Category: 2018 Appalachian Trail

We’ve got a plan. A six day plan to get to Erwin, TN. It’s only 70 miles so we should be cruising in easily on Tuesday. We decided to celebrate by starting the journey with a hearty breakfast at Smoky Mountain Diner. As soon as we walked in we saw a bunch of hikers we knew, plus met several more from the front edge of the bubble. Most interesting was a guy we sat next to, Scars. Scars was in the CIA for 32 years and has attempted to write a few novels based upon his experiences, but highly modified and factionalized. The biggest obstacle is that the CIA must ok the books for release and they are dragging their feet a bit for events to pass into distant memory. He retired last year but his wife still has 5 years to go, so it’s natural for him to try a thru-hike.

After breakfast, we went to the library to get caught up on blogging. Lady Bug, Postcard, Stickers, Thor, Pit Boss, and Play by Play were all in there taking advantage of the free internet. The WiFi was really fast so we were all done and ready to go by 11. We tried to wait for everyone else to finish up, but we were getting antsy because our plan calls for a little over 11 miles and we are slow hikers. If we don’t leave before noon, we will be hiking well past 7 tonight. We headed out at 11:30.

On the way out of town, we stopped to throw rocks in French Broad River for Alice and the memory of her sister and brother, Marsha and Paul. There was a little confusion so we ended up throwing rocks in just about every stream along the way. We eventually threw rocks in the right river.

The hike started out with a quick 900’ climb. We stopped at Lovers Leap Rock (doesn’t every river and bluff have a Lovers Leap?—it’s pretty amazing there is anyone still alive with all the scorned lovers leaping to their deaths all over the world) for some nice views of Hot Springs. We kept looking back and expecting to see people overtake us, but no one was there.

Once we got up near the top of the climb, we encountered the most dreaded white substance to hikers (no, not cocaine, that really helps the hiking pace, but we don’t partake)—snow! Not again! We were really hoping that the snow was gone after the Smokies. We were hoping for warmer temperatures to melt all the snow today, but it’s not happening. As soon as we got up, the temps dropped to near freezing. The snow and ice really slowed us down. It’s going to be a late night.

I saw a side trail to fire tower where we were almost dared to try to climb it. It was only 0.1 mile off the AT so I went to take a look. The first 20’ of stairs was missing and the structure on top looked derelict. The risk outweighed the potential benefit by a factor of 10. I passed. Bunny was waiting on the trail for me to return and pick up my pack.

We got to the shelter by 7. Firestarter and two older guys were inside the shelter already in bed. Swass and Flo (& Remmy, their cool dog) were finishing up dinner and talking with Sour Kraut. There was room in the shelter for us, but we opted to set up out tent to leave space for Stickers and Lady Bug who were surely following.

By the time we got done with supper, hanging bear bags, getting the tent ready, etc., no one had shown up yet. Apparently the “old people are cool” was goodbye gift from them and they suckered us into leaving town and getting ahead. Bunny asked me why I’m so paranoid with people ditching me so I had to remind her that my sister was 10 years older than me and my brother is 8 years older. The first 10 years of my life the only memories I have are being tricked into being ditched by them and fighting for table scraps with the dog (the reason I eat so fast). Life is not all roses when you are “Easily Forgotten.”

EFG

Yesterday was the last day we will be on that trail. It’s snowing hard today and our minds are made up. We knew this would happen when we started the trail. The goal always was Hot Springs. Hot Springs is the LD50 (borrowing a phrase from my DOE weapons days) for the AT. Let me explain.

LD50 is the amount of radiation exposure that will kill 50% of the people who experience it. Hot Springs is the first town that the trail actually runs through. 15% of people quit by Neel Gap only 30 miles from Springer Mountain. Another 10% quit before getting out of Georgia. Another 25% quit between the NC state line and the end of the Smokies with Hot Springs being the exit point. 50% of people who attempt a thru-hike have had it by Hot Springs—the AT LD50.

When we started our hike, our goal was not to make it to to Katahdin, it was only to make it to Hot Springs. We have completed that goal. Who could possibly hike with the thought of going nearly 2200 miles? Our goal was to beat the LD50. When we head out tomorrow, our goal is to not be the 5% of our age group who don’t make Katahdin. Barring major injury, we will prove what I knew from the beginning but couldn’t face—we will hike 2190 miles through 14 states and finish on top of Katahdin.

We headed to the Smoky Mountain Diner for breakfast. It was (and still is) snowing hard but weather doesn’t stop hikers from eating, and, last night, I proved to everyone that I can eat! This morning, it was Patches turn to shine.

With a good night of sleep, hot showers, laundry done, and two big meals under the belt, it’s time to resupply. An old friend of Bunny’s from high school has told us she would send us a care package to Hot Springs. The Post Office was our first non-eating stop in town. We got the package from Alice and were blown away on several levels.

