Packing up from tent city at 7am. It was much warmer camping at 2500′

It rained bit last night. This is the dry spot under my tent.

About 30 minutes into todays hikeI heard some rustling in the woods so I stopped. A couple seconds later a cute little bear cub scampered across the trail, then a second cub. So of course we waited until mama came out before we proceeded…and she even gave us enough time to get out the iPhone for a pic.

Hiking up Sugarloaf Mtn. under ominous skies.

View from Sugarloaf Mtn.

Then the rain came…the first time I’ve hiked in the rain so far in two+ weeks. This is the view from under my pack mounted umbrella. Best piece of gear ever. Kept me completely dry for 8hrs and I didn’t even wear a rain jacket. (Plus you don’t get that uncomfortable dampness from sweating out the jacket.)

Max Patch is spectacular even in poor weather.

Selfie with my umbrella.

You can see another hiker in the distance with their umbrella.

The green tunnel…again.

Wet and muddy boots, but dry-ish feet.

Another 20 mile day and mostly in the rain. The sun popped out for about 5 minutes before the day ended with a pretty good downpour. Luckily, the weather broke just as I was setting up camp and eating.

One of the last big views from the Smokies.

I made the smart move of not sleeping in the shelter last night and set up my tent nearby. By 7:45 pm there was a big old guy snoring like it was an Olympic event and mixing in some hacking fits every so often for good measure. Needless to say, I slept great 50 yds away, everyone else not so much. I was hit the trail with Salty by 7:15am

This shelter name takes on a whole new meaning nowadays. Also notice the sign warning about bears. Apparently, they were causing some issues over the last several days.

The temps started to warm up as the day wore on and we dropped elevation. This is me at a lunch break staying cool while drying sweaty socks out on the log. (dry helps prevents blisters).

As we dropped elevation the trees were leafing out around 3000′. We’d hit our lowest point on the trail so far at 1500′ after being at the highest point on the AT just the day before.

Wildflowers were blooming.

A rarity, hiking next to a stream )for a half mile) Splashing cold mtn.water on my face felt great!

Crossing the Pigeon River.

and then under I-40.

A short rest and snack break at the Standing Bear hostel. After the stiff climb to get there in 80 degree heat a cold Gatorade tasted great as well as a sleeve of Pringles.

There was one more 1000′ climb to our campsite to end our 20mi day. I listened to part of the audio book Bossy Pants by Tina Fey to power me up the final climb and got to camp ~7:30. I hope to get a pic of camp and post tomorrow. It’s Much past my bedtime now ( 10pm) and there is a light drizzle to put me to sleep.

The forest seems to have changed on the East side of Clingmans Dome.

Word had spread on the trail that there would be Trail Magic at Newfound Gap…although we were misinformed that it would be pancakes and bacon.

Luckily, hikers aren’t too picky…this was a Thru Hikers Dream 🙂 Big thanks to the Trail Angels from Knoxville, TN !

Happy hikers stuffing their faces.

We are now officially inside of 2000 miles to Katahdin …still a daunting number (coincidentally, my birth year).

Classic Smoky Mtns scenery.
Afternoon tree tossing competition.

The shelter was very crowded, even the tents sites were slim pickings. Look at all the food bags being hung. In the Smokies you have to stay or camp at the shelters so we start to get bunched up. Only 2 other hikers left the shelter we were at this AM. Most of the others here tonight did 8-12 miles to get here.

Overall, it was another long day. I was hiking by 7am and got into camp at 6:30pm, but the weather was fantastic again (probably about 10 hours of actual hiking.) it will be three more days until a small rest in Hot Springs, NC…that will be well earned 🙂

Sorry for not getting back to folks sooner who are posting comments…I do appreciate them! I only have good signal occasionally, so I plan to catch up in Hot Springs.

Another great day for hiking. This is a view from the much sung about Rocky Top, Tennessee

View from other direction as the sun rises higher in the sky.

I love these shelters…a great rest stop.

If you look close there is a tarp hanging in front of the shelter, I think it’s to trap heat at night to keep everyone warmer…most shelters in the Smokies seem to have them.
Salty Pants doing the water filtering ritual.

Feels like a haunted forest.

On top of Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the AT (6667′). Got to love the funky 1960’s ramp and observation tower.
View from the top
We were like celebrities…this family from Mass. wanted a picture with us.

Definitely a long day at 20 miles with a fair amount of elevation change. Took 12 hours from shelter to shelter with all our stops.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question…the odd Blair Witch looking objects hanging from the rafters at the shelters are to hang your food from to protect from mice. The cans and bottles are strung above (hard to see in this pic…look at yesterday’s) to keep the mice from climbing right down the rope onto your food bag.

This is Chicken Feathers, he’s 72 and has been cranking out the miles. I saw him 5 days ago and he’s right on my tail and I’ve been pulling some bigger miles the lay several days.

One of the older shelters made out of logs…a great place for a rest break next to a quiet stream.

Our first view of Fontana Lake, the gateway to the Smokies.

After busting out 11 miles by 12:30 and descending 3000′ to Fontana Dam, it was amazing to find trail magic in the form of delicious watermelon 🙂

The lobby of the beautiful Fontana Lodge. They offer a great thru-hiker rate (kind of a shoulder season now) so I treated myself and shared a room with Salty Legs (picture to come).

Quite the contrast to last night’s shelter, but I enjoyed them both in their own way.

The hotel pool with the Smokies in the background.

