An REI Adventure - NoBo on the Appalachian Trail

My most recent trip as an REI Adventures guide had me taking our clients northbound on the AT this time.  With the fall colors only a few days away from peaking, I was excited to spend a sunny and unseasonably warm four days above the valley on the Appalachian Trail.  As all of our trips begin, we met the clients in the parking lot for introductions and pack shakedowns.  Again we were very blessed to have a group that was well-prepared and not carrying too much extra gear. Unlike most of our trips, however, today we had an 11 mile hike to our shelter being that reservations for Icewater Springs were already booked.  

Sunrise at Newfound Gap

We began our hike by hiking immediately on the Appalachian Trail up and out to Charlie's Bunion where we took a mini break for lunch and taking in the views of Mt. LeConte and the valley below.  The fall colors were absolutely stunning, but we couldn't afford much time to take them in due to losing daylight and the mileage still left to cover.  We hiked a few more miles before stopping at False Gap, the site of a former AT shelter, to stop and get water.  From here, we had a short and steep uphill hike to one of the best views on this side of the park - Bradley View.  We took some time here before heading onward to Hughes Ridge Trail and the site of Peck's Corner shelter, arriving just before sunset thankfully!

Mount LeConte from Charlie's Bunion

Our second day on trail afforded us a late start as we were only going the 5.8 miles to the next shelter, Tricorner Knob.  We began a short uphill hike to Eagle Rocks - another stunning view on this side of the park - and then began our solo hike for the day.  As I've said in other posts, solo hiking on these trips are a beautiful thing.  You have a chance to walk off your problems of the past few days and sort things out, which is never a bad thing.  After hiking about a mile and a half solo, we all met back up to summit Mt. Chapman and head downhill to the Tricorner shelter.  Our crew got to meet some AT thru hikers today, however, unfortunately the three that shared the campsite with us were more than a little feral and pretty hostile toward anyone on trail that wasn't one of "them".  After attempting to talk to them and enjoy their company, I eventually gave up and we all went to bed early. 

Losing daylight at Bradley View. 

The third day on trail afforded yet another late start as we were only hiking to Cosby Knob shelter a mere 7.5 miles away.  Today afforded us skirting the summit of Mt. Guyot and Old Black - the third and fourth highest peaks in the park and site of an off-trail adventure I took only a few months before my 2012 thru hike.  We took a long break at Deer Creek Gap at the site of the old helipad before we all headed down to the Snakeden Ridge Trail and the site of the F4 plane crash from 1984.  We began yet another solo hike down to Camel Gap Trailhead.  After taking a final break here, we had a short and easy push into Cosby Knob shelter.  We spent the night with a few thru hikers and the Smokies Ridgerunner, Maury.  For those of you who don't know about Ridgerunners, they are employed by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.  They cover nearly the entire length of the AT and hike designated areas five days a week, living on the trail and being stewards.  They will answer any questions you have about the area, as well as educate people on leave no trace ethics.  They also have to clean up any trash or clothing left behind, make sure the privy has mulch or duff for composting, and tidy up shelters before heading out.  Maury does the entire 73-mile stretch of the AT in the Smokies in both Northbounder (spring) and Southbounder (fall) seasons. 

A stunning sunset from Cosby Knob

Our fourth and final day on the trail had us hiking entirely downhill into the Cosby Campground.  Two members of our group were able to spot a black bear yearling on their solo hike this morning and one of them got some incredible photos.  We hiked next to a creek on the lower half of the Low Gap Trail, which afforded views of the damage done by the flash flood back in July.  A nearly 7-foot-high wall of water gushed down this hillside after a torrential thunderstorm, turning up the creekbed and all the plant life around, closing the Cosby Campground for several days.  

