Goodbye Smokies! Hello NC...again!

Well, here we are typing from Tentville again. We're camped just shy of I-40 (listening to the 18 wheelers rush by in the distance) so service is good & we figured we'd take advantage of it & give a little update.

Yesterday we said goodbye to our sweet family & got a later start from Newfound Gap with the plans of walking 10 or so miles. When we arrived @ our intended shelter, the sign stated that it was 0.4 miles off the trail...bummer! Not wanting to tack on an extra yard to our journey & having 2 hours of daylight left, we pushed on. One if the joys of the Smokies is that you cannot tent camp wherever you want. Actually, you cannot tent camp at all--you must stay in a shelter. What's crazy is that they actually enforce this with "ridge runners" - extremely fit Nazi..errrr, park rangers who hike miles & miles each day checking shelters & who is where, & asking questions like "Where are you from?" "Are you thru-hiking?" "Can I see your pass?" "Have you seen so & so?" Actually, the one we met was really nice & I know his job is to enforce the rules...but c'mon. So anyway, you get the point that pushing on to the next shelter (5.5 miles away) was a big deal. I wish we could adequately describe the trail during the evening portion of the hike yesterday. Everything is so wet & green. The moss & ferns seem to be doing their best to take over everything. Rocks, downed trees & still growing trees the same. The trail is a creek bed of smooth stone cutting through the moss, that has you walking through the water running downhill. The evergreen forest grows so thick that you feel like you're walking through a tunnel. And then there's the ever present mist, moving through trees & rolling over the surrounding mountains to fill the low areas like it has a life & mind of its own. Toward the end of our day, we crested a mountain to look down on an endless sea of clouds from above, with little green islands (the mountian tops over 6,000 feet) poking up sporadically in between. No picture will do justice, but we'll share what we were able to snag when we can.

Our first negative hikers interaction on the trail came when we arrived at the shelter after dark and were told rather rudely that the shelter was full & basically best of luck finding sleeping accommodations. Maybe the shelter was full & maybe they meant no ill will, but there was something offensive in the way they sat flicking things into the fire & telling jokes as we set up our tent on a slightly level, soaking wet patch of grass in the dark. We may have been left with hurt feelings, but a warm meal fixed in the vestibule of Tentville & eaten in our cozy bags put us to bed in tip top shape.

Today was more of the same terrain, but with much nicer weather. The highlight of our day was taking a long lunch with a new friend - Skid. He's a veteran thru-hiker / published author with the North American "Triple Crown" under his belt & a book coming out in a few weeks.

Total mileage for yesterday: 15.6
Total mileage for today: 17

Miles from Springer: 237.3
Miles to Katahdin: 1941.8



Thanks for following us from home! (:

204.7 miles down!

Well, tonight we sit in a hotel in Gatlinburg, TN with Andy, Cindy, Cayden & Honey (: They scooped us up at Newfound Gap at mile 204.7 -- rollin' right along! [Brock, we're on schedule.] After getting picked up, we got cleaned up at the room & went out for a steak dinner! I've been dreaming of steak for days. And the one I had for dinner measured up to my dreams! [And Mikes!]


I'll be honest, this 2nd week has been tough. It's been much colder than the first week, and much wetter. Yesterday we walked in the 30ish degree weather - wet. It not only rained, it poured. We pulled into our shelter around dinner time, dripping wet & soaked to the bone. Let me just say, I'm ready for some spring weather! Sunny & 70+ looks better every stinkin' day!


Since our last post, Mike & Kayla came & visited us at the NOC (: Bless their souls. We needed a visit from friends & they were so sweet to take their time to come see us! They picked us up & took us to the Microtel Inn in the booming city of Bryson City, NC. We cleaned up & went out for pizza [Mike's preference] at Pizza Hut  & spent the evening watching TV & catching up. You know, typical trail things! (: We woke up, went to Bojangles for breakfast [which beats trail food any day], shopped the local Ingles & headed to the NOC to hang out until time to part. Oh yea--I got new shoes at the NOC too!! NO MORE BLISTERS! My sweet doctor uncle Andy cut the dead skin off today right before dinner! I have clean, free feet!