Before

After!
I spent most of the afternoon eating, doing laundry, taking a shower and organizing food for the next 6 days (which Andrea was nice enough to ship ahead to me…thx Andrea!)

Andrea even included this cute Bug Juice card she made in my package. I plan to get it laminated and hang it from my pack 🙂

This is a hiker box (things hikers leave behind for other to use as in food or gear). I always laugh at seeing all the bags of unidentifiable white powders…does anyone actually take that stuff? I grabbed a snickers bar (wrapped) and some seam grip.

We were told there be a cookie and punch social for hikers at 7pm. They didn’t tell us that there was a group of senior citizen hikers here for the week and we were their entertainment for the evening (Q&A style). It was fun and they were really interested in our experiences. This is a picture of thru hiker Diesel (62yrs old) talking to the group while holding about 10 giant cookies…he swore he was taking them back to share with the other hikers sleeping at the shelter. I’m dubious!

Today was a tough day. There was a lot of climbing s you can see in the profile above (started at red dot and finished at orange shelter on far right). Plus, temps were getting warm and sun was beating down. The last steep part right before the shelter was a beast:..it’s called Jacob’s Ladder.

The picture above was from a memorial to a forest service worker. I really think hikers use it as a place to dump unwanted gear, i.e. the useless fork/spoon/knife Swiss army contraption. How do you use the fork and knife at the same time?

A cool section of trail…literally.

Another water bottle filling station, using a leaf scupper.

Someone was nice enough to provide a hose at this trickle.

Can anyone tell me what’s hanging from the rafters and how it’s used? …the prize is a shout out on my blog (I have like 50 followers!)

Trail Magic at Stecoah gap, plus a nice view.

My first night sleeping in a shelter. When I arrived at 6pm I was the only one, then a coupe more folks showed up. It is much warmer tonight so I wasn’t as concerned about using my tent to trap heat.

I woke up to frost on my tent (on the inside, from condensation) and another incredible sunrise, this time from the Wayah Bald tower.

img 0625

It gets better…

img 0627

This is the gear explosion inside my tent most mornings. These cold temps exacerbate this problem as almost every piece of gear is being worn or packed while trying to stay inside my sleeping bag as long as possible.

This is how you collect water from a trickle into your water bottle using a rhododendron leaf. It tasted great!

The view from 5000′ with Great Smoky Mtn NP on the horizon.

The very cool viewing tower on Wesser Bald (but those steep stairs were a bit sketchy!) A great lunch spot today.

This is my favorite pic of the day (from the top of tower). The clouds are incredible and Double Time is soaking in the fruits of his labor from the steep climb to the top of the mountain. Zoom in and you an see the giant sweat stain on his DT’s back from his pack…nice!
Double Time is a big guy from Arkansas and has been dreaming of hiking the AT for a long time (he kind of reminds me of Larry the Cable Guy). He started from Springer Mtn. w/ a 57lb pack…ouch! But thinks he’s lost ~20lbs of body weight so far (and 15lbs of pack weight). He got his name b/c it takes him double the time to get his miles in each day…but he’s getting it done.

After a 3000′ descent (miles 10-17 for the day) I arrived at the the famous N.O.C., the Nantahala Outdoor Center, an East Coast epicenter for kayaking and rafting. Plus they have real food, a small general store, laundry and cabins for rent.

Our bunkhouse for the night up
In the trees…

This is PBR’s and Grizzly Adams from Otis, MA. getting settee in for the night. I’ve been leapfrogging with them on the trail the last several days and we shared a bunkroom tonight. It was fantastic getting a hot shower and not having to wear a hat to bed.

It’s late now…time for bed 💤💤

I woke up and got out of the tent for this spectacular sunrise:

It took about 20+ minutes for the sun to finally pop over the horizon, but worth the wait!

I must have jinxed myself by writing about how I haven’t had any real serious foot issues. I was hobbling out of camp this morning. The top of my left foot really hurt and I couldn’t figure out why. I stopped at a shelter about 2.5 miles up the trail to eat and assess the situation. The late departure hikers at the shelter still had their AM fire going which was nice to sit by and stay warm while I inspected my foot.

It looked like the top of my foot was bruised near my big toe, and the cause was likely the big metal lace eyelets on my boots were putting pressure on my foot whenever my foot flexed. I implemented a trick I saw some guy use on the JMT and re-laced the boot skipping the lowest eyelets (the guy I saw was hiking in his Keen sandals and skipped the first 3 eyelets…he was in bad shape!). I also put on a 2nd pair of socks for extra cushioning (I use very thin Darn Tough socks). It was amazing… I was like a whole new person, no pain at all !

You can see the eyelet I skipped on bottom of shoe:

There was some nice Trail Magic at the Winding Stair Gap road crossing. An older gentlemen drives up from town 15 miles away in his pickup and had OJ, coffee, fresh fruit and homemade cookies set up on his tailgate. The best tasting tailgating food I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture 😦

Creative graffiti…it should have read “Lick” which is still kind of odd:

These were my trail friends for the day Squeak and Weasel (aka Squeasel). They are from Longmont, CO and Tuscon. They helped me pass the miles for the second half of my longest day so far. Here they are filling up from a natural spring someone was kind enough to pipe out to us along the trail:

I figured if I started the day at a fire tower I should end my day at one as well (especially a beautiful stone one)…

I pitched my tent on the back side out of the Wayah Bald wind:

This is the view from the front side…it should be another great sunrise tomorrow!

Bug Juice – out