Alice and her siblings spent a lot of time in North Carolina around and on the AT when they were growing up. She wrote us a very touching letter about her sister, Marsha, and her brother, Paul, who both had wanted to thru-hike the AT. (These are the two people next to the fireplace in today’s feature photo at the top of this post). Tragically, they both died way too young and never got the opportunity to do their thru-hike. Gazelle was with us when we opened the box she sent and read the letter. We were so touched. We are dedicating the remainder of our hike to Marsha and Paul and hope that they are traveling with us.

With the incredible amount of food Alice sent us, we only needed to get a couple of things to complete our resupply: a new bite valve for Bunny’s platypus (hopefully the last one—I explained to her they don’t mean for her to actually bite the valve, just squeeze it with her teeth), a new pack cover for Bunny’s pack (since she generously donated hers to Standing Bear Hostel when she left it on the porch), and a new pair of glove liners for me.

With all the food Alice sent us and the few items we bought from the local outfitter, our work was done and we had a little time to play. We scheduled a hot tub timeout at the local hot springs with Lady Bug, Stickers, Patches, and Postcard. On the way, we stumbled upon a 12 pack of local beer which could only help to enhance the experience. The six of us got in the hot tub full of natural mineral water directly from the ground and enjoyed the sounds of Jimmy Buffett (a hiker can never pass up a buffet). We sat in the open air next to the French Broad River with the snow blowing down horizontally all the time patting ourselves on the back for not hiking today. Life is good here on the AT.

EFG

As Stickers was performing the final preparations for bed which include mouse proofing the shelter (tearing sheets of toilet paper off of the roll and stuffing them in the corners to keep the mice occupied through the night) the rat made his first appearance. Stickers was standing in the corner with the roll of tp in one hand and a single sheet in the other. The rat popped up, grabbed the single sheet out of his hand, paused, returned the single sheet, grabbed the roll of tp out of his other hand, saluted, and dropped below the sleeping platform. We were hoping this would be enough to keep the rodents happy for the night. For safety reasons, we all agreed to not look under the platform no matter how much noise we heard. Nature was on our side and drowned out all the noise with high winds, pouring rain, thunder & lightening, and Lady Bug’s and Bunny Track’s occasional screams at the storm.

Lady Bug did make an exit during a calm in the night’s weather activities. She had been deeply buried in her bag when Stickers and I put up the tarp across the entrance of the shelter and couldn’t find her way out. I told her to “come to the light” at our end of the shelter. She made it out and back quickly enough then.

Not too soon after that, the storm awoke with greater intensity of both wind and rain. The shelter was a very old log cabin type with almost no kinking left. I woke up to what I believed to be Lady Bug sleep walking. She was standing over me saying that her tent blew down. I said everything will be fine, just lay back down and we’ll find it in the morning. A little later, I rolled over and there was another body between me and Prof. Lady Bug hadn’t been sleepwalking at all. Zellow had actually had her tent blow down in the 50mph winds that were coming through.

Now Bunny started in. Everyone knows of her fear of storms if they have ever slept within 10 miles of us. Her fear is so bad she converted one of my dogs from being a brave storm dog to getting her to actually lock herself in the closet whenever an electrical storm passed through (I’m firmly convinced that this led to Nutiket’s premature death due to shame). Bunny started rolling over to my side and elbowing me complaining about the rain. She kept insisting our sleeping bag was soaked. I just told her to calm down and quit hallucinating because I was perfectly dry. When we got up in the morning, her side was drenched and my was dry as a whistle. No harm done.

I really like hiking with Stickers and Lady Bug for several reasons: they are fun to talk with; we hike at about the same pace; it takes us about an hour and a half to get ready in the morning while it takes them an hour and 35 minutes. That means we aren’t always the last ones on the trail anymore. It only gets better if Patches is hiking with us. We look like fast moving old people then.

The Brady kids were already on the trail and heading towards Hot Springs to take a zero tomorrow. We have no idea where Patches is other than somewhere in front of us—about once every 4 or 5 days she decides she needs to be putting in more miles per day and jumps ahead, but then we catch up with her the next time we come to food (be it a restaurant, trail magic, or a resupply in a town). If she’s not eating, she is walking slower because of all the extra food weight she is carrying. We hit the trail just as Stickers and Lady Bug were finishing packing with the intention of staying at Deer Park Mountain Shelter about 3 miles shy of Hot Springs. We were taking our time since we knew we only had 10 miles to go. (We are definitely getting stronger because 8 mile days used to be a full day and now 10’s seem light.). It was already 9.

Bunny checked the weather when we got to the summit of Bluff Mountain and the forecast for snow has increased. We decided then that we were going to just hike on in to Hot Springs today because, when it comes to snow and freezing temps, “Homey don’t do that anymore.” We would keep hiking to the shelter as planned and when Stickers and Lady Bug caught up with us, we’d tell them of our change of plans and try to convince them to come in also.

