Days 31-36

Tuesday was a complete zero day in Gatlinburg. It was really nice to sleep in, knowing that we didn’t have to be anywhere or do anything other than get food. That turned in to an ordeal, but it was exciting. We left the hotel room around noon and walked through town seeing the sights as we went. I should add that it was a spring break weekend for many folks, so it was incredibly crowded. It was also the week of the Tennessee state FFA convention, so there were blue jackets and black slacks and skirts as far as the eye could see. As we walked through town, Gavin noticed several places he’d like to visit after our shopping trip.

The Ripley’s Aquarium is the hub of the trolley system in Gatlinburg. It was a mile or so from our hotel, but it beat walking 3 miles out to Food City on our own. We waited about 30 minutes, and for 50¢ each, we got a ride to the grocery store. We all decided that grocery shopping would be much easier if they’d put all the hiker food in one place: Knorr pasta sides, pepperoni, Slim Jims, spam, and such. They should just have a hiker aisle. We were hoping to get our shopping done before the trolley had turned around and come back by, but no such luck. We waited at the bus stop for another 30 minutes or so and talked with a couple of families who had chosen to park at the grocery store and trolley in to town. They were interested in our trip and couldn’t believe we had hiked over 200 miles already.

After our shopping trip and trolley ride back into the main part of town, Gavin and I dropped our groceries and went back out to see some sites. He wanted to do an escape room, but we decided on Ripley’s Haunted Adventure instead. It wasn’t too expensive, but it was somewhat of a bust. Lots of lights and sounds, and some fishing line hanging down with “fly sounds” playing, and a few jump scares. It would have been interesting to walk through with the lights on to see the “backstage” views. Just outside of the Haunted Adventure was Hollywood Cars. It was a little more expensive, but even though Gavin and I aren’t car nuts, it was fun to walk through. They had quite a few cars from the Fast and Furious series, but they had plenty of cars from my era as well. We saw one of Andy Griffith’s patrol cars, a General Lee, and the DeLorean from Back to the Future. After getting our tourist fix, Gavin and I headed back to the hotel. Travis and I went out for a great cheeseburger at a restaurant whose name I cannot remember, and we retired back to our room and devices for the evening.

Wednesday morning we were up around 9:00 or so and took our time packing our gear. By 11:00, we were heading across the street to the NOC Outfitter in search of a shuttle back to the trail. Unfortunately, the only shuttle listed in our guidebook wasn’t operating that day so we headed down to the road and stuck out our thumbs. We only had to wait 10-15 minutes or so before the Bunch girls, a mother-daughter team from SC who were vacationing in Gatlinburg, picked us up. The mom is planning to hike a portion of the trail this summer so she was quite interested in hearing tales from the trail. The trail was quite good to us in Gatlinburg!

Upon arrival back at Newfound Gap, we set out to go up the trail. There were tons of folks there, many of whom were also interested in talking to hikers. It was fascinating to see people’s faces when they heard “13-years-old” and “2,200 miles.” We spent at least 30 minutes talking to folks before we set out on the trail to Icewater Springs Shelter. Even along the way we ran into day-hikers who wanted to stop and talk to us about our trip. It turns out that Charlie’s Bunion is an 8-mile round-trip hike from Newfound Gap, so there were tons of folks out for the trip. Even after we got to the shelter, people would stop by, both going out and coming back, to see where hikers “lived” and to talk to us. My favorite folks were a couple of families with several young children who had bunches of questions for us. Realizing that I had packed out entirely too much food for the next few days’ journey, I shared my Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream cookies with the kids. One young boy was incredibly interested in following our hike, so I wrote down our website and YouTube info for him. I hope he subscribes and is inspired by our journey.

Late in the afternoon three older gentlemen from near Atlanta stopped into the shelter for the night. They have been doing an annual weekend hiking trip for over 30 years. It was great to meet them and hear the stories they shared. We also met up with four hikers whom we had stayed with a few nights before the Gatlinburg break. They didn’t have such a great time getting into Gatlinburg. They had arranged a shuttle at Clingman’s Dome, only to find out that the road up was closed. They wound up having to hike about 7 miles down the road and were charged a “waiting” fee by their shuttle driver. For the 7 miles they walked, they could have come straight into Newfound Gap and have had a much easier time getting a shuttle. I was almost ashamed to share with them our many strokes of luck getting into and out of town.

We slept well at Icewater Springs shelter and got up and out early for a big day of hiking. Only a mile in was Charlie’s Bunion, a huge rock outcropping with incredible views. Gavin, the adventurous one, climbed up on the rock to see what he could see. I stayed on terra firma taking pictures for other hikers. After 10-15 minutes, we were off down the trail. We had tons of views on Thursday which I will share on our YouTube channel.

We made our destination of Tri-Corner Knob shelter, which was the most convenient shelter site we have stayed at so far. The water source was only a few feet from the shelter, and the bear cables and privy were less than 100’ away. Here we met back up with Mike and Kathy, whom we met much earlier on our trip. Kathy kept remarking about how much weight I had lost, and how good we were hiking to have made it this far. I was just pleased to have done more than 6-8 miles in a day. I think we are at a point where we are strong enough to be upping our daily mileage. Even though it was a long day, neither of us were too tired and sore. Even my knee didn’t bother me too much on the trip.