When we reached the campground we got to wait on our shuttle, which gave us time to reflect on the trip and talk about the things we had learned from each other.  We had a long 2-hour ride back up to Newfound Gap and our cars thanks in part to an EIGHT MILE backup where people were getting out of their cars to look at bears on the side of the road.  Being that the backup was so terrible, I took the "back way" home - driving out and over the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It was a beautiful time to be there being that the leaf color was at full peak.  There was very little traffic going this direction and thankfully everyone used the pull-off areas to view the foliage.  It was another beautiful trip on the AT in the Smokies. 

An REI Adventure - Hiking the AT SoBo

My very first backpacking trip with my new job came as kind of a surprise.  I was in our office filling out my new hire paperwork and prepping to go out over the coming weekend when the office manager let us know that I couldn't get into the trip.  However, if I was flexible, I could leave the very next day on a trip with two other guides.  Wanting to jump in and start working right away, I decided to take the trip.  I headed directly from our office to the store to pick up my snacks and hardly slept with my mind anxious and excited. 

This easy and beautiful trip began after meeting our five wonderful clients and doing a shakedown of their packs before shuttling up to the highest point on the Appalachian Trail - Clingman's Dome.  It was in the 40s and windy when we arrived, not a view to be seen as the Dome was high in the clouds.  It was a short and easy three miles to our first campsite for the night at Double Spring Gap shelter.  I hadn't been here since my thru hike on the Appalachian Trail in 2012 and I hadn't actually ever slept in this shelter before.  We were the only people there for the night, but we had lots of other hikers pass through on their way south to Siler's Bald Shelter.  We had a great evening of getting to know our clients and stargazing before heading to bed.  

Skies clearing near Clingman's Dome

Day two of our trip consisted of hiking up and over Silers Bald, now viewless, and southbound on the Appalachian Trail toward Derrick Knob Shelter.  While there weren't many views to be had on this section, the leaves had started to change and I got some great lessons in the history of the park as well as learned more about the plants growing on these hillsides in the Smoky Mountain high peaks.  The fall colors were starting to become more vibrant and the skies cleared to a beautiful blue for most of our walk today.  When we reached Derrick Knob Shelter, we shared it with a woman and her autistic son.  She is local to the area and began hiking as a way to help her son lose weight.  They were out on a three day hike to finish the AT in the park and have hiked nearly every trail in the Smokies.  We had a small campfire that night and spent time talking around the fire before heading to bed. 

Witch Hobble changing to fall colors on the AT. 

On the morning of day 3 we had an amazingly beautiful sunrise.  The AT was high in the clouds again, but the sky above was a beautiful shade of blue and made for some epic photos.  On this day we were able to take a solo hike, which gave us all time to reflect on our trip and spend some quality time walking the trail while lost in our own minds.  I love doing a solo hike on backpacking trips with a group.  The peace and quiet that come along with the feeling of being so small in the world can really help you walk off your worries.  We all came back together before making the climb up to Thunderhead and Rocky Top.  Both summits were in the clouds this day, but we spent some time at Rocky Top anyway where we were rewarded with some breaktaking views any time the clouds broke for a moment.  We walked on to our destination for the evening at Spence Field Shelter.  For dinner tonight, we hiked our food up to Spence Field (the place) to watch the sun set over the horizon with fabulous views of Fontana Lake.  The skies had cleared to allow for some wonderful vistas. 

Clouds breaking on Rocky Top

The fourth day of the trip came quickly and we had a short hike down to our cars at the Cades Cove pavilion.  While we only had 5 miles to walk, we took our time and walked slowly.  This morning we got to see different plant life from what we had been walking through on the AT - we even tasted some yellow birch bark and sourwood tree leaves.  We ended our morning by learning about ring-necked snakes and seeing two small doe near a creek at the campground. We were very lucky to have nice weather the entire time without any rain and said our goodbyes at the pavilion. 

Sunset from Spence Field. 

I really enjoyed my first trip as a training guide with REI Adventures.  I can't wait to take another trip on the AT and share my love of the trail with anyone who will listen!