Not a lot of people were out today. Fabio and Rose passed us as well as a girl on spring break. We were hiking at a good clip for us (almost 2 mph) so, with breaks, we made the shelter at a little past 2. Fabio and Rose already had their tent set up. Stickers walked in right behind us. Not 5 minutes later, Gazelle walked in—she had done almost 16 miles today once her mom and sister left. They had a good time, but one night was enough to settle their curiosity about the AT. A couple of day hikers had left some trail magic (aka free food) at the shelter which was quickly handled by us.

With the mention of snow, everyone decided town sounded great since it was so early (everyone, that is, except Gazelle who felt guilty at the thought of showers two days in a row). When Lady Bug came into the shelter, we twisted her arm into continuing on after she had a rest. Bunny and I headed on down to the hostel to get settled in. Stickers and Lady Bug got into the hostel about 20 minutes behind us.

Group consensus, first order of business was not showers, was not laundry, but was the hiker mantra—food! We went down to town to the tavern for beer and burgers. Featured on the door of the tavern was the AT Hiker Burger which was 18 oz of hamburger. They had me at AT. Stickers is always eating and always hungry, I was sure he’d go for it. I told Bunny to order one and I’d finish what she couldn’t eat. Lady Bug is too dainty, so I knew 18 oz was out of her size range. No one! No one would order one other than me. (I have an ace in the hole—I used to weigh over 270# and I still have the stomach that created that body.)

The waitress told us that only 3 have been ordered this year, but I was the only person that actually ate all the the fries and cleaned my plate entirely. Not only that, Stickers and I went to another bar to order dessert while the ladies headed back to shower. I finished eating while Bunny showered. After my shower, I was done for the day.

EFG

I’m not one for digging holes, but the privy today was so small, that would have been the preferred route. As it was, the privy was a tad confined and smack dab in the middle of the camp. If I stood up, my junk showed over the top of the wall. When I sat down, I could see clearly all around me looking under the wall. There were people all around packing up. I discovered the best way to ensure privacy was to make eye contact with everyone and give them the “I’m watching you” gesture. It’s amazing how quickly everyone turns away when a middle aged man sitting on a privy gives you the signal. Even more astounding was how fast all the women broke camp and hit the trail. They were so considerate at giving me plenty of space that I’ll probably never see any of them again.

Gazelle had some guests with her on the trail—her mother, sister, and dog joined her for a 16 mile stretch. They were having fun, but I think only her dog will make the transition to long distance hiker.

I noticed a difference in hiking styles today. As we were being passed by a couple of girls, they had their heads down and arms pumping. I looked back at Bunny, whom they had just passed, and she was standing off to the side of the trail adjusting her hair—the same hair which hasn’t been washed in 5 days. A different level of intensity for sure.

There was a slight threat of rain early on, but, fortunately, it never materialized. The temperature did make a run above 50 and the sun tried poking through the clouds occasionally, but it was always a half-hearted attempt. It did sprinkle a little late in the afternoon. Overall, it was an ideal day for hiking.

The highlight for the day was crossing over Max Patch Summit. This is another bald in NC with crazy views. From the summit the “wall” of the Smokies is very noticeable. Weather coming in from any direction is forced up into a 6,000+’ wall of mountains. It was clear to see why we encountered so much bad weather crossing the park. Of course, the “kids” were up there sunning and enjoying life. This group is making the most of the AT experience.

Bunny Tracks has been taking Curamed—a turmeric based supplement to fight inflammation. She thinks it is doing her some good so she gave me some to try. I need to add another item to the list of things which give me gas. This also made me aware that I need to modify the way I do some things while hiking. Number 1 on the list is look behind me BEFORE I fart. Luckily, they were a couple on spring break. I asked them if they knew my name and they said “No.” I replied “Good” and kept on moving. They mysteriously disappeared at the next trail intersection.

We have a new intrigue on the trail. It’s called “The love saga of Baby Bear Face and Patches.” Patches seems like she might be a little embarrassed but it has become the goal of the hiking community to get these two together. She has ditched us once again (before we found out about this saga), so we haven’t been able to get her input in the matter so far. All we know is that Patches is about a half of a day in front of us. An interesting coincidence is that Baby Bear Face is also about a half of a day in front of us.

We got to the shelter around 4 which means we covered 13 miles in under 8 hours. Our hiking rate is slowly creeping up to around 1.75 mph. We’re hoping to break the 2mph barrier before VA. We are old and slow, but we make up for it by being erratic.

Stickers made it to the shelter ahead of us and managed to spread his stuff out to hold spots for Lady Bug, Bunny Tracks, and me. We immediately set up our beds to secure the space. The forecast is calling for rain tonight and the winds were already picking up by 7. We are fortunate to be in the shelter. It would be even more fortunate if the open side wasn’t the side where the wind was blowing. Stickers did provide his tent footprint as a wind barrier which should help quite a bit. Now if we just don’t tell Lady Bug and Bunny Tracks about the rat he saw run under the platform, we might get a good night’s sleep.

