Walking The Line
After Great Smoky Mountain National Park, the Appalachian Trail continues to follow the North Carolina/Tennessee state line. In this section we're following a ridge known as the Bald Mountains.
3/23 Standing Bear Hostel to Roaring Fork Shelter - 15.4 miles
The day starts with a long ascent up to the summit of Snowbird Mountain. The top is treeless but is covered with tall grass and briars. There is an excellent view from here and this strange object that looks like it was left by aliens.
It has something to do with FAA operations. Just a curiosity.
From Snowbird Mountain my goal is to reach Groundhog Creek Shelter in Deep Gap. I'm there by 12:30 and have lunch with a southbound section hiker heading for the hostel I started at this morning. It's way too early to stop for the day, so I decide to press on to the next shelter at Roaring Fork. The weather forecast is for rain overnight, so I want to be sure to get into a shelter so I don't have to pack up a wet hammock the next day.
The highlight of the day is the Max Patch summit which is the next climb from Deep Gap. This is another bald summit like Snowbird, but covered entirely with grass over a much larger area. There's a gravel road and parking area you can use to reach a short approach trail that takes you around the summit. The views are fantastic and the weather is perfect to enjoy it all.
A few miles further and I'm at Roaring Fork Shelter. The hiking is easier than I expected so I'm way ahead of schedule now. I'm thinking I can get through this section in two days rather than three.
At the shelter I meet brothers Firetower and Bellhop, a couple of young guys. Firetower is taking time off from his job at a salmon hatchery in Alaska. They fly him out to the middle of nowhere, set him up in a cabin, provide all his food, and he counts and measures fish that swim through a trap in the stream. All the while, they're chasing off bears trying to steal the fish before they can count them. Sounds like a great job to me.
3/24 Roaring Fork Shelter to Hot Springs, NC - 18 miles
The rain starts around 4 AM, but I'm staying dry and it's not too cold in the shelter. The rain starts to slow down around 7 AM enough to venture out of the shelter for my morning ablutions, breakfast, and packing up. I'm the last one out of the shelter at 9:00.
If I'm going to get to Hot Springs today, I'll have to walk 18 miles which is the longest day I will have done so far. The elevation chart shows most of the trail down to Hot Springs is descending so it seems doable. In the worst case, I can stop at the shelter 15 miles down the trail and get to Hot Springs early the next day. As soon as I get a signal on my phone, I text Angelika the updated plans and focus on the trail.
The morning is spent walking through clouds. I'm expecting the sun to come out later in the day, but for now I've got my rain parka and pack cover on to stay dry as I make my way through the mist.
At Lemon Gap it looks like someone turned the wrong way on the gravel road. There was nobody in the car and a note on the windshield.
I meet up with a couple of retired school teachers, Randy and Elizabeth, who are also through hiking the trail. We walk together for a while and talk about taking care of aging parents, what it's like to teach in public school, and other life topics. I have admit that the conversation made the long climb up Bluff Mountain go by faster.
Firetower and Bellhop were setting up camp at the Deer Park Mountain Shelter just a few miles from Hot Springs. They had Airbnb reservations for the next night so had to wait until the next day before heading into town. There was a cemetery with two headstones just 50 feet from the shelter. I hope the shelter isn't haunted.
After passing the shelter I could see the French Broad River and then the town below a few minutes later. We're descending down from the ridge now into the river valley.
Angelika came up the trail to meet me and we walked together down to Sunnybank Inn where she has been waiting for me. After getting settled we walk to the downtown which has essentially been destroyed by Hurricane Helene. Almost all of the businesses are closed here. We do manage to get a good dinner at the Smoky Mountain Diner which all the hikers have been talking about on my way up here. I'm looking forward to a shower and a good night's sleep in a real bed.
3/25 Zero Day
Since I got into town a day early, I decided this would be a good day to take a zero day. We did the usual of catching up on bills, bookkeeping, etc.. We had a nice lunch at the diner, but there wasn't much else to do in town since most of the businesses are still shut down from hurricane damage.
A few days ago, chatting with folks at a trail magic event, someone mentioned wanting to do the Camino de Santiago. This type of hike is a pilgrimage which generally has religious or spiritual significance. Not everyone doing the hike does it for this reason, but the route is designed to visit one or more religious sites where the pilgrim can explore their spiritual growth. There are other examples of pilgrimage walks in the world like the Kumano Kodo in Japan and the Inca Trail in Peru.