In order to get ourselves out of the Smokies, Friday was set to be our longest day of hiking yet- 14.6 miles to Davenport Gap Shelter. One trail feature that was NOT in our guides was the ice on the trail. Though we had encountered some ice previously, it was nothing to compare to today’s hiking. Mostly, the trail had been slushy, but since we were out early on a cold day, the slush had turned to solid ice. We must have hiked for a mile or so hoping to get a foot on a rock or some snow to keep them from shooting out from under us. Thankfully we made the trip without a fall, but I had a couple of close calls. It was ironic because just before we had encountered the ice, I shot a video about my favorite piece of gear: my trekking poles. They have saved my fanny several times from falls. In fact, I’m only up to two falls so far, and both of them have been just after I was fiddling with my camera and didn’t have my poles in full operation after clipping my phone back onto my shoulder strap.

On our hike today we passed Cosby Knob shelter after about 7 miles. I almost lost Gavin there. We ran into Mike and Kathy there, and Gavin really wanted to stay and visit. He was convinced that he couldn’t hike 14.5 miles, but after some cajoling, we were off and on the trail again heading for Davenport Gap Shelter. After a small climb, the last 4 miles of our trip today were downhill. While it was nice to not be fighting gravity to get up the trail, it was actually fighting against my knees on the way down. They wanted to slow me down and keep me from barreling down the hill, while the trail wanted me to be down as quickly as possible. I am glad my knees won the battle, but it was at a cost. I am grateful that I brought a brace with me, and I certainly put it to use this day.

I was so proud of the way Gavin hiked on Friday. I got behind him a few times, and it was interesting to see how he has matured as a hiker. Where he was once stopping and stepping over water bars and rocks, he is now bounding right over and trusting his pace and trekking poles. We have finally gotten to a place where I believe we can make a 2mph pace, even when we have some uphills. Even though he had doubts about doing 14.5, he hiked the last two miles faster than I did.

Davenport Gap Shelter was not very big, and it was also not very crowded. There were only two of us on the bottom “floor” of the shelter, and Gavin may have been alone on the top. This shelter is the only one in the Smokies that still has fencing across the front to keep the bears out. I have heard that all the shelters in the park originally had such fencing, but much of it was removed because people would “lock” themselves inside and feed the bears through the fence, exacerbating the bear/human interaction problem. As yet, we have not seen any bears, but we did see one print in the snow that might have been a bear.

Our Saturday hike was an easy one, 3.8 miles back to “civilization” at Standing Bear Farm. Though we descended over 3,700 feet on Friday from Mt. Guyot to Davenport Gap Shelter, we continued on downhill to Davenport Gap proper where we exited the GSMNP. We enjoyed the park, but with the strict camping regulations, our daily mileage was either very long or very short. I feel like we’re ready to do 10+ miles each day, but doing 12-14 on a regular basis is not in our cards.

Standing Bear Farm is a quite interesting place to be. All of the buildings are made from reclaimed wood and there is an eclectic, artsy feel. When you check in, you get registered and are given a tour of the farm. They have laundry, showers, a privy, and a resupply store. They even have someone who cooks lunch and supper each day. The whole place is on the honor system. When you go into the resupply room, you pick up a piece of paper and keep track of everything you “buy.” The guy selling food also makes his mark on this paper, and when you check out, you tally up and close the tab.

We have met quite a number of really nice folks here. Gavin found a Risk board and was able to get a couple of folks to play with him. They must have been at it for 3-4 hours yesterday, and after that, they played Texas Hold ‘em for another hour. It has been very rewarding to me to see the older folks take Gavin in as one of their own. He has already seen and learned so much on this trip that he wouldn’t have experienced otherwise. I have also been honored by the many comments made to me about Gavin and what a fine young man he is and how great it is of me to have brought him with me on this trip. I have been proud of the job Gavin has done, and I am glad to have him as my hiking partner.

That brings us to today, Sunday. I got up for a few minutes around 8:00, but decided to lay back down. I finally got up for good around 10:o0. In the kitchen area I found a coffee pot and some friendly folks. The weather is colder today, and it started raining overnight. Travis got up and was gone before we awoke. I was faced with the decision of whether to hike or not today. The next shelter out is right at 7 miles uphill and the weather has been forecast to be in the low 20’s tonight. It didn’t take much convincing for us to stay here another day. Gavin spent the morning in the bunk house with a fire, a quilt, and a cat, and it was apparent to me it was going to be difficult to get him to move today. As I said above, once I found a coffee pot, it was game over for me. We heard from Travis that we made the right decision. He said the shelter ahead was not the best, and that he had dealt with both rain and snow on his hike today. I have been holed up in the kitchen all day working on videos and this blog entry and I must say I’m glad to be here. We are looking forward to spending another night in the cabin with Wednesday and Jazz Hands. We’ve been promised that the heater will be on, and that we’ll have a cat to keep any stray mice at bay. We will be hiking tomorrow!

Thanks for checking in with us this week. We hope to be in Hot Springs in three days. We’ll have to hike extra miles in the next two days to catch Travis, but I believe we can do it. Hopefully we will be able to upload some videos from there. We hope you have a good week, and remember to just keep taking the Next Step.