GREAT SMOKIES BACKPACK – APRIL 27-29, 2012

Finally, after months, we got out on a short backpack in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The weather was kind to us: even though some rain was forecast a couple nights, we had none, and only some fog Friday morning.

FRIDAY

We started early and had breakfast at Janice's Diner, a little county place in Cosby, TN. Just some good eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy. The start of the hike was a 2.5 mile hike straight up to the Appalachian Trail on Low Gap Trail:

What can we say about foggy, aerobic and warm? But the forest was beautiful. Here's a photo of Kathy at the top, cooling off her tootsies:

We hadn't initially planned to hike a section of the AT, but, due to the unavailability of some campgrounds, we had to plan a longer, 21 mile, hike, which involved about 5 miles of the AT. As it turned out, that was a lot of fun. This is the time of year that the through-hikers are in this area on their annual treks from Springer Mountain, GA, to Mount Katahdin, ME. In just about an hour and a half, we met the following through-hikers (trail names only – real names withheld to protect the innocent and guilty):

Hot Sauce and Sweaty Cheddar

Hot Shot

Johnny Walker and Flip

Freefall

Castaway

Noname thruhiker

Honest Abe

Yetta

Puddles

Brooke

5:30

Six-six

Stormin Norman

Eli

Saturday

Nemo

Nuts

Squeeze

Unnamed trail runner

Thruhiker whose name we forgot

We told each and every one of them that we know Quint and Matt at the Mohican Outdoor Center in the Delaware Water Gap, and we're sure that if they just tell the Mohican staff that Dave'n'Kathy referred 'em, the Mohican staff would take good care of them! :) It felt something like putting a message in a bottle and seeing if it washes up on a far shore. We're wondering if Quint or Matt will e-mail us sometime in June or July with news from one of our hikers.

We had some great views coming down from the AT on the Maddron Bald Trail. Here's one of Kathy backed by the Great Smokies:

The first day turned out to be a long hike – 10+ miles. Much of it was uphill, so we were happy to get into camp, and rest our feet. The campsite turned out to be stunning. With a loud, burbling stream tumbling right at our tent door:

We tried to start a fire, but the wood was too wet, and our fire starters were too wimpy, so we simply ran out of fire starter before we could muster enough fire to start the wood. Good try. It was all we could do to stay up until the sun set.

SATURDAY

Saturday's hike was a little shorter than the day before: almost 7 miles. We were up by 6:15 am and, as customary for us, on the trail by about 8:30. The whole feel of the terrain was different from Friday, however. A couple miles down the trail, we took a short 0.7 mile hike on the Albright Grove Loop to see a grove of huge, old growth trees. Here's Kathy having a conversation in Entish with one of the old guys:

After the Albright Grove, we turned East on Gabe's Mountain Trail toward camp. We saw many cascades and made numerous stream crossings this day. In fact, the water was running so high that Kathy waded one stream while David shimmied across a big log, and then we both had to wade the next stream we encountered, as well! Here's one of many photos we took of streams tumbling through the characteristic big boulders:

Our second campsite was also streamside, although the stream was a bit quieter and further from our tent. We met a fellow named Marty who grew up in the UP of Michigan and who has backpacked and bushwhacked his way all over the country. He even planned his own trek to Nepal, Mount Everest and several other 24,000 footers in that area. He never tried to summit them, but got above Base Camp on Everest, to the point where he knows what altitude sickness feels like.

Our dinners each night were very tasty, freeze-dried backpack food. However, Kathy found some lichen on a rock nearby and thought it might be fun to add some fiber to the standard meal:

When we arrived in camp, Kathy noticed that our fire ring still had some hot coals in it, so she gathered some twigs and piled them in it to try to start a fire later. As we were getting ready for dinner, David noticed smoke coming from the fire ring. We had fire! So we quickly gathered as many hemlock twigs and branches as we could and steadily built the fire, until, by the time we sat down to eat, we had a real roaring fire going.

As usual, to bed just after sunset, around 9:00 pm. We actually stayed up until it was dark, but only because Marty stopped buy to regale us with more or his stories.

SUNDAY

Up again at 6:15 am an on the trail by 8:30. Sunday's hike was a short out: 4.5 miles. It was a very pretty, relatively easy hike, notable mainly for Hen Wallow Falls, which was about halfway down Gabe's Mountain Trail between our campsite and the trailhead:

This day, we met many people day-hiking up to the falls from the parking lot. As neared the end of our hike, Marty from the UP of Michigan caught up with us and we chatted a little more as we finished the trail. Said our goodbyes.

Leaving the Park, we decided to scout out the next two days' plans by driving through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge on our way home to the RV.