee, hot chocolate, scrambled eggs, Krispy Cream, muffins and the like.  It was a nice start to a cold day.

It was a wise decision to take a zero day yesterday and do our hike today.  It was heavy rain and snow yesterday and we are told they had to rescue people out of the Smokys last night.  The streams and rivers are roaring from the precipitation and the trail itself was a stream.

It’s cold to start.  I had four layers on, rain jacket, puffy, mid weight and t-shirt.  Hiking warms you up and I shed two of these quickly.  As it turned out it was  a day when the weather changed back and forth as we climbed the mountains.  Within an hour or so we had rain, rain with sleet, rain mixing with snow and skies that threatened to clear.  For the most part it just was a cold drizzle.

Not long into our hike we came to the “Fontana Hilton”.  It’s just another shelter but dubbed the Hilton as it has a bathroom with shower and charging stations for electronics.  The only shelter on the trail with these amenities I am told.

This is the inside of the shelter.  The bathrooms were a separate building about 30 yards to the East.


Before long we came across a group we had been leapfrogging.  We senior folk have labeled this youthful group “The Young and the Restless “.  We thought they had headed into the Smokys yesterday but had the good sense to layover at a hotel to let the storm pass.  They were headed northbound and we were doing this section southbound.  They are a good bunch and we got a group picture.  We may not see them again.



There were several other groups we crossed today and all had sought shelter from yesterday’s weather.

Came across this memorial near the end of today’s trek.  I’ll let it speak for itself.

It was another short hike day and we were done by 1:30.  Our pace was too fast for our shuttle pickup and we waited for 30 minutes.  We paced to stay warm as once you stop walking you get cold quickly and the temperature dropped enough for some mixed snow and drizzle.  The shuttle showed at the appointed time and before long we had stopped at the market for resupply and were back at the warm lodge with hot showers and food.  When we got back to the lodge we found that Will and Belinda were staying there that night as well.

Tomorrow we jump into the Smokys.  No more short slack packing days for awhile.  Mostly climbing about 12 to 13 miles a day for the next several days before we get off trail to Gatlinburg.

Time to pack and get some sleep 💤.