Great Smoky Mountains, part 2
Day 24
At the moonshine store
They really do embrace the bear as an icon.
Live and in person. Not near the dumpster (I've been asked) but there was trash nearby.
200 miles at the Dome!
Can you tell which shoes are new and which have a few hundred miles in them?
Learning to use trekking poles for the first time
This sign is at the Newfound Gap parking lot, the major mountain pass allowing traffic to cross the Smokies.
Tinker Cliffs, while beautiful, had signs saying, "do not linger, danger of falling rock."
Close up of the most common wildflowers
"Dry" is more of a suggestion. Despite the breeze, it's far too humid to dry much.
Took a zero day in Gatlinburg to hang out with my parents. No matter how much everyone called it "touristy," the Southern Vegas-but-no-casino, cheesy boardwalk vibe and crowds were totally overwhelming.
We ate good food, did a little bit of exploring, and even saw black bears from the back deck of the condo building.
Day 25
Today my parents slackpacked me, which means I wasn't carrying my full camping gear and just had water and snacks and maybe a spare jacket. My mom joined in for a few miles as well, and my dad met us at road crossings with more snacks and moral support. This is the only section of the park where the AT comes close enough to roads to do this.
Most hostels offer slackpacking (included if local or for an extra charge for more drive time). This is great for covering particularly difficult terrain, recovering from an injury, or taking an easy (or slightly easier) hiking day. Some people consider slackpacking to be cheating, though that's pretty rare. Supported hikes with a camper van, RV, or other vehicle following the hiker with food and supplies are sometimes seen. If you get resupply at a road every few days, fine. If you sleep in an RV more nights than not, that's a different version of thru hiking .
The AT follows the ridgeline that is the North Carolina Tennessee border for quite some time. Border crossings are so frequent that there is no signage indicating state.
Day 26
Ah, easy ridgeline hiking! Mostly, anyway.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the US. The AT is relatively isolated within the park, not crossing many roads and not going near campgrounds. Except for the section between Clingmans's Dome and Newfound Gap, there wasn't much day hiker traffic on the trail.
Day 27
On rainy days, I take almost no photos. There are 3 reasons: I don't feel like stopping, I'm protecting my phone from the rain, and touch screens covered in water don't work very well. I also tend to not drink enough water because I'm so focused on water coming from the outside. Too bad we can't absorb water through the skin like amphibians.
To maintain my spirits in the rain, I sing aloud a LOT. This may happen on long downhills on nice days, too, and a mental playlist is fairly constant. While the AT can feel crowded at times, you see more people at camp than while hiking. I don't worry about anyone being offended by my off-key voice!
One particular favorite for walking tempo is Yellow Submarine by The Beatles. I decided to not start hiking with headphones until I was sick of my own thoughts, so any music is subject to a spotty memory. I average 1 1/2 verses for many casual songs, more for favorites. Being outside always brings up camp songs. Musicals from high school, Simon and Garfunkel, Hamilton, John Denver, AJR, you never know what's next!
ATWeather.org is a particular favorite among thru hikers because it organizes weather forecasts from NOAA by shelter sites. Towns that are 20 miles and a few thousand feet in elevation compared to the trail can get dramatically different weather. Shelters are listed by state, so in this section of frequent border crossings it's a guessing game. Mountain weather remains volatile, and the forecast is best taken with a grain of salt.
Once my hands were thawed enough to cooperate, I had a very restorative cup of tea at that bench outside the fence. So much for separating cooking and food odors from the sleeping area.
This shelter at Davenport Gap is one of the last to have a chain link fence to separate campers from bears. If hikers follow good food protocol, mice in shelters are a much bigger threat than bears. Black bears are more scavengers than hunters, so while there's stories of people in sleeping bags being dragged out of their tents, direct human-black bear conflict is rare. I've heard that fences used to be more common.
Tomorrow I will actually cross the park boundary. With that, a little chapter is finished.
Happy hiking!
Thanks for sharing a bit of the Smokys with your parents! Loved hiking with you! M
ReplyDeleteNo thanks on the bears, and nice to see the ‘fenced in’ look this time! So glad your folks got to participate, too! XOXO
ReplyDeleteThe pale pink flowers with darker pink stripes are named Spring Beauties. I spoke to a park manager last year in the Smokies about the fenced in shelters. They removed most of them because they ATTRACTED bears. It seems some hikers would close themselves inside, the draw bears in with food for a close view. The bears learned fast. "A fed bear is a dead bear."
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