Smokey Mountains

In the Summer of 2019, I went backpacking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On Wednesday I flew into Knoxville. Then, I rode into Gatlinburg where I spent the night. Early Thursday morning I was awoken by a huge thunderstorm. Even the locals were surprised by how bad it was. I began to worry if it would be raining when we got started. I met with the guides and went over our gear and the plan at 9 AM.  Around 11 AM we all piled into the van that took us to Newfound Gap to start our journey.

Newfound Gap is at 5000 feet in elevation. It had stopped raining by this time, but the trail was very wet. In this first stretch the trail was a series of steps carved out of natural stone that had been blown away with explosives to create the trail. Within the half hour of being on the trail we saw a bear; he was a small yearling and quickly got off the trail when he saw us. We later heard that other hikers has seen the same bear. We thought he is getting fed near the trailhead, which is a very bad thing for the bear. We continued to climb. The trail changed from steps to a rocky hill which you had to watch where you stepped. We were climbing up Mount Kephart to Icewater Spring Shelter at 5920 feet in elevation. The total distanced we hiked was about 3 miles and the highest elevation we reached was around 6100 feet. This would be our shortest day. We arrived at about noon. Shortly after we arrived at Icewater Spring Shelter, we were joined by a couple day hikers they soon left. One day hiker stayed for what seemed like an unnecessarily long time and did not say much which made me a little uncomfortable. We unpacked and were eating lunch when a doe and her two fawns joined us and hung out a bit. This would be the last we would see of the fawns but the Doe came back a couple of times that night. After lunch everyone but one guide went over to “The Jumpoff” where the trail ends in a very sharp cliff. We hoped we could see a view but we were in a low lying cloud and all we could see around us was white. The trip there and back was about 1 mile. When we came back to our came for the night, the one day hiker that gave me an uneasy feeling was gone. Part of hiking on the AT it is tradition for the people you are hiking with to give you a trail name. I got the name “Gadget.”

Each shelter can house up to 12 people. There were 6 in my group. After a while a father and his two twin daughters arrived at the shelter. The father had hiked the whole AT, which is now close to 2200 miles from Georgia to Maine in the 1980s. A bird kept flying into the shelter and hanging out with us. At around 6:30 we started to eat dinner. I ate freeze dried Chicken Fried Rice.

At some point two girls from Scotland joined us for the night in our shelter. By the time 7:30 PM rolled around, we could see our breath; but, it did not feel all that cold to me. At 9:00, Hiker Midnight, arrived and we all headed to our bunks for the night. 9:00 in the evening is called Hiker Midnight because that is when everyone is too tired to go on and light becomes scarce so everyone goes to bed. I did not sleep well that night. I am thankful that I had earplugs in or I would have slept even less. It was not hot outside, but very humid. My sleeping bag felt damp by the time I woke up the next morning. This would not get any better. I was told the doe came back late that night and ate some of the grass right next to the shelter. The girls from Scotland left first followed by the father and his two girls. I would later find out that they were 15 and they started with their 17 year old sister who dropped out a couple nights before. For breakfast I had a Mountain House granola and blueberry pouch that you just had to add water too. It was very good. Once the other two groups had left, we started to hike. 

We went back to The Jumpoff which had a lot better view than the day before. It was the best view up to that point and is still one of my favorites. After that diversion off of the AT, we went on our planned route. We started to descend to 5400 feet to see Charlies Bunion, a stone outcropping with a view all around. This is a popular place since it is still within reach of day hikers, there is no other destination worth stopping at in a days reach past Charlies Bunion, so we did not see any more day hikers. It would be only backpackers for the next couple days. After Charlies Bunion the trail goes up and down. We did a solo hike for a while which really wore me out. We reached Laurel Top, the summit of a 5768 foot mountain. Then, we started to descend again until we reached our home for the night, Pecks Corner Shelter. We had to get off of the AT for 0.4 miles and hike down to about 5200 feet. All said and done it was a little over 9 miles that day.When we arrived at Pecks Corner, there were two groups there already. The first group appeared to be a family, with two older gentleman, and a son of one of them. The son was 14. The three of them were playing UNO when we arrived. There was also a younger guy and his girlfriend there, although they kept to themselves for the most part. 

My feet were killing me since we walked just over 9 miles on rocky, uneven terrain that kept going up and down. When I took off my shoe my left pinky toenail was black and I had a hotspot forming on my foot. One of our guides said I might lose the toenail. I let my feet dry out and applied some moleskin to my feet to keep it from rubbing against the shoe with hopes it won't form into a blister. I stayed in the shelter that night and kept my feet out of my shoes to help the hotspot heal. It would later turn out that the toenail on my left pinky nail would not fall off.

For dinner that evening I had Mountain House Lasagna, which was absolutely fantastic after such a difficult day! I dug in to the pouch with my titanium spork and ate the cheesy goodness. It really helped lift my spirits up. I finished my meal with a freeze dried ice cream sandwich from Mountain House. While we were eating, we were joined by another solo hiker who spent the night. He was going to school for Integrative medicine.The family started a game called Farkle and they invited everyone to play, but I was still not in a very social mood. The girlfriend who was kind of quiet won the game. That family became known as “The Farkle Family.” and the lady who won was called the “Farkle Queen.” We all turned in once they finished, around hiker midnight again.