While walking alone with my thoughts, it occurred to me that the Appalachian Trail is a uniquely American type of pilgrimage. It is an individual challenge of endurance and determination and at the same time an opportunity to experience the wilderness in a very intimate way. For me, being in the mountains and forest is the closest thing I have to a truly spiritual experience. It is my church.
3/26 Hot Springs, NC to Allen Gap - 14.7 miles
The day is clear and cool. Temperatures are supposed to get into the 60s today, but there's a steady wind which makes it feel much cooler.
Angelika sets out with me from Hot Springs for the first part of the day. We start out walking through town and on the bridge over the French Broad River. The trail follows the river for a bit with debris from the hurricane flooding still sitting high up in the trees along the river.
The trail eventually turns away from the river and we start to ascend back onto the ridge. Along the way we pass a rock face 1000 feet above the river known as Lover's Leap. Angelika and I decided not to take the plunge, but continue hiking. As we reached the top of the ridge Angelika headed back to Hot Springs and I continued on toward Allen Gap.
As the trail crossed US 70, lo and behold trail magic was waiting. Waffle, 2019 through hiker, was offering tacos, beer, cold drinks, cookies, and all sorts of other goodies. It was just about lunch time, so I happily enjoyed a taco and a cookie and chatted with Waffle for a while. He is a retired high school math teacher, local scoutmaster, and trail angel. We are shortly joined by Randy and Elizabeth and then Shadow who also was part of the shelter mob scene in the Smokies a week or so ago. A good time was had by all. I said thanks to our host and headed back to the trail.
Today's highlight was the fire tower on Rich Mountain. It's off a short side trail and offers a nice view to the south back towards the Smokies.
I'm making good time today since Angelika is going to pick me up at Allen Gap so I'm slackpacking. My feet appreciate the fact I have a lot less weight on my back. Angelika hikes up the trail to meet me and we head back to the campground for dinner and a good night's sleep.
3/27 Allen Gap to Flint Mountain Shelter - 17.6 miles
Another perfect hiking day starting out cool and clear then warming up later in the day. I'm back to my full pack today to spend a night in the woods before Angelika meets me at Sam's Gap. It's going to be a long day, but I can opt to stay in an earlier shelter if making it all the way to Flint Mountain is too ambitious.
The trail starts out with a long and strenuous ascent up Camp Creek Bald. I'm not feeling strong with the big pack on my back, but I'm still keeping up my pace at about 2 miles an hour. It just feels like I'm going slow because it's such hard work.
On the way up I meet a hiker heading southbound. He's out for a short trip starting at Sam's Gap where I plan to meet Angelika. He says he's been counting through hikers heading north on his way south. I'm number 58. That's a lot of people on the trail over a 30 or so mile stretch. It's hard to believe.
There's a fire tower and some antenna towers on the summit of Camp Creek Bald, but it's blocked off because of storm damage.
The highlight of the day was a mile and a half section of exposed ridge that offered excellent views of the surrounding mountains. This is the type of trail I'm accustomed to hiking on in New Hampshire...exposed and rocky. It was a fun change of terrain.
The trail continued through some high meadows and over Big Butt Mountain. I regret not getting a picture of the trail sign for Big Butt Bypass...that could have come in handy someday.
Next a steep descent down into Flint Gap where there were the remains of a massive blowdown from Hurricane Helene. It literally looked like the area had been bombed. The trail was completely rebuilt in this section.
I shared the shelter with a group of five other through hikers. They had been hiking together for a while and were planning on getting off the trail tomorrow in three miles at Devil's Gap. Firetower and Bellhop showed up later and camped next to the shelter.
It's interesting to meet the different sorts of people hiking the trail. This was the party group. They were smoking marijana, talking up the benefits of a vegan diet, asking about my zodiac sign, and throwing a frisbee around after dinner. This wasn't my crowd, so I said good night and climbed into my hammock to read myself to sleep.
It was a long and strenuous day and one of the longest mileage days I've done to this point. Fifteen miles a day seems to be my sweet spot at the moment. I'm going to try and keep my days down in that range for a while.
