Day 169-179

Hiking southbound from Erwin, TN through Hot Springs & The Great Smoky Mountains, to Fontana Village, NC.

Day 169
We got a shuttle out of Erwin back to Spivey Gap at about 10:30. All looked clear down in Erwin but as we drove up into the mountains it got whiter and whiter.
Up in the higher elevations the snow was about 8 inches deep with 18 inch snow drifts in some spots.
We decided to hike just 5.7 miles to the Bald Mountain Shelter. Luckily there we some other sobos ahead of us and blazed through the snow so we wouldnt have to put in as much work.
We got here at about 2:30pm, right away I made a fire and we had lunch. Now its about 4pm and 28 degrees and dropping. We're at 5,000 feet, it's gonna be a cold night! We lose alot of elevation tomorrow so its good to know it wont be like this for long.

Day 170
We were up and out early this morning to take on an 18.9 mile day. Hiking over so many mountains bring so much change in elevation, we saw tons of snow. Everything from soft and fluffy, to rock hard and icy, to sludgy slush, to none at all. Our boots finally soaked through around noon.
We caught some great views from Bald Mountain this morning. Today is our 6 month wedding anniversary.
For the majority of the day we hiked with "Kid", a girl who we met at a hostel in New Hampshire. She started in Maine weeks after us but it didnt take long for her to fly past us doing 30+ mile days. We wondered if we would see her when we came to finish up our hike down south. Like most of the other hikers out here, she wears trail runner and they dont do too well in the snow so she hung with us and went at our pace for the day. One of her friends met her at a road crossing and brought us rootbeers.
We finished for the day at 5:30, right before the sun went down. This daylight savings time change will take some getting used to. 3 section hikers are staying in the shelter and had a fire made when we got here. We warmed up, dried our boots as best we could and made dinner. We hope more of the snow is melted away tomorrow.

Day 171
We hiked 16 miles in more snow, ice, and slush today. We were high up all day so didnt get a break from it once. Atleast it was somewhat warm. Our boots were soaked all day.
We debated taking the "bad weather bypass" trail around Big Firescald Knob because it is said to be "rocky and strenuous" (I think the whole trail is rocky and strenuous) and because of how deep the snow was. We ended up hiking over Firescald Knob and were glad we did, the views were really good and we took it slow so the trail wasnt as dangerous as we anticipated.
We made it down to Log Cabin Drive at about 4:30 pm where we walked another .7 down the road to Hemlock Hollow Inn and Hostel. We've got the place to ourselves in the hiker bunk room with a fireplace to dry our gear out. Hattie opened up their kitchen for us and made dinner.
16.3 miles into Hot Springs, NC tomorrow. Looks like more bad weather on the way in the next few days.

Day 172
Breakfast wasnt until 8:30, so we slept in an extra half hour and slowly got ready. I kept the wood burning stove going all night, it was a nice treat. It was even better to wake up to dry boots and socks.
We joined Chainsaw and his mother, Hattie (the owners) for a delicious breakfast that she made. We chatted for a bit and Chainsaw drove us the .7 back to the trail. Back hiking by 9:15.
We hiked 16.3 miles to Hot Springs. A pretty uneventful hike, we didnt see a single person until we got to town at around 4:30pm. Nothing really noteworthy happened except for the countless trees lying across the trail that had fallen from the ice and snow that we had to climb over or around every 100 yards or so. We didnt have to hike through any snow at all today, hardly saw any.
Cathrine got fed up with the pain that her boots were causing her again, so I offered to wear them the last 9 miles to town. We concluded that they were just too small for her. The first thing we did when we got here was head to the outfitter for some new boots. Shes a happy camper.
We're staying at Elmers Sunnybrook Inn, a hostel thats been taking in long distance hikers since 1947. Its a huge, beautiful Victorian house. The owner is so chill and laid back and the place is pretty cozy.
We're putting off our to-do list until tomorrow morning, its supposed to rain until early afternoon. We're thinking we will hang around town to resupply, Cathrine needs to mail her old boots home, and we have to print off permits to hike through the Smokies. We'll hike out when the rain stops (hopefully)
We hit 1900 miles today.

