Day 10 - Finger Lakes Trail

We woke up early again to have breakfast with our hosts before heading back to the trail.  We ended up going to a diner with them before being dropped off back at Stone Quarry Hill Road, stuffing ourselves on eggs, potatoes, sausage and bacon.  We cannot thank the two of them enough for all their hospitality!  I really hope we can repay them one day.

We started our hike this morning with a field walk and then a beautiful walk in to a lean-to.  It obviously gets a lot of traffic but was clean enough.  We did some more walking that was mostly flat through pine forests before coming to a combination trail/snowmobile trail.  The trail became steeper downhill and, just as we got to the open part of the road, we were hit with a downpour!  We always seem to time our road walks with either heavy rain or blinding sun! Ha!  We walked for about 1.5 miles on this open road before turning back to the woods just as the rain stopped.

NoKey walking in the forest

We reached Bowman Lake State Park and had planned on taking a hot shower here, but we were already soaked so we just sat under the overhang at the shower house, drying out with the hot hand dryers.  The state park was completely empty.  The snack bar still wasn't open for the summer and the rainy skies probably didn't make for many people looking to go swimming!  We began walking uphill through mushy ground and bogs.  All the rain has really made for nasty trails - ankle deep mud and stream crossings where the bridges begin in the middle of the stream because the banks have been breached!  At least we have water.

I think the water MIGHT be a little high! 

Toward the highest point of the day, an old fire tower, we began a road walk and the sun came out.  When we reached a paved road we noticed it was only 1 mile from our trail junction down to a restaurant/bar so we headed down to the Balsam Inn for 1.50 beers, chicken wings, and a cheesesteak with fries!  We even got a free bowl of popcorn so I consider it time well spent! We walked back up to the trail feeling full and happy.

The fire tower in the background and a farm.  

When we made it back into the woods it wasn't far to the lean-to we planned on crashing in for the night.  As we came around the bend and we're looking for the trail up we hear someone yelling "Sprinkles & NoKey?!"  It was 46-er, the hiker who helped me out by sending me a spreadsheet with the real mileage and better landmarks for the FLT.  He is near the end of his thru hike and we were happy to run into him. It was also very nice to camp with someone too!  We talked trail conditions and gear, as well as other hikes we have done.  We had a wonderful night getting to meet him!

I also want to take time to mention this AMAZING shelter.  An open air privy (with "in use" traffic cone), rocking chair, benches, a picnic table, water feature, and memorial bench for Ed Sidote - Mr. Finger Lakes Trail.  This shelter is obviously the pride and joy of the caretaker, who keeps it stocked with firewood and clean drinking water.  He even provided a map with the nearest cell phone coverage.  Thank you to the Bullthistle Hiking Club!

Day 9 - Finger Lakes Trail

We got up really early to have breakfast with Steve and Deb, coffee with home fries and fresh cheese. We sat with Steve until around 8, when the post office opened, grabbed our resupply and headed out of town.  Some people driving by stopped us to talk as they were from the Yellow Deli - a hostel system with two AT hostels.  We headed down the trail from here, road walking out of town.  We had a lot of road walking to do today and we got rained on pretty much every time we stepped onto the road this morning. We also missed where the trail went back through a field and ended up doing  much longer road walk than anticipated!  It was still very pretty as we were walking uphill through a rural neighborhood with lots of field.

A misty day in the fields  

We alternated woods and road walking several times and took a high water bypass in the early afternoon.  As soon as we were walking on the road I saw a bear go darting across the street.  We saw a bag of garbage on the other side of the road and guessed we interrupted his meal. We did a whole lot of road walking from this point before heading back into a sopping wet field and a nasty wet and flooded trail.  It was supposed to be scenic waterfalls but it was honestly just a mess.  We did some more road walking and decided to check cell phone coverage before heading on.

We rang it... And it was LOUD! 

I had a message from a blog follower saying she could help us out if we were having a tough time finding a place to camp. Since we were on mostly private land and had already done 17.5 miles (2:30 pm), we decided to shoot her a message.  She offered to let us stay at her house in their camper and we agreed to meet her at 6 pm at a road crossing.  This gave us the energy we needed to do some more uphill pasture walking before coming to a microwave tower (seriously, what are these things?!) and then doing yet another long road walk in the afternoon sun.

The first time we have seen these green signs on our trip! 

Amy, along with her kids, picked us up with cold Gatorade and water waiting.  She drove us back to her place and introduced us to her husband who welcomed us with open arms.  They fed us dinner, let us shower, did our laundry, and even gave us beer and ice cream until we thought we would explode.  We talked about some of our past adventures and showed Amy our gear to help her prep for some upcoming hikes.  It was an amazing end to a 22-mile day.

Day8 - Finger Lakes Trail

We hit our 100 mile mark sometime this morning!  We woke up early, but we wanted ice cream so we couldn't leave until 9 am. We left the shelter and headed uphill through a beautiful spruce forest, weaving in and out of hardwoods and spruce for most of the morning.  We walked down into the small and pretty China Gorge, only to climb back out and down to Schear Road to our first stop of the day.  Our map said County Cream (aka The Penguin) was a must stop, so we added nearly a mile to our hike to walk down to it. We filled up on chicken tenders, onion rings, French fries, and ice cream.  They have the coolest machine that makes nearly 151,000 combinations of ice cream!