3/28 Flint Mountain Shelter to Sam's Gap - 11.2 miles
It was relatively warm overnight so slept well and got up early to make breakfast and pack up camp. It promises to be another good hiking day weather wise, clear with temperatures in the 70s. Once I'm on the trail, it doesn't take long to lose layers down to my shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
It's a shorter day today mileage wise, but there are a couple of ascents to tackle between here and Sam's Gap. After descending down into Devil's Gap and bidding farewell to the party crowd, there's a long and steep ascent up to Frozen Knob. I pass Firetower and Bellhop a couple of times before they leapfrog ahead while I'm stopped for lunch. There's some nice views on the way today.
The cascades remind me that it's been very dry the last few weeks and a lot of the springs along the trail are empty. There's a red flag warning in North Carolina, so no campfires are allowed in this area for now.
There's more blowdowns, but the trail has been cleared nicely for us. Regardless, You can still see how devastating the damage from the storm was.
Finally it's jus a couple of miles down into Sam's Gap. I arrive a the parking lot just as Angelika is pulling in with the van. Good timing! We hang out and chat with a couple heading out for a day hike. They noticed our New Mexico license plates and wanted to tell us how much they enjoyed exploring New Mexico when they travelled there.
Now back to the campground for a great meal and a good night's sleep in a comfortable bed. Angelika has been doing a great job stocking the van with everything I need to start up the next day. She takes very good care of me. Thanks to her, I'll be looking forward to a number of days of slackpacking over the next week or so.
3/29 Sam's Gap to Spivey Gap - 13.4 miles
Today is overcast but warmer. I start out quite comfortable at the trailhead in shirt sleeves.
Angelika joins me for the first 3.5 miles of the trail. It's gentle rolling terrain with good footing as it climbs toward Big Bald. Shortly after Angelika turns back there's a view of the summit.
There's a bit of climbing to get there, but the meadow at the top was extremely nice and offered great 360 views of the surrounding mountains.
The summit clearing was very large as you can see from this photo looking back towards to summit from the trail.
I met Firetower and Bellhop at the top and we all ended up at the Bald Mountain Shelter for lunch. I had my usual packet of tuna, string cheese, tortillas, and ginger snaps...yum.
The remainder of the day is mostly descending down into Spivey Gap with a few bumps in between. A couple miles from Spivey Gap I passed through a massive area of blowdowns from Hurricane Helene. The trail had been cleared, but you can see that the forest here was completely flattened by the storm. This part of the AT was just opened up at the end of February. It was clearly a massive effort to cut through literally hundreds of trees blocking the trail.
Angelika was waiting for me at the trailhead. There was lots of recent significant repairs to the road back to the campsite. This was another very hard hit area from the storm.
We have some bad weather coming in for the next couple of days. I see some soggy hiking in my future.
3/30 Spivey Gap to Indian Grave Gap - 19.5 miles
A glitch in my spreadsheet made this a longer than expected day today. When we set out this morning I was expecting 16.3 miles today, but the sign at the trailhead said it was 19.5 to Indian Grave Gap...ugh, an extra three miles and my longest day yet. A quick look at the map confirms the mileage but the terrain looks not too bad so I'm just going to suck it up and go for it.
Angelika joins me for the first 3.25 miles. There's a little up at the beginning followed by a long gradual downhill. If the trail stays like this, the miles will go by quickly. There appears to be a gnome amusement pack in a hollow tree next to the trail.
It was warm at the campsite when we left, but noticeably cooler at the trailhead. I'm comfortable in shirtsleeves with the sleeves rolled down. After Angelika turns back there is another big blowdown and a bit of a climb up No Business Knob before continuing a slow descent down into the Nolichucky River Valley.
There are some nice views of the Nolichucky River from up on the ridge.
But there's a problem. Apparently the bridge that the trail uses to cross the river has been completely swept away by Hurricane Helene. You can see what's left of the abutment and the remains of the bridge sitting on the opposite bank of the river.
Officially, the trail has been detoured four miles out to the highway and back to the other side of the river. Luckily, folks have set up a raft to ferry hikers across. A quick paddle and I'm back on my way. This is really nice and they even gave me a protein bar to enjoy on the trip.
Now the trail changes to a gradual uphill climbing out of the valley toward Indian Grave Gap. I make good time and Angelika picks me up at the road crossing at Indian Grave Gap. It was a long day, but luckily not too strenuous. There was chance of rain in the forecast today, but it didn't start really raining until we were in the car. My guardian angel is still looking out for me.
More rain in the forecast tomorrow, but its a relatively short day and I'll be slackpacking again so right now the plan is to keep going.
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