Day 173
We hung around Elmers for breakfast at 8:30. We ate and were ready to do our town errands. It was pouring rain but we got done everything we needed to do and right when we were ready t hike at 11am, nothing but blue skys.
We hiked 13.1 miles to Walnut Mountain Shelter, got here at 4:30. Nothing but uphill today. I had done this section before with some friends and assured Cathrine that it was smooth sailing to the shelter. I guess I remembered the 4,600 foot climb over Bluff Mountain incorrectly. I'm pretty sure we both prefer going up, so it wasnt too bad.
We made dinner and talked with 2 sobos here with us. Redbeard and Sardine from Atlanta. Pretty cool guys, some of the more relaxed and less egotistical thru hikers we've met.
We're staying in the shelter tonight because it supposed to snow or ice or something in the morning so we're doing what we can to avoid putting away a frozen tent.

Day 174
We woke up at about 2:30 this morning and discovered that our sleeping bags were covered in snow and sleet. The shelter had huge gaps in between the logs and there were so many holes that the sleet was coming in from all angles. I got the tent fly our and covered us with it and used the ground cloth to block it from coming in through the back wall. This worked well and we slept as best we could through the rest of the storm.
Cathrine and I laid in bed an extra hour to work up the motivation to get up in the freezing cold. My thermometer read 25. We originally planned to hike 13 miles to Groundhog Creek Shelter, but as we were packing up, Sardine suggested a slackpack to the Standing Bear Hostel 20 miles away. Considering the weather, we decided it was a good idea. We called the folks at Standing Bear and one of the owners said they could meet us at Lemon Gap, about 1 mile down from the shelter. It was for a pretty good price split between the 3 of us.
We started down the trail for Lemon Gap, thinking it was a paved road. We went almost a mile past Lemon Gap, which was a gravel road before realizing it. Back tracking sucked and we were frustrated but we met Maria from Standing Bear just in time. We emptied our heavy stuff that we didnt need for our dayhike- sleeping bags, extra clothes, most of our food, the tent, etc into her car and were ready to knock out 19 more miles.
The first half of the day was cold, frigid, foggy, and everything was covered in ice. We were sad to miss out on the views at Max Patch with all the fog, it was still really pretty up there though.
It eventually cleared up and turned out to be a really nice day. We got some good views of the Smokies (our next big challenge) from Snowbird Mountain. We had a LONG downhill to Standing Bear Hostel, .1 from the trail on Green Corner Rd. We got here at 5pm, very surprised to find ourselves there before dark. We had 2 frozen pizzas for dinner. Recharging and fueling up to head into The Great Smokey Mountains tomorrow.

Day 175
We hiked 18.4 miles today. Essentially all uphill to the Tri Corner Knob Shelter. We gained all our elevation and will be hanging out around at 5,000-6,500 feet for the next 3 days or so until we leave the Smokies. The weather couldnt have been better.
We did awesome today, made it to the shelter at around 4:30. According to the GSMNP reservation website, all the spots in the shelter were booked up, we expected it to be packed, being a Saturday and all, but theres just one other guy here. We're going to take a nice, easy day tomorrow so these big miles dont catch up to us and make us burn out.

Day 176
A barred owl flew up on a branch 20 feet from us while eating breakfast. We started out this morning planning on hiking 12 miles to give our bodies a break. After knocking out a quick 5 miles (we had been weighing the pros&cons of doing 3 more to Newfound Gap where we could hitch a ride or call  shuttle into Gatlinburg, TN) we decided a good bed and food were well deserved for all the work we've been putting in. 

We saw hardly anyone the first half of the day, but that quickly changed as we got closer and closer to "Charlies Bunion" and Newfound Gap. Hoards of people. We met a guy, trail name "Moses", who offered to take us back to the trail tomorrow morning if we needed one and gave us his number.
We hiked 15.6 miles to the parking lot at Newfound Gap, got there a little after 3. The parking lot was packed with cars and there had to be a few hundred people. We decided we would stand by the exit of the parking lot where people headed for Gatlinburg have to leave. Immediately, not even 2 minutes of standing there, a car with 2 ladies drove up to us, honking the horn, motioning for us to hop in. It was a nice surprise and they were very sweet, on vacation from Kansas.
The main reason we debated not going to Gatlinburg was because of the trouble of getting there and back without having to spend a fortune on a shuttle and the time it would take waiting on the shuttle. These women were truly trail angels!
We were dropped off in Gatlinburg, said our goodbyes, and took pictures. We've got a room at the Days Inn and Papa Johns for dinner. We're excited to be making so much progress and to be so close to the end.
Tomorrow we go over Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the A.T., looks like the great weather we've been having is going to continue through the rest of the week.