Day 20 - Benton MacKaye Trail

Our last day is finally here!!  Everyone was up and moving around at 7:30 and we were in a hurry to get moving.  Even though the forecast predicted rain, we woke up to sunshine and we were in a race with the weather.  Mt. Sterling, the highest point on the BMT at more than 5800 feet, was waiting for us and I wanted NoKey to get the view I think is the best in the Smokies.  We did a quick 5.8 miles in less than 2.5 hours to get to the top by 10:45 am.  We were definitely rewarded! 

Looking at the AT from Mt Sterling on a nearly perfectly clear morning! 

From here, we got a few texts out to my family to let them know we would be done by 1:30 and shot off down Baxter Creek Trail for a 4000-foot elevation loss down to Big Creek Campground. 

Finally! We won't be walking in horse poo!! 

We made it down the hill in 2 hours and finished the trail at 1:20 pm.  There were tons of people picnicking in the day use area, so we were able to get a photo of the two of us together at the terminus of the BMT with my homemade sign.  It was a great feeling to have sunny skies to finish this tough trail. 

We did it! 

I will be writing a recap of the BMT in a few days and sharing it with you all.  This trail had three very distinct sections, broken up every 100 miles or so.  It feels great to be back home in a temperature controlled environment with comfy beds, but two more trails await us this summer! 

Day 18 - Benton MacKaye Trail

Another 9:30 am start this morning!  We woke up alone in camp as Eagle and Fat Camp were long gone! We had an easy warm up walk to campsite 57, the last home of Horace Kephart, before beginning our uphill for the day.  It wasn't ever too tough and we passed some very sweet horses about a mile from the top. When we reached the first of three summits near the top of Newton Bald, we met a Mountains to Sea Trail hiker.  This trail runs from Clingmans Dome all the way to the Outer Banks, running 900 miles across North Carolina.  We quickly made our way up as over the other two summits before finally heading downhill for the day.

Lots of names for just one footpath! 

While we were cold on top of Newton Bald, our first 5000' peak of the trail, down the hill it got warmer and more humid as the sun finally came out.  By the time we reached Newfound Gap Road it was close to 80 degrees.  We had to wait for a few minutes for traffic to clear since it's Memorial Day today.  We crossed and then had to walk up Towstring Trail, which is a nasty, disgusting horse trail and I can't believe the BMT doesn't just walk the road.  We walked under power lines uphill in the sun in fresh horse shit for a mile before reaching the back end of the Smokemont Campground.  We took a detour into the campground to use the running water.  We both washed up and charged up our phones a little before heading up to Chasteen Creek. 

Beautiful flowers on our walk today

We reached campsite 50, our destination, at 4:30 and decided to just go on the extra 2.2 miles to the next site up, campsite 48, to get a jumpstart on tomorrow.  We followed Chasteen Creek up an old roadbed very similar to yesterday on Noland Creek. We reached this site at 5:30 and settled in for the night, alone again now that the holiday is over.  Tomorrow is our last full day on trail and is by far the toughest on paper.  We're hoping the weather holds out as it is a 50% chance of scattered showers overnight and most of the day!

Chasteen Creek Trail is pretty too! 

Day 17 - Benton MacKaye Trail

We slept in a little later this morning and didn't leave until 9:30.  We passed campsite 74 and it was still packed with kids running around.  We were glad we stayed down by the lake instead!  We had about 3 miles to do of ups and downs like the end of yesterday before coming to the tunnel at the Road to Nowhere.  We walked through in a cool breeze and managed to avoid the piles of horse poop.  That has been the most annoying thing about the Smokies' BMT is that it's most horse trail.  When we came out at the other side the parking lot was completely packed and there were people everywhere!  I guess that's what happens when you end up in a national park on Memorial Day weekend! 

A rare photo of us together! 