I layed there with my ear plugs in and eyes closed on the bottom bunk. The Farkle Family’s son was climbing to the top bunk with his head lamp on and kept accidentally shining his light in my eyes. Common courtesy is that you turn your head lamp to red light mode in the bunks to not disturb anyone’s sleep. At some point in the night I had a dream where I saw a bear on the trail. I remember yelling bear in my dream and waking up. I think I really did say it out loud, but everyone had ear plugs in, so I did not disrupt anyone.The following morning we woke up and broke camp. I had a breakfast of Backpackers Pantry Granola and Banana, it was not as good as the Granola and Blueberries the morning before. We hiked up the 0.4 mile side trail we went down the day before to back to the AT. We spaced out and hiked solo for a while until we all meet up again about three miles later and continued hiking to our shelter, Tri-Corner Knob Shelter. 

We were the first group to arrive at the shelter. Some members of our group decided to go for another hike, about an added 6 miles there and back. I stayed at camp as my feet were pretty sore again. The hotspot I had the night before turned into a blister. I set my sleeping pad and sleeping bag up on the top bunk next to a member in my group we named “Trail Dawg”. I had put deodorant on since I felt very nasty. Then, I popped a blister on my foot and applied mole skin. This shelter was pretty dirty. There was a trash bag left behind by the previous occupants and under the privy there was Mountain House wrappers that someone did not pack out with them. We did our part and packed out all the trash the next day.

A little while later, two girls and two guys joined us. The guys were training for another longer trail.. The guys ate and got more water then hiked on. One of the guys was a photographer and spoke to one of our guides and offered him help with his camera. Both of the girls were going to stay at the shelter. One of the girls, Ann, was a section hiker and brought her friend, Rachel, along. The girls set up their bed for the night on the bottom row just under me and to the left. After talking with the girls I found out that Ann was a mother of two and a 7th and 8th grade reading teacher. She was going to school to get her PhD. Ann had a lot of energy and very talkative. Her friend Rachel, was a little more quiet. Rachel had pink hair and was, surprisingly, Mormon. When Ann came to the shelter she immediately asked “Ok, which one of you guys bathed recently.” I was a bit confused as none of us had and I forgot I had even put on deodorant. At some point on her insistence asking this question I remembered that I had just put some on and the asked to have some… which I found to be quite odd. I gave her what was left of the small tube I got from the hotel and told her “you will smell like a man.” She did not care. I did not want the deodorant back. I found out that Ann had a trail name already, but I will not repeat it here.

We then got a bit of a surprise from the father and girls that we shared our first shelter with. They had to change plans since the park at closed one of the shelters they planned on staying due to bear activity in the area. The three of them took a bunk to my left on the top bunk.The group that went out for an additional hike came back after a while and we started to hook dinner. I ate Mountain House Spaghetti and Meat Sauce, which was not as good as their lasagna, but really hit the spot.

Throughout the evening Ann was very flirtatious with me, which gave me an uncomfortable feeling, since she was married with kids. I was sitting down writing down notes about my experiences when she sat down right next to me and said that she could scoot over to make room for her friend, I scooted over to make room for the two of them. It was then she informed me that she was cold and it was time for “super cuddles” which creeped me out again. I offered to lend her my down jacket I brought but I had not used on this trip. We were at about 5900 feet so yes it was chilly. I had switched into a long sleeve shirt earlier in the evening. 

One of our guides, who was a rock climber, was doing pull ups in the rafters. Ann wanted to try this too, but she was too short so our guide helped her up. She could not get down and asked for me to help her get down when there was a bunch of other guys who could easily help her. 

Finally, just after 9 I turned in for the night. I layed on my bunk when she came up and layed next to me for a bit to show me photos on her phone of the new house she was buying, her kids, a couple of her dog. I had just taken benadryl and all I wanted to do is go to bed for one more night on the trail and rest up for a big day tomorrow. The next day one of our guides would describe her as having a “weird energy”. Which I felt was a very polite way to describe her.Overall, this was a good evening, there were a lot of laughs to go around. We all told stories and got along real well. I was not as tired as the previous day and wanted to enjoy my last evening on the trail.The following morning I was woken up by the gentleman and his daughters getting up and packing up they had a very large day planned and had to get an early start, they would eat breakfast on the trail. Then Ann and Rachel got up. Rachel returned my jacket that she had been sleeping in, they ate breakfast and hit the trail. For breakfast I had freeze dried scrambled eggs and ham, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever had on this trip. We packed up and hiked out we hiked over to the helicopter pad where we took a break and a group photo. We continued to the site where a F-4 Phantom collided with the mountain in 1984. To see the actual crash site we would have to get off trail and bushwack, and we did not have time for that. Just past that was our trail to get off the AT. We walked 5.3 miles down Snake Den Ridge Trail to Cosby Campground where a van was there waiting to pick us up. On this trail there was a plant that gave a strong raw garlic smell, the guide told me what it was, but I do not remember. We descended quite a bit through countless switchbacks to get there. We had to cross a stream by rock hopping then cross it again by a primitive bridge.This trip was amazing with some of the best views I have even seen in my life. I met some very fun people and had a great time. I hope to someday return to the Smoky Mountains.