EFG

We tried to be quiet once we got to the hostel last night. After all, it was almost 10p so everyone had already been in bed for almost two hours. Despite what the Smokies NPS thinks, this is not a rowdy group of people. Morgan made us a pizza before bed and then he and Rolly Polly split one. We checked the register and noticed that Patches, Lady Bug, and Stickers were all here tonight.

The original plan was for us to stay at Davenport Gap Shelter last night and then take a Nero to get to Standing Bear Hostel. In reality, we hiked over a 20 mile day, yesterday, but only got 18.1 miles of trail miles. After the way we both felt last night, we didn’t think hiking would even be a possibility today. We took our time getting ready and caught up with people we thought we might never see again.

Stickers and Lady Bug are planning on going to Groundhog Creek Shelter then making it to Hot Springs in a couple of days after that. Patches was asleep across from us last night, but never heard us come in.

We talked with Swagman for a while. He has atrial fibrillation and is going to have surgery to correct it in July. He’s trying to hike as much as the trail as he can before his surgery. That means he will be doing a flip flop at some point because he’s afraid that he wont be able to finish the hike before Baxter closes.

With today’s short miles, we were able to relax a bit. We kept playing leap frog with a group of younger hikers, one of which is Tortuga. Tortuga would race ahead and than take a break with the group and relax while Bunny and I would eventually pass them. We ended up making it to the shelter before him. Talk about role reversal, the Bunny finally beats the Turtle.

The whole group stopped on top of Snowbird Mountain to enjoy the views and soak up the sun. They thought it might be fun to have some chaperones around, so they invited us to join them. Rivers offered us cheese he had bought down at Standing Bear and a couple of other girls shared some interesting flavored truffles (ginger and lemongrass, lavender, and salted caramel). Zillow and Bunny had talked a little about her trip to South America last year and we talked about trips we’ve all done.

I’ve got to say, I admire this group of young hikers. They hike hard and fast and take lots of breaks to get together and sit and relax. It’s not unusual to be walking and see one of them asleep under some trees or a couple sitting by a creek talking. They are making the most of their thru-hike and still making great miles. They will blow by us in a few days (like everyone eventually does).

Once again, Patches blew by us today so we won’t catch up with her again until there is some trail magic that will slow her down. W’ve heard Freash Grounds might still be around Lemon Gap which we will pass tomorrow.

Groundhog Creek Shelter is only a 6 person shelter, but the site has lots of level spots for camping with several different fire pits, bear cables, and an adequate privy. As thru-hikers, we are paying nothing to use this shelter in the forest. The forest service is able to provide a much nicer setting for free when the NPS seems to go out of its way to disregard AT hikers. I really like to kick dead horses—I know I’m out of the Smokies, but it will take me a few days to let go.

EFG

Today, Bunny Tracks was a rodent on fire today, a crazed animal in search of food, a rabid rabbit, excuse me for this one, but one energized Bunny. For most of the day, she was out front and I was huffing trying to catch up. I guess a good night’s sleep made all the difference for her. Or maybe, she seems to revel in my misery and if I’m dragging a bit, she races ahead with glee.

We were not the last one’s out of the shelter, but nearly so. Finnegan and Chloe were just behind us getting out. The trail was mush from the rain in the middle of the night, but Bunny finally developed her “snow” legs. She realized she could push and glide and stabilize herself with her hiking poles. We did our first 4 miles in an hour and 45 minutes.

Chloe caught up with us at the Snake Den Ridge Trail. She pointed out the Mt Cammerer Fire Tower in the distance and said that we definitely had to stop there when we passed. We said our goodbyes and she headed down to her car and took the snow with her. It was amazing, as soon as she left us, the trail cleared up. We were at 5,700’ and the more we dropped, the warmer and dryer it got.

We popped in at Cosby Knob Shelter for a quick bite and a short break. We thought that Finnegan would have caught up with us by now. He did show up as we were finishing up. He was covered in sweat. He was having a hard time with the snow and ice, but the downhills in general are giving him a little problem. When we left, he said he’d probably follow us to Davenport Gap Shelter.

The turn to the Mt Cammerer Fire Tower was just about 3 miles after the Cosby Knob Shelter and about 10.5 miles into our day. Rolly Polly passed us just as we were getting close to the turn and told us that Finnegan was on his way. We dropped our packs and hiked the little over a mile round trip to the tower and were rewarded with outstanding views. The fire tower was built in the late 30’s and remained in use up to the 60’s when it was abandoned. In the 80’s, a group was formed to restore the fire tower to it’s original condition. Rolly Polly wanted to stay there for the night but realized he didn’t have enough water.

Our plan was to stay at Davenport Gap shelter which would have given us our longest day of the trip so far. When we got there, it was full. Not only was it full, but there are absolutely no flat spots anywhere near it, other than by the latrine which is not normally our first choice of tent sites. There was only one spot left in the shelter and we let Finnegan have it because he was dragging a little bit after his 14.5 mile day. We chose to go on and leave the Smokies.

