The Smokies

Leaving Franklin behind, we hiked out with Alex, Vape and L-evated. On our way we climbed up Siler Bald and Wayah Bald. Wayah Bald had a great stone watchtower, where we got our first views of the Smokies, including Clingmans Dome. Otherwise, it was back into the Long Green Tunnel. We camped that night at the Wayah Shelter, where we ran into Bojangles and Curly again. While we had taken the trail, they saw on the map that the trail hemorrhaged 27 miles to the east, so instead they blue-blazed 6 miles to the north. Seems the trail likes to do that sometimes.

The next morning we woke to pouring rain. We decided that it couldn't get any wetter, so we pushed out into the rain. About 15 minutes after we left, it got wetter. The rain came down with a vengeance. Then the thunder and lightning started. We just climbed and pushed our way up and down the hills until we could get to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC). Bojangles and Curly showed up shortly after we did, and we got a bunk house together. We then headed to the restaurant where we chowed down on pizza, soda and chocolate milk. We bought beer for the night, took the little bit of pizza left with us, and went to the common rooms for the hikers. Vape, L-evated and Alex showed up after us, ate and joined us for some quality drinking.

The next day, the others talked about rafting down river, while we decided to push on. The climb out of the NOC was brutal. It was over 3,000 feet in 8 miles! It was steep, and a little slippery from the rainfall the day before. Luckily, this was our first day of dry weather in a week. We kept pushing though, and made it to the Brown Fork Gap Shelter for dinner. We were tired, but wanted to put a couple more miles on the day, so we hike all the way to Cody Gap, and tented. We had hoped we would get to the Cable Gap Shelter, and would have had a 22.1 mile day, but it just wasn't in the cards. That climb was a toughie!

We woke with the intention of making it all the way to Fontana Dam, all of 9 miles away. We got in just before noon, and who was sitting there except Bojangles and Curly! Apparently, they had slack-packed from Stecoah Gap back to the NOC, and were going to get dropped off at the gap again to hike into Fontana, only their ride missed it and took them all the way to the dam! Yellow blazers! It was good to see them though, and eventually Vape, L-evated and Alex showed up, as well as Patches, a young girl with a foot injury, and we went up to the grill in Fontana Village. After eating ourselves silly, we got a shuttle back to the marina where we had gotten off, and hiked the 1.1 miles to the Fontana "Hilton," a 24 person shelter. Wouldn't you know it? It hadn't rained while we were eating, so of course it poured on us those 1.1 miles to the shelter. We had a big fire that night, and partied not too hard with our friends.

The next day was our first ascent into the Smoky Mountains. It rained. And was foggy. We couldnt' see much, and it was cold. We just marched ourselves up the mountain and to the first shelter, Mollies Ridge. We ate lunch then pressed on to the next shelter. At least it had stopped raining, but we were still wet and kind of tired. We wanted to make it to Spencer Field Shelter, but decided to stop at Russel Field instead. Everyone we had been hiking with (except Bojangles and Curly, who were skipping the Smokies, having already hiked them) caught up to us there. This was one of the few shelters left with a chain link fence across the front. It was originally to help people feel safe inside from bears, but it really only created a sense of security to where people started FEEDING the bears from inside the shelter. This caused the bears to really start frequenting the shelters, and some of the bears were relocated, others were destroyed. So, a bear visited us that night (Wing It slept through it), testing the bear cables and the fence to see if it could get food. A ridge runner was there, and tried chasing it off. It came back the next morning, and sauntered off as rocks were being thrown.

We would like to tell you the Smokies were amazing. However, we had a visibility range of 15 feet. Even Clingmans Dome was disappointing (though, the motor speedway up there was a shocker). Honestly, the Smokies looked just like the rest of trail so far, only foggier. We probably just hit it at the wrong time of year, and we're sure there are beautiful views to be had, we just didn't experience it.

We descended down from the Smokies, spent the night at Davenport Gap Shelter, met another Ridgerunner, Kentucky Blue, and pressed on. We went up and over Snowbird Mt., which had some views south of the Smokies. We climbed up to Max Patch, an artificial bald, and had our first wow moment. It was clear skies and wonderful views of the surrounding forests. We made our way to Roaring Fork Shelter, ate dinner with some more folks we had been hiking with, then decided to put in a couple more miles. We were glad we did, because there was a bear encounter at the shelter we passed. The bear used it's weight and muscle to break the cables, and sat there eating the hikers food while staring them in the eye. Ballsy. He then tried going for another hikers pack hanging from the cables, but for whatever reason the pack didn't come down. The hiker grabbed his sleeping bag from his pitched tent and went into the shelters with the others, and the bear then shredded his tent, probably in spite. The bear did eventually go away, after being threatened by a knife taped to the end of a stick, but it could have been worse.

We hiked out the next day to Hot Springs. It was a tortuous descent, since we could see and hear the town for at least a mile and a half before finally reaching it. We headed straight for Elmer's Sunnybrook Inn. We were able to get a room, did laundry and were fed an exquisite, gourmet, all organic, vegetarian meal. We were even able to line up a ride into Trail Days, from a man named Big Red.