Smokey Mountains (NC/TN)

Entered the Great Smokey Mountain National Park!!!!

Note the white blaze...  blazes were quite scarce up in the park for some unnerving reason. 

• 24 March 2015: 17 miles to Spence Field Shelter (in the Smokey Mountain National Park)
• We ditched/mailed ahead our tent in Fontana. This is a huge risk for a number of reasons but it could also be a huge advantage if things do not go terribly wrong. 
• The Smokey Mountains have weird rules. One rule is that all overnight campers MUST stay in a shelter 
• (hence the fact we decided to ditch the few extra pounds of the tent, since we were going to be forced to stay in the shelters anyway). 
• Only if a shelter is full may a backpacker camp/pitch a tent. 
• BUT if a section hiker shows up and the shelter is full and the section hiker does not want to camp in a tent the section hiker can KICK OUT the dirty thru-hiker (what we are) to make room. 
• The shelters are first come first serve (unless you are a section hiker, they have reservations)
• It was a race every day to get to the shelters first. But Poppins and I wake up super early for thru-hikers (6-7am) thanks to our old civilian jobs so we had a very good chance of getting to shelters first simply because we just started early. 
• The dice had been cast (we did buy a tarp in town to tarp tent just incase)
• 11 mile accent into the Smokies
• Accidentally did our highest milage to date
• We were having lunch at the first shelter in the Smokies when we struck up a conversation with a Daywalker (our term for a day hiker, someone who does not camp but retreats back to the safety of their residence at the end of the day) who assured us the next shelter was only 2.5 miles away (we thought it was 4 miles away and the 2nd shelter was also the one we had originally planned to spend the night at) and then the 3rd shelter was ONLY 4 miles away. Since we were already prepared to walk 4 more miles we decided to jump to the 3rd shelter instead of the planned 2nd. When we got to the 2nd shelter we found out it was in fact actually 3 miles from the first and the 3rd shelter was another 3 miles away (so actually 6 miles from the 1st). Confused yet? Basically we ended up walking 6 miles more instead of the intended 4 and learned NEVER TRUST A DAYWALKER WHEN IT COMES TO DISTANCE. 
• 25 March 2015: 14ish miles to Double Spring Gap Shelter
• We might have a stalker or at the very least a very clingy friend (story to come, maybe)
• 26 March 2015: 22 miles to Pecks Corner Shelter
• First 20+ day of the whole trip!!!!
• Went over Clingman's Dome
• The highest point on the AT at 6655 feet
• Didn't go up into the observation tower at the top tho. because we were basically hiking through a cloud so there wouldn't have been anything to see anyway

3rd day in the Smokies and the Smokies are FINALLY start to look like what I was expecting (the first 2 days just looked like any other part of NC)

Just a huge tree that uprooted and took a giant boulder along for the ride, it was pretty neat

At Newfound Gap about halfway through the Smokies and one of the only places motor tourists are able to see the trail in the park. We (the thru-hikers, especially the female thru-hikers, I guess we are a bit rare) were like celebrities, people would swarm us with questions, little elementary kids wanted to get their pictures taken next to the homeless people who hadn't showered in days and were walking through the woods with big packs on their backs for fun. The experience was mind boggling to me... but then again I guess the concept of a thru-hiker was mind boggling to the kids (and some adults) as well.  

Shelters don't typically have a view but the one we stopped at for lunch did

• 27 March 2015: 24 miles to Standing Bear Hostel (just outside the Smokies) 
• "I think it is starting to snow... the food bags were crusted with ice when I took them off the bear cable this morning" I said to Poppins at 6:20 in the morning as we packed up our gear. "It wasn't suppose to start till this evening" replied Poppins. Then we both stared at each other.  We were afraid of the Smokies for one main reason. It wasn't the mountains we had to climb, it wasn't the bears, it wasn't running out of food, it was the weather in the Smokies is super unpredictable and can change dramatically with dangerous consequences. We had heard from a Ridge Runner the day before that the temperature was suppose to drop into the single digits that (27 March) NIGHT but the snow also wasn't suppose to start until later that NIGHT. We just shrugged and agreed that we needed to get out of the Smokey Mountains fast and that day. So, that is what we did. 
• We had done our first 20+ mile day the day before so we knew what it felt like and that our bodies could handle it, probably. 
• But it was also snowing and showing no sign of letting up... which in fact it never did in the higher elevations that day. 