Under cover of darkness, we exited the dark region of our AT experience. Normally, I am a big National Park fan and defender, but the Smokies have given the NPS a black eye. It’s not like the AT is something new—it’s been running through the park for 80 years. During all of that time, they haven’t bothered to make any flat spots for camping. They make ridiculous requirements that are anti-thru-hiker in nature. It’s not the trail runners, or the trail maintenance crews—they are doing a fantastic job. The problem is entirely the fault of the Smokies NPS. This is the first bad experience I have ever had the NPS.

Outside of the Smokies, camping is permitted, pretty much anywhere that you can find a flat spot. Less than two miles after the shelter, we left the Smokies. We started to look for a spot to camp, but when lightening lit up the sky, that was it for Bunny—we were hostel bound. We crawled the final 2.5 miles (I crawled, Bunny was running with glee knowing that I was suffering) to the Standing Bear Hostel. We dropped down and went under I-40. I’ve often driven over the trail here and saw the trail below us, but now we were hiking it in the dark with the threat of a storm hanging over our head. The minute we got the hostel, it started to pour.

We had several milestones passing through the Smokies. The day before we climbed Clingmans Dome, we passed 190.2 mile mark. That means we only had 2,000 miles to go. When we left Pecks Corner Shelter on the way to Tri-Corner Knob Shelter, we passed the 219 mile mark which is 10% of the trail. In the words of Mizman, all the work and effort we have done to date, we just have to repeat that another 9 times and we’ll be done. Speaking of Mizman, Happy Birthday old man—we hope to catch up with you again some day. He’s about 80 miles ahead of us (coincidentally, the approximate length of the Smokies, which he chose to skip because of the snow and ice).

EFG

I was right about my prediction of a cold, miserable night. We got smart enough to place our rain coats under our hips to give us a little more insulation from the ground. This helped a bit. Instead of getting cold every 10 minutes and having to flip over, we were able to extend the interval to every 15 minutes. Bottom line, very little sleep. Add in the fact that the cold seems to kick my kidney into high gear and I was up several times to try and give them room to work.

Since we were tired of everyone passing us yesterday, we decided to try a new approach to the day. Actually, it’s more of an old approach. We didn’t hit the trail until 10:30. If everyone is ahead of us, there shouldn’t be anyone left to pass us. This maneuver worked surprisingly well. Only 2 people passed us on the way to the first shelter (and they both stayed in the shelter). This made us the 3rd and 4th hiker in the shelter if we decide to stay—which we did.

Today was the first time I actually questioned if we belonged on the trail. I was sluggish and out of breath. My ankles were in constant pain (from all the slipping and sliding). In retrospect, I was dealing with sleep deprivation. Now that I’m rested up a bit and fed, I feel better once again. But, I can honestly say, I am sick of the snow and cold.

The original plan was to get out of the Smokies in 3 days. Thanks to our short day today, that’s now been extended to 4 days. Bunny was even slower than me and I was doing my Tim Conway shuffle all day. I still think she goes slower, on purpose, than whatever speed I go.

Even though the temperature made it up to 40 (we were hoping for 60s), neither one of us felt it. Finnegan camped next to us last night and took off the same time we did today. He felt the same way. The slushy snow and ice made walking treacherous to these old bodies. Younger people just don’t have the same fear of falling that we old farts do. I’m still amazed seeing young hikers whiz by without any walking sticks or trail spikes. We don’t have spikes, but they would definitely be handy. In another day or two, they will no longer be needed.

A trail runner stopped in at the shelter while we were having lunch. She checked permits and told us there are 10 reservations for tonight. As long as we stay, we will be guaranteed a spot “inside” so that sealed the deal for us. We claimed our spot and got all of our stuff organized. Thru-hikers kept pouring in. Before long, the shelter was full and none of the reservation holders have shown up. We tried to warn everyone, but we are not getting out of the shelter tonight.

We cooked our supper around five and tried to stay up until dark, but as soon as the temperature started to drop, we gave up and went to bed.

EFG

We made the reservation with Bear Stop to pick us up at 8:30 to get us out of this foresaken town. With 5 days off, we managed to get caught up on all our correspondence and calls to family and friends. I’m sure I surprised a few people with an unexpected call. With our packs all bundled up and ready to go, we decided to have one more AYCE to make sure we were completely carbed up.

Stickers, Lady Bug, and Patches checked out of their room yesterday and went to Cicis until they knew if the road would open and they could get a ride up to Newfound Gap. We stayed with them until they left at 3. In all that time, we didn’t eat any pizza. When we were ready to eat supper, Cicis came to mind since we’d already been around it most of the day. Like beer, Cicis pizza is calories for fuel. Also, like beer, it is not a zero emission fuel for the hiker body. In fact, it’s much closer to converting your truck to a wood burner—you’ve got more byproducts to get rid of other than just the gas emissions. I will need to keep emptying the “tank” for a few days to get rid of the solid waste byproducts. Mark my word; I will never eat at the Gatlinburg Cicis again as long as I live.

