The Smokies and Beyond

Spent the day hiking with Scooch, whom I met at Fontana Dam. First 5 miles in the Smokies and I walked up to a juvenile black bear around 20 yards away. Got some great pics, which are on my facebook and no signs of momma bear. Stopped at the only campsite in the Smokies with raindance and a few others

Day 17 – Birch Spring Gap to Derrick Knob

172.1-189

Started out an easy day then the last 6.6 miles was terrible. Met Vino, Refill, Pebbles, Burrito, and Cupcake along with some others. Had a nice campfire. The food combinations being created is getting obscene. I had tuna with pepperoni and Mac and Cheese tonight. Quite delicious

Day 18 – Derrick Knob to Mt Colins Shelter

189-202.8

 Got to see clingman’s dome today, highest point on AT at 6655 feet. The trail before and after was my favorite of the smokies so far, looks like an enchanted forest. Wasn’t planning on it, but heading to Gatlinburg tomorrow to chill out and get a shower.. and some food and AYCE BBQ!!

Day 19 – Mt Colins Shelter to New Found Gap

202.8-207.8

AYCE BBQ became AYCE salad bar which was still delicious. Got to enjoy taking a vegan into a BBQ joint. Took a 2 hour trolley ride to the grocery store to stock up and get some awesome ice cream and pizza. Had some awesome trail magic provided by the local church at Newfound Gap and got a free shuttle into town. Found out someone commited suicide in town yesterday. Jumped off a building and the building decapitated him. Crazy.

Day 20 – New Found Gap to Peck’s Corner Shelter

207.8-217.7

Well got bedbug bites from the shitty motel 🙁  but cant expect much more for $40 a night. Today wasn’t a bad hike. Walked with Norway amd Ranger and came across a helipad site for the smokies and an old plane crash site, which qas pretty uneventful. I also had a fencing match with Ranger on a rock cliff. LESS THAN 2000 MILES TO GO!!

Day 21 – Peck’s Corner Shelter to  Cosby Knob Shelter

217.7-230.6

Took an easy day and met up with Pyro, Stretch, smd Indy who I havent seen since the third day. One of the trail runners/fake rangers were there and a pretty annoying stickler fot the rules, but all was well. Tomorrow will be my last day in the Smokies. It started raining tonight, we will see how that goes.

Day 22-  Cosby Knob Shelter to Painter Branch Campsite

230.6-243.4

It poured all day today. I walked in rivers down the trail and slipped on many rocks. Thank god it was mostly downhill. As we left the Smokies we came across a Barn hostel and decided to have lunch. I was gonna stay, but the place was insane and run by a guy named Lumpy. Roosters all around, honor system for supplies, and the whole thing was ran put of guys house, and he had a few screws loose. So we went on. ahead after buying a cheeseburger, apple pies, and snickers. Im soaking wet sleeping in my tent with everything smelling like mildew, or is that just me at this point? I mean we are cleaning out pots with grass and leaves.

Day 23 – Painter Branch Campsite to  Ghost Camping

243.4-257.5

A thick haze covered most of the mountain all morning making visibility like 10 feet ahead. People kept appearing and disappearing in it. Found a creepy FAA tower making all sorts of weird noises. Then after multiple hard climbs we finally hit Max Patch, which was awesome views. The sun came out, we decided to roll down the Mt top and almost rolled off the side, fun times. We found some awesome Hiker Trash trail magic from a group of 2014 hikers. After hotdogs, beer, itialian dressing brocolli (awesome btw), and popcorn along with othet things we only made it another 3.5 miles before crashing

Day 24 – Ghost site to Hot Springs

257.5-274.4

Today was rough. My feet were killing me, knees hurt from multiple up and down climbs that were rough. We finally made it in to town and there is a strict ban on hiking north due to forest fires. So we got an awesome little cabin and will be Zeroing tomorrow and the catching a shuttle out of here around the fire on Tuesday