We left the Fontana Dam shelter early on Saturday morning and entered the Smokies.
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It was a beautiful morning for a hike. The landscape of the smokies seemed to be pretty much the same as everything else we had seen up until we crossed some sort of magical line where flowers started lining the forest floor.
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On the way to the shelter, we came across an old fire tower overlooking the dam. It was sketchy as all hell, however. The first flight of stairs was missing a handrail on the right side and the floor of the top portion was spongy particle board. I took a few pics and came back down as soon as I could. The fear was worth it for the awesome views.
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We stayed in a shelter for the first time that night, and we decided we would never stay in one ever again. The trail log at the shelter mentioned that there were rats there, but even more irritating was the 3 guys snoring in the shelter. Everyone complained about not getting any sleep the next morning, so we decided to stay in our tent from then on. The other not so great part about shelters in the smokies is that most don't have privies. Rather, there are designated "toilet areas" where you must go. These are always a minefield of human feces that must be navigated very carefully. You are supposed to bury your poop 6 inches in the ground but somehow people end up ignoring that rule.
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The park has more than made up for its shortfalls with beautiful views and a varying landscape. I took a short nap in a meadow near the summit of a mountain overlooking the park, which was one of my favorite moments on the trail so far.
We also reached the highest point on the Appalachian trail a couple of days ago. The point is called Klingmans Dome, and it is over 6500' above sea level. The views were incredible. On the path leading up to the top, the landscape changed to a dense forest of spruce trees. The change of scenery did a lot to brighten our mood.
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We hiked down to the shelter after reaching the summit and made food and went to sleep. The next morning, we woke up at 6:00 am and hit the trail by 7:00. We arrived at Newfound gap at 9:30 after hiking 5 miles and caught the shuttle into Gatlinburg. There was some trail magic setup in the gap so we got to eat some fresh fruit and snacks before the shuttle arrived.
Once we arrived in Gatlinburg, we spent some time at the outfitters to get some supplies. Then we made our way to our motel and showered up. Our plan is to get back on the trail tomorrow and hike to Hot Springs, NC in 5 days. I've made a spreadsheet with the plan and some other stats. You can check it out here:
We're are over 200 miles into the trail now and we're still loving it! Once we get out of the smokies, the trail will follow the North Carolina / Tennessee border until we reach Virginia. I'll try to make another post once we get to Hot Springs.
-Frog
I was wondering if you would end up recording stats for this - not surprised. It'll be good to see the expected end date get earlier in the year as you keep logging longer days. Your mileage is trending up!
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