We did a little road walking here to our next trailhead and ended up following an old road bed uphill for the next 8 miles.  The walking went pretty fast and we followed Noland Creek the whole way, fording it a few times along the way.  People thought we were nuts for just walking through the creek with our shoes on, but it felt great to get cold feet for a bit. We took a break at campsite 61 and met a dad who had been hiking all day with three young kids.  That's a brave man! They had a tough uphill day and the kids were overjoyed to be at the campsite.  From here, it was just one more mile uphill before we finally began walking downhill for the first time all day.  

Noland Creek Trail has so much water! 

Since we already had wet feet, Pole Road Creek Trail didn't bother us.  It was tough on our feet because the trail was so eroded and rocky, but we made it down the 3.4 miles pretty quickly.  We crossed a really cool log footbridge and had only a quarter mile to our campsite for the night.  We reached campsite 56 and met Eagle and Fat Camp.  We had an awesome night hanging out with these two guys who kept giving us food and whiskey they wanted to get out of their packs as it was their last night on trail!  We ate lots of chocolate and drank whiskey around a campfire until nearly 11 pm with these two guys.  It was the first time we actually got to hang out with anyone in a campsite and we had a blast meeting them.  We have another long uphill tomorrow morning and those two are getting up crazy early because they have to drive 8.5 hours home after the 13-mile hike out!

NoKey crossing Deep Creek on a foot bridge

Fat Camp and Eagle at campsite 56. 

Day 16 - Benton MacKaye Trail

We had a pretty sleepless night at campsite 81 due to it being pretty chilly.  For late May, the temperatures were easily in the 40s!  We packed up and headed out of camp at about 9:30 for a long, but easier day in the Smokies.  About 3 miles in we saw our first hikers of the day headed the other direction and reached campsite 77 soon after.  After a quick break for a snack, we began walking old roadbed for the next few hours.  It is easy to daydream about how this area must have looked before everyone got kicked out for the building of Fontana Dam back in the early 1940s.  We passed several unlabeled side trails and that usually indicates a cemetery on this side of the lake.  Walking through this area now it is hard to imagine that 70 years ago thousands of people lived here.

One of many cascades along the trail today

We took a long lunch at campsite 76 right near a boat launch.  We then followed the lake for a bit before climbing up and away since the road we had been walking now disappeared straight into the lake!  We reached our next camp in less than an hour and met the roadbed yet again for a few easy graded miles.  An hour after leaving Chambers Creek we ran into a group of about 10 young guys anxious to get to campsite 98.  When I told them we left it an hour ago they all looked like I had punched them in the stomach!  We told them we had walked about 14 miles already today and they looked shocked. 

A canoe on Fontana Lake

We had a series of PUD's for the next 4 miles- pointless ups and downs.  We basically walked along a ridge, swung around one side of the hill, and crossed to another.  We finally came down into  Forney Creek at about 5:30 to our campsite at camp 74.  We set up a bit away from everyone else since they were cooking food and smores on a grill. Bears tend to like that sort of thing!  We have a big day tomorrow also, and a wet one!  We are walking three trails tomorrow, all of them with the name "Creek" in the title!  We are hoping for a warmer night and better sleep tonight.

More cascades leading down into the lake

Day 15 - Benton MacKaye Trail

Today we ate a huge breakfast thanks to Tapoco Lodge and left the hotel with lighter than anticipated packs thanks to them holding a box full of stuff for us.  NoKey hasn't been eating as much as we planned so sending some food back has been nice.  We walked outside the lodge and caught a ride to Fontana Dam thanks to Ed from Missouri, who was out driving on the Dragon and killing time.  For those who don't know, U.S. 129 is called The Dragon, 300 curves in 11 miles, and attracts people from all over the country who want to say they drove it.

FINALLY! 