After Mike & Kayla visited on Tuesday, Papa visited on Thursday. Go ahead & say it. We're spoiled. We enjoyed dinner with him in Fontana...pork sandwiches with fries & slaw! YUM. He also hiked with us some on Friday [7 miles actually] up to the nearest look-out tower. You go Old Man (: [I say that very lovingly] Just a shout-out: We missed you Mimi! & hope to see you soon!


Papa actually hiked us across into the Smokies....which are awful!!!! They haven't gotten Mike's gold star or my vote for "favorite section of the trail." The trail is muddy...ankle deep mud. And it isn't a nice trail like the rest has been [in NC & GA], it's a dang ditch! It's been tricky not to slip into an injury. AND, this mess has slowed us down! There's definitely no denying the beauty of this section though.  This morning, the rain subsided for a bit and tiny rays of sunlight (visible on the ever present misty/fog) stabbed thousands of tiny holes through the shadowy evergreen forest, revealing so much unseen beauty.  Moss and ferns (still dripping wet from the gully-washing rains) grew right from the trunks of Firs, Cedars and Pines.  It's the little things, ya know?  We're outta the Smokies in two days, so hopefully we'll be back to our beloved trail.


Thanks again to all of you folks at home for your support--whether in the form of trail visits, encouraging calls/notes and mostly your prayers.  You keep us moving on!


Enjoy the camera dump:

New shoes for Mc (:

= no more blisters!! & one happy camper!

The view at Fontana

The rickety stair case on the look-out tower 3.5 miles past Fontana Dam [the highest dam on the east coast]

Fontana Lake from the look-out tower

Mikey & me walkin' through the green tunnel

in a HUGE tree trunk!

Shout-out: Just Tomatoes!! thanks for the veggies friends!

our attempt to dry our clothes..FAIL

on the highest point on the AT...too bad you can't see anything but us!

the view from Newfound Gap after the mist cleared away!

catch up

Tonight I'm sitting in a warm, cozy bed in a hotel in Bryson City with our sweet, dear friends, Mike & Kayla! We called them a few days ago & just threw out the idea of meeting us at the NOC and hanging out for an evening & they took us up on it! [for real, bless them! -- their visit couldn't have come a better time]. Since our last post -- we've had a few tough days.

We stayed at a campsite just beyond the road that leads into Franklin [U.S. 64] on Sunday after a 16.8 mile day. About midway through the day we got the bright idea of calling the local pizza place [in this case Dominoes & Pizza Hut] to see if they would be so kind as to deliver a pizza to the AT-road crossing. No such luck. ): We were pretty bummed out at this point...but knew that if we pushed on, pizza would be that much sweeter on Tuesday. [and trust me...it was]

Monday we woke up & hiked our butts off again - for a 14.9 mile day. Half way through the day we came up to the Wayah Bald [5,342 ft summit]. At the top is the John B. Byrne Memorial Tower. It's a stone observation tower & the view was GORGEOUS (: The tower was built in 1937 by the CCC & renovated in 1983.

Today, we woke up to the sun rising! Our view was pretty blocked by trees, but we could still see the colors changing & streaking across the sky. We thought we would have a nice short hike into the NOC ... but boy were we wrong! The 4,000 ft, 13 mile descent proved to be one of the hardest days yet. We got some great wisdom from Swift yesterday while we were lunching at Wayah Bald -- "the uphills are tough & wear you out, but the downhills are tough, wear you out AND injure you." You've gotta be careful going downhill...it's bad for the knees, ankles & feet. Tomorrow will be a short hangout with Mike & Kayla before hitting the trail again. 

Lastly--Mike's trail name is Upstate [no longer the Conductor] -- as a nod towards home! (:

Since Kayla was sweet enough to bring her computer for me to use, here are some pictures from our first 10 days on the trail: 

Mike gearin' up

 

Mike's boots---all new. They don't look like this now!

Mikey & Me on top of Springer Mt! 

Ready, Set, GO!

Typical supper on the trail 

Mike walkin' through the tunnel at Neel's Gap

Me walkin' in the nasty weather 

Tentville

Notice: 

clothes hanging out to dry

water bottles...pretty full (:

smoke coming out of the pot..dinner's on! 