We were introduced to a new, very useful word by Bear Stop. Driving up to Newfound Gap, we would get behind some slow moving vehicles. He would call them “tourons.”  A better word has not been invented for quite some years—tourists + morons = tourons. I’m sure this is a term that will come to wide use by our extended family in the Branson area.

It was a sunshiney day with tons of people out—I know, we weighed them all. We were passed by just over 5 tons of people. The weather forecast for today was sunshine and 40’s with a low of 33 tonight. It was only 25 when we started hiking, but movement was very refreshing after the last 5 sedentary days (as long as you don’t include food shoveling as a sedentary movement—interestingly enough, I didn’t drink a single alcoholic drink. The same can’t be said for Bunny; she did have 2 beers one night with her pizza.)

A February start date held appeal to us so that we would be ahead of the bubble starting from Springer Mountain in March. With everyone being forced off of the trail for some combination of 1-5 days, we now have an artificial bubble where all the early starters are now bunched up. We hope that within a few days, the majority of people will be ahead of us once again. In any case, there were “tons” of people (to put it in simpler terms, at least 40 people) out and each and everyone of them passed us on the trail. Not only were there a lot of frustrated thru-hikers, there were tens of day hikers (on a Thursday?—spring break, not all college kids only think of drinking and debauchery at the beach).

Approaching Charlie’s Bunion, about 4.5 miles into our day, Bunny asked if we were going to take the side trip to Paul’s Bunion.  This threw me for a minute as Paul Bunion is very near and dear to me. Paul is the bunion on my left foot which is getting large and painful, while Babe is the bunion on my right foot which gets a little blue at times. We dropped our packs and headed out to just be completely overwhelmed by the crowd. I would undoubtedly hate to hike in the AT bubble.

When we finally arrived at the shelter, it was completely full with reservations. The Smokies, apparently, don’t want or care about thru-hikers. They make a lot of crappy rules for us that don’t make any sense other than seen as they want to screw with us. All thru-hikers must stay in a shelter and cannot set up a tent unless the shelter is full. If people come in with a shelter reservation, they get priority and as many thru-hikers as required will get kicked out to give them space—it doesn’t matter if it’s 11 at night and you are already asleep. If you set up a tent before the shelter is full, you can get a ticket. Here’s the kicker, we never know how many reservations have been made until the people show up.

Last week when the weather turned bad unexpectedly, the NPS wouldn’t do anything to help out any hikers. Several people I know were walking down the road to town (15 miles) and the NPS work crews and rangers would pass and not even bother to offer assistance. The Smokies NP is now my least favorite National Park.  Mt Rainier and the Grand Canyon bend over backwards for hikers while the Smokies have an open distaste towards hikers. I will never willingly come back to this park.  It wouldn’t bother me one bit if the AT got rerouted around the park. Other than Clingmans Dome, it’s not worth the headache.

After dinner, we talked with Finnegan, Tractor, Techno, and Just Cynthia. They all agree that the Smokies are openly hostile to thru hikers. I understand that when the bubble comes through, there can be a lot of problems, but they are doing the equivalent of profiling—all thru-hikers are bad. Complete BS. Go after the bad hikers and embrace the rest of us dropping dollars all along the trail. Apparently, the federal government still hasn’t learned anything from the concentration camp fiasco of WWII (not that we are in any way being treated as badly as the Japanese-Americans were, but there are broader lessons to still be learned).

Bed by 6:30. Full sunshine outside, but it was getting cold and we had all of our chores done. Since we couldn’t sit around the shelter and talk, we didn’t have much choice. There was a distinct lack of level spots to set up tents, so Bunny and I chose a relatively flat spot in the woods in about 8” of snow. The low was only supposed to be 33, but it got below 30. More than the air temp though, was the ground temp. Setting up in the snow with very little below to insulate us from the ground just sucked the body heat right out of us. It’s going to be a long, cold night.

EFG

We all made it down to breakfast to discuss our plans after a good night’s sleep. We had looked at the weather report for the upper Smokies and it was not good. Initially, I thought we were stuck in town until at least Monday because of an expected snow storm coming on Sunday.

After breakfast, Stickers, Lady Bug, and Patches headed up to switch hotels. We went up with Dancing Dog and Trail Runner to their room. They had decided to rent a car and head back home today. I thought it was because of the weather. It was then that Dancing Dog showed us her blister. It was huge and made me hurt just looking at it. There was an additional blister next to it plus there looked like bruising on the back of her leg. It looked like she had an infection, now. All this in addition to the digestive issues she’s been having since the second day of our trip.