We hit the Dam at 11 am and thanked Ed for the ride.  I gave him a bit of a history lesson about the area during the trip too.  Thanks again, Ed!  We began walking across the dam and into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park!  The BMT follows Lakeshore Trail the first 35 miles and I enjoyed seeing familiar trail again.  I also gave NoKey some history about the area while we took photos of everything from abandoned cars to old homesites and chimneys.  When we made it 5 miles in we were at campsite 90 and it is absolutely packed - to be expected since its Memorial Day weekend.  We headed on down the trail to campsite 86, which is on the site of the now abandoned town of Proctor.  We had late lunch here and headed up and over Welch Ridge to campsite 81.

One of many abandoned cars along the trail

We got to 81 and met a large group there. We said our hellos and set up our tent to dry out from the wet night we had before heading down Slickrock.  Tomorrow we are expecting busy trails since its the swing of Memorial Day.

The chimney of an old home is all that remains standing. 

Day 14 - Benton MacKaye Trail

We woke up to the same rain that had been pouring down all night.  We were camped at 4900 feet so the rain plus high elevations made for cold temperatures.  We didn't leave camp until about 10:30 since we were waiting for the rain to abate.  We were walking downhill through brush and undergrowth so our legs, socks, and shoes got pretty wet.  We had quite a few ups and downs this morning before running into some day hikers about 3 miles from Farr Gap.  We had a quick lunch and then headed to the gap and the infamous Stiffknee/Slickrock Creek trail.

Always a comforting sign to see when you sleep with your food in your tent and you're not even half a mile from camp! 

Now I had heard rumor this trail was rerouted to miss this nasty creek, but if it was we didn't see it! We started down steeply and immediately understood the name Stiffknee Trail!  Our packs are nearly empty and this thing was steep!  We kept dropping down and crossing numerous creeks, fighting our way through numerous blow downs and through brambles.  The trail got muddier and tougher to walk and we eventually reached a junction that let us know we were actually still on the right trail (miraculously!)  all of a sudden we were standing on a rock with a sign reading Slickrock Creek and we knew if there was a reroute we definitely were not on it.  We forded the creek, which was about thigh deep, and shook out on the other side. 

We finally saw rhododendron blooming today! 

By now we were exhausted, but no campsites were listed in our book and we just wanted to be both dry and warm, as the sun still had not come out and we spent most of the day walking in clouds. We climbed up Ike Branch to Yellow Hammer Gap and looked for the side trail to Tapoco Lodge, but it hasn't been built yet.  Up we went some more crossing Ike Branch about a thousand times before finally reaching the top and crossing it about a thousand more times on the way down.  We reached the Tapoco Trailhead at Cheoah Dam (the one they filmed The Fugitive on) and finishing our day with a half-mile road walk to Tapoco Lodge.

Cheoah Dam - they filmed The Fugitive here. 

When we saw the lodge we were elated! A big sign greeted us and we walked through the gates and were immediately awestruck.  This lodge only became hiker friendly a year ago, and walking up to it it was more like a private club or a five star hotel. We checked in and couldn't have been treated better.  We had a gorgeous room, a hot shower, free laundry, and a brick oven pizza place on premises! We ate a huge salad and pizza with some beers, had cleaner clothes than we have in over 100 miles, and climbed into the biggest bed I've ever seen to sleep.  What was a tough day turned into an epic evening!

An epic evening awaited us here! 

Day 13 - Benton MacKaye Trail

We were sad to leave Tubby behind at the Green Cove Motel and Store, but we had places to go.  We began with a 1.4 mile was back to the trailhead at Telico Fish Hatchery.  From here we walked old road bed 95% of the day.  Our first old road walk was up the Sycamore Creek Trail.  We walked nearly 6 miles up a gradual hill before hitting a forest service road and climbing all the way up to Whigg Meadow and our first actual good view on the BMT!  We met an older couple here and talked to them during our lunch.  When we did the extra quarter mile up to the top we met some grad students looking to place bat boxes for research purposes.  We had an easy hike down to Mud Gap and the Cherohola Skyway where we had a piped spring waiting on us!