Day 177

I called up Moses last night and her said he could give us a ride back to Newfound Gap in the morning. We woke up around 6:45 and got packed up to meet him outside of the hotel at 8. I got us some biscuits for breakfast and lunch from "Old Dads", a convenience store next door. Moses was there right around 8, he was headed up to Clingmans Dome that morning so it worked out for Cathrine and I that Newfound Gap was right on the way. Moses has hiked the whole AT, now his goal is to hike all the side trails that spur off of the AT. He gave us a bag of snickers and tangerines and sent us on our way. Hiking by 8:45 to take on a 18 mile day to Derrick Knob Shelter.

The first 8 miles to Clingmans flew by. We had lunch there and enjoyed people watching and awesome weather. I was anxious about what kind of weather we would have in the Smokies, being so high in elevation for so long. Cathrine, Teat, and I hiked half of the Smokies from Fontana Dam to Clingmans Dome in July 2013 and it rained the entire time and the temps were in the 50s. We didnt have proper gear for that, it was awful. Temperatures were in the 60s today and there wasnt a cloud in the sky.

We talked with alot of people at Clingmans who were up just from the parking lot who were curious about why we look so grimy and about what we were doing, others just give us weird looks.

10 more miles to Derrick Knob Shelter, smooth sailing. We had fun remembering things that had happened on our trip last time we hiked through here.

There was a section hiker, Spiderman, here when we arrived at the shelter. Mosey and Zest, 2 thru hikers came in after us. 

Day 178

We hit our 2000 miles today! It was a great day, temps in the 70s, cloudless, it was perfect. We set out to do 17 miles but ended up doing 23, partly because the campground we were aiming for was closed due to aggressive bears and partly because now we're only 1 mile from the road to town. We're going to walk into Fontana Village, NC  tomorrow for Cathrines birthday so the closer we get to town the better.

We leapfrogged with Mosey and Zest all day, these old dudes can hike! We had a long downhill to lose our elevation out of the Smokies towards the end of the day, we were racing the sun, trying to atleast get to Fontana Dam before the sun went down. The sun went down and I suggested to Cathrine that we call it a day and set up the tent at one of the few flat spots we saw. She was cool with going on but I insisted we stop. We got all set up, I hung the line for the bear bag, and made a fire. As we were eating dinner Mosey and Zest come hiking by, not expecting to see us until the Fonatana Dam Shelter. This made us realize we should have hiked on, after we ate, we laid in the tent and about got ready for bed, but instead got antsy and decided to pack everything up and hike on for the shelter.

Neither of us like night hiking, but we wernt on the trail long, where we had set up the tent was only maybe 200 yards from the trailhead where the trail turns to road walking over Fontana Dam all the way to the shelter. We had hiked this multiple times before, so we were comfortable finding our way to and across the dam. I felt stupid for making us stop so close to the road, we wouldnt have had to do any night hiking but we made it to the shelter safety with 23 miles, our biggest day yet. Got here at about 7:30.

Its really warm and feels like summer tonight. Its supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow morning. We've got a 1 miles walk to NC28 where we'll hitch to Fontana Village and and zero a day or 2 for Cathrines birthday.

Day 179

We were up early and hiked 1.1 miles to NC28. We didnt have cell service to call the folks at the lodge in Fontana Village for a ride so we started walking the 2 miles to town. The second car that drove by picked us up. Cathrine found a monarch butterfly on the side of the road that looked wounded so we took it with us. When we got to the Fontana Village lodge, the butterfly flew away when we got out of the car.

We got a really nice room for a great price with a hottub and fireplace included. We've been haning around all day and had a nice birthday lunch for Cathrine. I arranged beforehand for the waitress to suprise Cathrine with a piece of cheesecake with 25 candles in it for dessert.

Not sure right now if we're hiking out tomorrow or taking a zero. Its supposed to get very cold again over the next few days. As of here and now, we have hiked 2,020.6 miles and have 164.7 more to go to Springer Mountain.