Been a week from my last update–much to relate!

I’m checking in from Standing Bear Farm, about 3 miles north of the northern boundary of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The past week of hiking has been all tremendous views, great weather and wonderful people!

At NOC I bunked with a super nice guy named Marty from Fairfax. He actually used to be the president of the regional chapter of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, so he was full of knowledge about trail politics. The climb out of NOC in the next morning was brutal–miles and miles of huge ups. I made it to Brown Fork Gap Shelter at 4:30 to make the hike a 16 mile day. The last mile or so was basically straight up a mountain. I was alone at the shelter for about 2 hours, and figured I’d be spending a spooky night alone in the woods. But then a guy who goes by Country rolled down the path and more or less immediately started telling me about how he was off his medication, and had threatened to kill his doctor over the phone. I was very grateful to see my friends Orange Moon and Ginger Snap come down the trail. Country then regaled all of us with tales of night hiking, and seeing blue ooze that he said was alive.

By the grace of god we survived the night, and climbed the 12 miles down from Brown Fork to Fontana Dam, NC. I walked about 3/4 of a mile up NC 28 before a former thru-hiker, Paralee Dawson, stopped to pick me, Orange Moon and Ginger Snap up. She was headed up to the general store and post office to promote her book, “Living a Dream: Laughter, Pain and Life on the Appalachian Trail.” I got my mail drop at the post office and paid a shuttle driver to run me down to the so-called Fontana Hilton, a huge shelter overlooking Fontana Lake.

Fontana Hilton

In the morning, I hiked across Fontana Dam and pushed it 17 miles to get up to elevation in the Smokies. I spent the night at Spence Bald Shelter with a great group of folks. One section hiker was from Bethesda, Md., so we bonded over the various places I used to eat lunch when I worked at Education Week. One of the folks at the shelter, a country boy named Catfish from Savannah, said that we wouldn’t drop below 5,000 feet for over 35 miles.

I hiked 13.5 miles the next day to Double Springs Shelter. I have to say, the shelters in the Smokies are so beautiful. Big, stone walled structures with fireplaces and sky-lights. Catfish dropped another statistic on me that night, that 20% of thru hikers quit by Neels Gap and 50% by the NOC. So I’m already ahead of the failure rate. The 15th, I was on top of Clingman’s Dome by 9 am. At 6700-odd feet, Clingmans is the highest point on the AT. The hike up was very easy though, since I was coming from about 5500 feet at Double Springs. There were a ton of blowdowns on the summit, and the view from the watchtower (this weird, concrete screw) was a bit hazy.

I made it to Newfound Gap by noon and decided to hitch into Gatlinburg to charge my phone and get lunch. It took forever to get a ride, but finally a family gave me a ride the 15 miles down. The husband had done a southbound thru-hike in 1999, so we talked about his trip and his work in Tampa as a firefighter. Thanks for the ride, Scott! The NOC just opened an outfitter in Gatlinburg that runs free shuttles back up to the trail, so I stopped in there to register for the 4 pm shuttle and get a suggestion for lunch. Ended up at the Smoky Mountain Brewery, where I had a delicious burger and two beers made in-house.

Pat from the NOC gave me a ride back up to Newfound Gap. He attempted a thru-hike in 06, but had to get off the trail due to shin splints. Practically all my hitches at this point have come from thru-hikers! They are all understanding of my plight, I guess. From Newfound it was an easy 3 miles to Icewater Springs Shelter, making it another 13.5 mile day. We had a bit of an emergency situation that night, with a day hiker from a Midwestern hiking club who was too exhausted to make it the 3 miles down to the road. We thru-hikers took good care of her. Someone gave her a sleeping bag, someone else lent her a pad, and we cooked her dinner and gave her warm clothes. We also built a nice fire to keep the shelter warm that night, since the guy who gave up his bag was sleeping with an emergency blanket. Some folks from her hiking club came and got her in the morning.

Charlies Bunion

Yesterday I pulled a 20.3 mile day to get to Cosby Knob shelter. The terrain was pretty easy all day, lots of ridge walking with a few major ups. Some beautiful views though–the panoramic view from Charlies Bunion was one of the best I’ve seen yet on my hike. The crowd at Cosby was fun. Some kids from a wilderness therapy school were in for a section hike, and I bonded with their group leader over DC hardcore (he moved away to work at this school about 5 years ago). Met some other hikers whose names I’ve been seeing in the registers.

Cosby Knob Shelter

Today’s hike was beautiful. The forecast was 30% chance of rain, and there was one big up in the morning that put me in the middle of the rain cloud. I was too high (5000 feet) to get rained on, but the water vapor managed to get me a little damp. I made it to the northern boundary of the national park around 10:30 and got some wonderful trail magic from a group of women who are all members of the Retired Citizens of the Smokies hiking club. I was the first hiker they had seen that morning, so they all screamed when they saw me coming down the trail and showered me with fresh fruit, orange juice, home made sweets and chips. Wonderful women. The rest of the hike in to Standing Bear Farm was easy, making it a 10.5 mile day.

This place is great–very rustic. Just a hostel in the middle of the woods. The whole place is self-serve; you keep a running tab of what food you take from the pantry and pay in the morning. It’s early yet, so I’ll just rest up here for the evening and try and figure out what to do with the HUGE box of food my parents sent here. Should be in Hot Springs by Monday.

17 days in to my hike and feeling great! Happy trails -Jeff