Looking up at Whigg meadow  

Haha, I'm only kidding! The book said there was water here, but you know by now there wasn't any!  It was only 1 pm and we had already done 9 miles, but it was starting to get hot!  We passed through the site of a former rock quarry that now looks like a bald and walked down to a forest service road before heading back up to meet the Cherohola Skyway again.  We had another beautiful view at Unicoi Gap before heading back into the woods and following an old jeep road for a little while.

Walking through the old quarry

About 2 miles in we met Kyle who was out hiking with his sister's dog.  It turns out he is friends with All Smiles, a man we hiked with for a few days back on the AT in 2012.  Once again, the trail community is so small!  We continued on and found a wonderful piped spring and chugged as much water as we could before filling up our bottles and heading on our way.  We left the jeep road about a mile later and started climbing.  We spotted a great campsite but there was no water nearby so we kept moving.  We crossed two small streams and came to a large campsite about 1.5 miles later.  We thought this was our destination, but it turns out somewhere in the weeds was our campsite and we had passed it up.  This meant I had to walk back half a mile for water (a mile round trip for those keeping count at home!)  we also fixed a trail sign that is obviously very wrong here. No blazes means it's easy to get turned around in a wilderness area, so the correct signage now will help!  

Even more views! This is Unicoi Gap on the Cherohola Skyway. 

Day 11 - Benton MacKaye Trail

We started earlier today, about 8:30, and began our first climb of the day to Cantrell Top.  The sun came  out for the morning and we had some easy ups and downs until we reached Hipps Gap, a dry (shocker, I know!) campsite.  From here we had to start climbing but our day looked easy on the map and profile because once we were up, we were on top of the ridge.  We couldn't have been more wrong.

This is a North Carolina State line marker from the early 1800s

After some crazy steep climbing and an attempt to get water that didn't pan out, we reached Moss Gap, noted for the hairpin turn in the trail and a tree marked with a giant X indicating there is water a mere half mile off the trail.  We decided to head up and get water at one of the few campsites if we needed it.  This is where our day turned to utter shit.  For the next four miles we bushwhacked through immense blowdown.  The trees were thankfully blazed and there was a faint path of where people had gone through a week ago, but otherwise we were completely on our own.  For four miles, which took us three hours in the pouring rain, we climbed through branches, grass up to our necks, and thorns shredded our legs.  Any evidence of campsites and unmarked side trails was completely obscured.  It looked as if a tornado had hit the mountain.

There is a trail in here... Follow the blazes and make your own path! 

When we finally hit Rocky Top, we had about half a clear mile before coming to another hairpin turn at Sledrunner Gap - the halfway point of the BMT.  Now, we were coming downhill in the same shit we climbed on the other side.  This side was even worse because it followed and crossed a stream multiple times.  Rhododendron were down everywhere and even harder to climb through. Again, all campsites and mile markers were completely wiped out due to the utter disregard for trail maintenance.  At 4 pm we had to make a decision.  We were at a trail junction where the BMT went up and trail 180 looked to be going down.  The map indicated in about 6.5 miles we could be at the same location 5 BMT miles would take us to.  We had been hiking for 7 straight hours without eating or stopping and we decided the road might be longer, but at least it was clear.

Which way to go now...? 

This decision changed our entire day.  Trail 180 was an old roadbed that appeared to have a lot of recent foot and horse traffic.  We got down the 1.5 miles in less than 40 minutes. We came out at a campsite and ate a quick dinner before walking FS 126, a gravel road that went up and between two mountains before coming downhill to Tellico River Road.  It was about 6:50 when we finally made it to the road and we knew that the Green Cove Motel was 1.4 miles from the trail.  We walked about a quarter mile before coming to the Sourwood Campsite and some people told us the motel wasn't far.  They even drove us down.  When we got to the store, the woman working there, Tubby, was only there just to stock the place.  She said we were incredibly lucky to catch her as she had just got back from a trip to Knoxville and was shutting up for the night. We grabbed snacks and sodas and checked in for two nights as we were utterly exhausted.