The morning we needed to head out of Gatlinburg was rushed. The free shuttle was leaving at 8:30 am and was a mile walk from our hotel. We didn't checkout until 8:00 so we had to walk fast. Plus I needed to get fuel for the week and we were hoping to stop at an ATM. We made it to the shuttle with 5 minutes to spare and fortunately there was a gas station across the street. We hit the trail with full packs (about 35lbs each including food for 5 days and a liter of water).
That day, we were blessed with good weather, which was especially great because that section of the trail was home to a lookout called Charlie's Bunion, which is arguably the best view on the entire Appalachian trail.
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That night we made supper and I spilled my entire rice dish (which had butter and bacon in it!) on the ground. I was pretty deflated after that. The next day was the worst on the trail yet. It started raining as soon as we left camp. It was also a cool day and my hands lost dexterity within 5 miles. We pulled off into the nearest shelter to warm up and ended up staying there. The shelter was packed. There was a total of 22 people in the shelter and some people had to stay on the floor.
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Our clothes were soaked and did not dry even though we hung them to dry overnight. Our shoes were soaked too. In the morning, we took off from the shelter to get out of the smokies. It was all downhill and I ended up getting a bad shin splint on my left leg. We ended up at standing bear farm (the most popular hostel on the trail) and stayed the night there. We hiked a total of 18.4 miles that, making it our biggest day yet. It was probably our most memorable night yet as well since Lumpy, the caretaker of the hostel, was fully loaded since it was his birthday. At one point, lumpy fell down he was so sauced. Despite that, the hostel was vey nice and had a very nice atmosphere.
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We only hiked 7 miles the next day since we were so sore from the previous day. We hung up our clothes that night since they were still wet from the day it rained. We also ran into some trail magic at the top of snowbird mountain that day. We ate some cookies and had a cold drink before continuing.
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The day after that we ran into some more trail magic where they were serving up hot dogs, chips, and cold drinks. The intersting part of the groups that were doing the trail magic is that they were not part of an organization. They were just groups of friends out helping hikers for the sake of helping others. It was refreshing to see people helping others without any kind of agenda. We also summited Max Patch that day where we got to see another amazing view. That night we got to the shelter and witnesses the worst privy yet. It didn't even have a door. I guess beggars can't be choosers (I've been saying that a lot since the start of the hike).
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The last day we hiked 13 miles into Hot Springs. We could start to see smoke around the town early in the day. In case you didn't know, there has been a large fire around Hot Springs for the last few days. There has been a lot of activity, from helicopters, to planes, to forest service vehicles and fire trucks. The hill behind us was on fire last night and the whole town has been enshrouded in smoke for days. The trail, north of town, is closed due to the fire, so we are getting a shuttle tomorrow to Allen gap, which is about 14 miles north of here (in trail miles). We took a zero day to take care of some things. Namely, sending some gear back home, restocking food, and getting some lighter gear from the outfitter. We traded our MSR whisperlite stove for a pocket rocket. I'm estimating that we dropped our base weight by about 3 pounds today. I will also have the peace of mind of not carrying around 30oz of gasoline now. And, the pressurizing pump on the gas container was staring to deteriorate.
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We hope to be in Erwin, TN in 5 days where we can resupply on food again.
Until next time,
Leap and Frog
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