Snow in the morning was kind of a novelty for us... we also thought it would stop eventually...

...it never did...

... actually the snow just got progressively worse all day... (no pictures of the worst part tho. it was too cold to get out my camera, which is freeze-proof down to 14 degrees... I ended up stuffing it in my shirt to keep it warm)

• Once we had descended out of the Smokies to 2000 feet there was no more snow and it was actually starting to warm up. 
• Right when (literally 3 feet from the norther terminus of the park) we stepped out of the Smokies there was TRAIL MAGIC!!!!!
• Trail Magic is when total strangers out of the kindness of their hearts do nice things for thru-hikers. Typically this involves food, but sometimes it is just a ride into town or some other kind gesture to ease a thru-hikers day. 

Trail Magic!!!

The lovely providers of said trail magic!!! They said they had been doing things like his for 4 years now!

• At Standing Bear Hostel we called the boys and shuttled into Gatlinburg to crash on their motel floor... since we finished the Smokies 2 days faster than we had anticipated 
• The boys went into Gatlinburg to resupply and ended up getting snowed in. 

Walking to Standing Bear @ mile 23 of 24 mile day

Poppins might have walked a little too much or snorted too much snow

Kitty at Standing Bear Hostel! (I've made it my mission to photograph as many hostel cats as I can)

• 28 March 2015: "Zero" day back in Gatlinburg, TN
• First zero day of the whole trip 
• Thia came down to visit since we finished 2 days early and she has weekends off!!!

A typical Hiker Trash room (not to be confused with a Trashy Hiker room, yes there is a huge difference. I'll explain later). Gear everywhere, more people than management wants per room (respectfully tho), and shoulder rubs.

Josh teaching Thia how to pick a lock

BOO to the Daywalkers (hence the sign)... no, not really, but it was pretty ironic 

• Thia and I took Mike (Josh's friend who came out to hike the Smokies with him) back to his car at the NOC, since we actually had a car to use for once
• Stopped by Clingman's Dome on the way back over the mountains (the road had been closed earlier that day)
• The path up to the tower was super icy. 
• Sometimes it is fun just to be another motor tourist for a day :3... especially when it is freezing cold outside

Yep, there is a random concrete tower in the middle of the Smokey Mountains and on the highest point of the Appalachian Trail ... oh well, what is done is done, and it had nice views

• 29 March 2015: "Zero" day back in Gatlinburg, TN
• The boys went back out to finish their 2nd half of the Smokies. 
• My parents arrived!!!
• Originally we had planned to be done with the Smokies on the 29th of March and then hang out with my parents while we took two zero days... but plans change 
• 30 March 2015: 20 miles from Max Patch to Hot Springs, NC
• Slackpacking
• 31 March 2015: 12 miles from Max Patch to Standing Bear Hostel
• Slackpacking



On top of Max Patch, the bald is so big that the AT has to be marked with posts since a hiker would not be able to see the tree line from the other side



• My parents and Poppins wanted to see Clingman's dome (since I ran up there with Thia a few days earlier and had spectacular view, as shown for 28 March). It ended up raining as soon as we arrive, then turned to sleet a few minutes later. They trudged up to the dome, braving the elements, while I waited in the car and ate an avocado with triscuits. 
• Needless to say I think I got the better end of that deal. 
• On the drive back home we saw our first BEAR!!! From the car thank goodness, hopefully that will be the last bear we see... (*knocking on wood now*)

The bear is at the top of this picture (sorry, I only had my phone with me and it can only zoom so far)