Dancing Dog had to argue with Enterprise to finally get them to agree to come pick them up at the hotel rather than throw their packs on their backs and hobble the 30 miles to the rental office. We all sat in the lobby together until the car arrived. This being Gatlinburg, right next to Pigeon Forge, we ran into Dolly Parton in the lobby. She graciously agreed to a photo op with four little hikers from the boot heel of Missouri—she can still relate to her humble beginnings. Let me tell you, she is thin!

After the ladies left, did we proceed to do laundry? No. Did we do some grocery shopping? No. Did we shower and make use of porcelain for the sheer joy of it? No. What did we do? We went to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC)—the equivalent of a dark, drug alley to a crack addict if compared to a thru-hiker. We went gear shopping!

With a bag full of goodies for the trail, we proceeded back to our room, spread out all of our new gear, fuel, and dehydrated meals out on one of the beds along with everything we already had. Then, we rolled on top of it to get the fragrance all over our bodies, just like a dog rolls in poop in the yard after you give it a bath. Clearly, showering and laundry had to wait some more now that we had immersed ourselves in the scents of backpacking. We considered catching the trolley to get to the supermarket. In the end, we just went to Walgreens and bought enough “crap” to make it to Hot Springs, NC whenever we do make it back to the trail.

Sunday, after 36 hours in town, we finally broke down and headed over to the next hotel to do our laundry. Literally, every piece of clothing we owned was dirty. Bunny used her rain kilt and rain jacket to wear while the clothes were being washed. I thought the kilt wouldn’t quite hide enough. In “hind” sight, I would have rather worn the kilt. I chose to wear my down jacket on top and my rain coat on bottom—I immediately felt very drafty once my pants were in the washer. I backed out of the laundry room and found the closest bench to glue myself to until the laundry was done.

Of course, in this town filled with tourists, the first people we see are people we know. While sitting on the bench, Patches and Lady Bug see us and come over to talk. Patches looked at the way we were dressed and seemed incredulous that we were just now doing laundry. As my hind side was sticking to the wooden bench and airing out nicely in the breeze, she made the observation that she had once loaned her flowered hiking shorts to a guy so he could do laundry. Up until now, she thought that was the worst way she had seen someone dress to do laundry. At least now, someone might remember me after this hike.

The weather forecast continued to deteriorate. We changed our plans to leave Tuesday morning once the road to Newfound Gap reopened. However, the conditions on top of the ridge are calling for additional snow Tuesday night with 40mph winds and a -9 F wind chill factor. Wednesday calls for a good chance of snow showers with a high of 27. Wednesday night shows improvement over Tuesday with winds of only 25mph and a wind chill of zero with a raw temp in the single digits. In short, the weather conditions on these two nights are worse than the weather which forced us out of the mountains last Friday.

Normally, we come to town to get a shower, use some porcelain, eat a nice meal at a restaurant, do laundry, catch up on blogging, buy groceries to last us until the next place we can get supplies, and get a good night’s sleep. All this we can normally do in less than 18 hours. If we are feeling particularly tired, we might stay for two nights and take a “zero day.” We are stuck in town for 5 zeros in a row on this stop (and we are not alone—the town is filled with lots of people we thought we’d never catch up with again).

Some folk have decided to jump ahead to get out of the Smokies (Mizman, Lucky 59, and Pepper Pot) but we are reading about these conditions continuing all the way up to Damascus, VA. Even jumping ahead, people are getting forced off the trail. We found out today that Finnegan got frostbite on his thumb. He looked down and wondered where all the black had come from only to realize… We have been told some of the flesh has recovered, but we don’t know his current status.

The Eagles “Hotel California” keeps running through my mind. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” We are stuck in Gatlinburg; aka the Branson of the east; aka the place where dreams die; aka hell ‘lite’ (backpackers always choose the lightest option available). We are very stir crazy and short tempered. We have eaten out enough to satisfy all of our hiker food fantasies. We just want to get hiking again. Come hell or high water (or knee deep snow), we will return to the trail Thursday morning.

I think it was colder last night, but I felt warmer once we got settled in our bags. The hot water nalgene works great to get everything toasty until your body heat takes over. The hardest part of all in the cold weather are the transitions into and out of the sleeping bag. It’s imperative to take your sweaty clothes off when it’s this cold. My socks hold a lot of sweat and they could freeze to my feet. As it is, they froze and cut the underside of my big toe when I put them on in the morning yesterday. Today, I opted to donn my clean pair since we are, hopefully, going to make it to town today.

The equivalent of 3 red-shirted crewmen from Star Trek (the 3 young guys going so fast we didn’t ask their names because we will never see them again so they are “one episode” only) were the first ones on the trail. They were all traveling ultra-light and only one of them cooked something for breakfast. Bunny and I always try to have a hot drink and hot breakfast to start the day. It was so cold that Dancing Dog even skipped her French press coffee and drank some instant.