Rooster, Zip Code & Upstate 

Hello blister friend. Please ignore the fuzz from my socks! YUCK! [just be glad you can't smell them!] (:

Me & Mike in Tenville one morning 

Tree Frog, Pickle, Zip Code, Upstate & Me [Caboose]

Trying to tame the blisters...so far, no luck. 

Beauty.

Mike & Me at the NC / GA state line! Movin' right along 

Me & Mike on the famous tree at Bly Gap 

Enjoyin' the view 

The veiw we were enjoying! 

The stone tower on top of Wayah Bald

A late lunch at River's End at the NOC (: 

Hello NC

Being in a new state is a pretty exciting thing. It's a definite marker that you've made progress, even if the terrain looks exactly the same...and the state line is a small carved piece of wood nailed to a tree in the middle of nowhere. We crossed into NC a little after lunch yesterday, rested @ the famous Bly Gap & spent the afternoon almost on all fours climbing one of the craziest ascents we've hit yet. We've already noticed that on a steep climb all you want is a section of easy down, or when it's raining all you want is dry, or when its hot you're dreaming of two mornings ago when the misty wind blew in every crack of clothing & made your teeth chatter & vise versa for all of these. These things will consume your thoughts all day if you aren't careful. Our bodies and minds desperately desire the comfortable middle ground & this isn't just true of an extended outdoor trip. We are ruled by these thoughts at work, at home...or in any situation & if we're not careful we'll miss life. We're realizing that there is a lot of beauty & enjoyment in process, not just when you meet that next goal.

As I wright this, Mike & I are grabbing a bite to eat on top of Standing Indian Mt. at 5500 ft looking down on the last 3 days journey. Since we last touched base we've moved on from the cozy Blueberry Patch. Our parting gift from Gary & Mrs. Lennie was an enormous country breakfast consisting of: scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, cheese biscuits, homemade sawmill gravy (Gary's speciality), pancakes, & Mrs. Lennie's blueberry syrup. While we ate our feast, our hosts made sure that our OJ & coffee cups were never empty. Beside each plate was a small envelope that informed the visitor that there was no charge for staying @ The Blueberry Patch, but that hikers donations allow them to continue to serve hikers. "Service," it said, "is what our Lord Jesus has called us to, & we hope that our efforts have honored Him." That's the kind of folks you'll find @ The Blueberry Patch. The kind that not only offer you a ride into town, but toss you the keys (literally, he lent us his car!), give you directions & say, "Park the truck over there when you get back." Gary & Lennie, we know our Lord is honored by your generosity & service.

Last night we camped in our tent @ White Oak Stamp after a 13ish mile day, a much needed shorter day. Our friends Pickle & Tree Frog had waited for us. Sadly, old man Zip Code wasn't with us. His sweet wife met him for a few days in Hiawassi...but we're confident we'll see him again (funny side story: his wife met him in Hiawassi last year & after paying for a hotel room noticed that he seemed down about his trail friends leaving him behind, so she took him back to the trail & told him she was going home. Since they couldn't get a refund, the hotel offered them a free stay so they're cashing in on it this weekend.)

Hope all is well at home! Thanks to everyone for your continued prayers & support.

Day 5 on the trail started around 8:30 for us. We got passed this AM while breaking down camp by Zip Code, Rooster (formerly Robert) & Tree Frog. We ended up catching Tree Frog (only because he stopped for water...this man flies!) & had "lunch" with him, then trailed him for the rest of the day. After lunch, we ran out of water. Let's just say, 8 miles in the 75 deg heat will NEVER happen again. We both thought we were dying....and yes, we know its dangerous..but there was literally no water for mmmiiiilllleeesss. Anyway, after we made it to water we realized we only had 6.2 miles to make it to the end of our hike so we decided to huff it out & make it to Dicks Creek Gap (which is roughly 18 1/2 miles from our spot last night). At the point when we ran out of water dreams of dinner @ McDonald's kept me goin. This girl is a goal setter & with a McDonald's dinner on the line I was makin it! We'd also heard rumors of The Blueberry Patch - a Christian run hostel where Gary & Lennie pick you up, wash your clothes, let you take a warm shower & feed you breakfast. Hopes of that kept me going too. Trust me, 19 miles is a butt-kicker! Especially since I have tumors...I mean blisters the size of extra toes on my toes. Oh well, such is the life of a hiker.