The eight named crew members all got on the trail within 15 minutes of each other. We were not the last ones out of the shelter at 9:15. Patches took that honor today. Stickers and Lady Bug were just ahead of us. Of the 8 of us, Stickers is, by far, the fastest hiker. The rest of us hike in the 1 1/2 – 2 mph range (with our speed gradually dropping throughout the day). It was sunshiney and gave the illusion of warmth although it wasn’t even 15 in the sun when we left. I didn’t share the temperature with anyone thinking that if they knew how cold it was they would start feeling colder.

Clingmans Dome, the tallest mountain in the Appalachian range, was less than 3 miles ahead today. It was an easy 1,100’ climb to get to the summit from our shelter. We crossed a couple of “knife’s edge” ridges on the way up. Since it was sunny and clear, the views were breathtaking. We kept stopping to admire the views, but I started getting impatient for a couple of reasons—1) the sun was melting the snow which would freeze into ice once the sun was gone making the trail treacherous, 2) we had a long way to go today and the road may not even be open when we get to it if it doesn’t warm up more, and 3) I wanted to get Dancing Dog off of the trail because of her heel, but more so because she has had the Hershey squirts for a couple of days and none of us has been drinking enough.

My goal is to take at least a day off in town for all of us to heal up. Bunny and I are having lots of chafing between our legs from the wet and cold. Trail Runner is the only one not showing any wear and tear—she’s a beast! During the last few days, I’ve discovered DD has been having plantar fasciitis issues the past year, but she’s shown no issues on this trip (or if she is, she isn’t letting it show).

The tower on top of Clingmans Dome is just a little off of the trail. Bunny and I dropped our packs to go get some pictures (this is a major highlight of the southern end of the Appalachians). Trail Runner and Dancing Dog decided to keep moving and we would catch up in a bit. Lady Bug got there the same time we did and the three of us headed up the ramp of the tower. Stickers was coming down when we were headed up.

By the time we got back to our packs, Patches was dropping her pack to head up to the tower. Bunny and I headed north on the trail to catch up with the other two. They were like horses on the way back to the feed bag and barn after a long ride—they were making time. It took us almost 2.5 miles to catch up with them. We split a protein bar while walking so we wouldn’t have to stop to eat and run the risk of getting cold again. It was warmer now, but nowhere near the 50s we were hoping for. At best,it was 30. On the bright side, we started passing day hikers which meant that the road is open so we would be able to get to Gatlinburg (imagine we were actually looking forward to getting to Gatlinburg—we were a little desperate).

Dancing Dog and Trail Runner were waiting for us at the turn to Mt. Collins Shelter. Lady Bug had dropped her pack to head the 1/2 mile to the shelter for latrine access. While we were catching up with what had been happening, Finnegan and Patches joined us. 7 of the 8 named crew members were still here. I knew as long as we were around Lady Bug we would be fine because Stickers would make sure to make arrangements for us to get to town.

We began the last 4.5 miles to Newfound Gap as a group. A few more thru-hikers, Pizza and Dare Devil caught up to us and passed us after a bit. Dare Devil, I later found out, is legally blind. I didn’t even realize it until we were sitting next to each other in the shuttle and he was trying to count his money—he couldn’t see it. This guy was hiking faster than me and he’s blind! I can’t imagine the type of determination and guts he has to be out here alone.

Dancing Dog had to make a few pit stops along the way, so she and Trail Runner dropped back a bit. We kept going because of the cold. We were relieved to see the “pig exclosure” ramps which meant we were almost to the road. We checked the data book only to realize we still had a mile and a half still to go. This felt like the longest mile and a half of our trek so far until we caught sight of the road above us.

When we emerged to the parking area, we saw Stickers, Patches, Pizza, and Dare Devil. Stickers had gotten us a shuttle that would be here within the hour. Before we could drop our packs, Trail Runner showed up. We went to take some pictures and get rid of some trash. When we turned around, Lady Bug and the shuttle were both there, but no Dancing Dog. I started to panic, but then she popped up on the road. She was bubbly (as usual).

I think Trail Runner is an animal, but Dancing Dog is more so because she has covered the same 50 miles these past few days that the rest of us has, but she has done it in much worse conditions than us. Her blister now covers her heel and she has been having digestive issues almost the entire time. I only dealt with the digestive issues for a couple of days in Spain last year, but not under the same bad weather conditions she has. Plus, I always had a bed and bathroom to look forward to. She has done this trip under constant pain and illness and never once complained. Not only has she not complained, she has been happy. I can honestly say of the four people in our group this past week, I am the weakest.

We rode the shuttle into town to the Travel Lodge. We checked in and agreed to shower and head out to dinner as a group at 7. It will feel strange to be clean and warm after these past few days. We also ran into Durwood who left us 3 days ago. He ended up having to walk the 15 miles into town because of the road being closed. For now, we just want to eat and sleep before we want to think about what we are going to do tomorrow. We’ve heard of another approaching snow storm.

EFG