I love spruce forest! 

After this, we had a full and pretty uneventful walk into Masonville, where two very hot and dehydrated hikers stopped at the General Store for cold drinks.  Inside we found more of a food co-op than average general store!  It was amazingly refreshing to get natural drinks and sit out of the heat for a few minutes before heading down the long road walk to Bainbridge.  Thank you to Kendal, the owner, for letting us sit and talk for a few minutes before heading down the road!

When you see this giant ice cream beacon, you run - don't walk! 

We met a nice couple, Steve and Deb, who said we could stay with them in an extra apartment they owned in Bainbridge while we were there.  We started the hot road walk and got picked up quickly by a guy named Nate who asked us if we wanted a ride. Since we were already sunburned and dehydrated we accepted, and he dropped us at the Bainbridge Laundromat.  We did laundry and grabbed a bite to eat at Jerry's Inn across the street before setting up for the night with Steve and Deb.  We are so thankful to be inside as the recent stomfront moving across the country is pouring rain down on NY yet again.  They are calling for rain all night and most of the week.  Tomorrow we head west yet again!

Day 7 - Finger Lakes Trail

We started out the day in a drizzle, but by the time we got about 2 miles in the rain stopped and the skies started to clear. We started this hike on private property and walked back into NYC land.  We hit an old road bed and really started making good time before the stinging nettles got high and we had to start bushwhacking through them for a short stretch.  We both got pretty cut up, but by the time we reached Loomis Brook the sky had turned blue and we crossed the slick and swift stream to the road.  

Stinging nettle bushwhacking time! 

We had a beautiful view of the Cannonsville Reservoir again.  Jim and Monica told us last night that five towns were flooded to create this one in the 1960s.  It's a really sad subject for a lot of the locals here and the city buys up every single piece of property they can to make more reservoir.  

The Cannonsville Reservoir

From here, we went back uphill to our first lean to in several days... To our surprise we saw walkable trails and a very nice place!  This is where our hike is changing again.  The trail from here all the way to Cold Spring Lean to was beautiful - big bridges over the mud, bridges over the streams, paths cut into the high grass, switchbacks... This is the first time since we started a week ago we have seen maintenance like this since we were on Slide Mountain in the Catskills. We had walkable trail and made it to our stopping point very early in the afternoon.  After yesterday's 21 miles an easy day sounded great.  We will have a few easy days coming up now if the terrain stays great like this. 

I even had time to do yoga tonight in the shelter before dinner!! 

Warrior 2 takes root in Cold Spring Shelter

Day 6 - Finger Lakes Trail

Super adventure day!  So today was the big day- we had a huge mileage day to make it out of Downsville and off DEP land. We didn't have a set plan, but we had a few idea as to what we could do to get off the NYC owned land.

 

We began with a road walk out of Downsville before turning up an old logging road and beginning walking uphill.  The road got rough and muddy, but since it was an active logging site the road was walkable.  After a few miles the trail turned to go downhill and became a DEC horse trail.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem to get much use and had become quite overgrown with a few very large blowdowns.  We reached the bottom and walked through a big field to a snowmobile trail bridge and a small waterfall on East Trout Brook.  We now had another big climb along snowmobile trails before coming to another road before lunch.

Going over a blowdown so big I had hang off the one side by my arms! 

The waterfall on the snowmobile trail. 

We were making fast and easy miles and had already done 12 miles before noon.  From here it was easy walking to a cell phone tower before a steep downhill section and a long road walk.  The bad thing about the road walking?  It was midday by this point, so the midday sun was blazing and we were very hot. By the time we got down Houck Mountain Road to Beers Brook it was about 2:30 and we both had minor sunburns.  The road was scenic though and we got a few breezes.

Since we could hear gunshots in the distance, we were supposed to walk the road instead of the trail - the DEP trains on this part of the trail.  We road walked on Route 10 and turned up Rainbow Lodge Rd to go the 1.1 miles to Rainbow Lodge.  Ellen, a waitress, stopped and asked if we wanted a ride up the road.  She was going to the same place so we hopped in and arrived at Rainbow Lodge around 4 pm to delicious food and VERY cold beers.  We met the staff and some friendly locals and talked trails with them.  We tried to figure out our next move and NoKey was showing someone at the bar on our map where we were trying to go. It turns out the couple sitting next to that person owned the land we were aiming for and offered to let us camp at their property!  

We left with them and went with them to their property, which was adjacent to the DEP land where camping is illegal.  Severe thunderstorms were forecasted and the couple who owned the land offered to let us stay inside one of their houses instead.  This was an incredibly generous offer and we were just floored at how our luck had changed.  We walked nearly 21 miles before 4 pm today and were so tired.  We had planned on stealthing and setting up after dark.  All we wanted was to take off our shoes and instead we got hot showers and a roof over our heads. Thank you so much to the Tarantino's for letting us stay on their property.  This incredibly generous act changed our night for the better and we really appreciated it! 

We hiked so fast and hard NoKey burned holes in his socks today! 

Day 5 - a zero in Downsville

We woke up early, around 6:15, and decided that a zero day was in order.  After having wet feet for four days and both of us in new shoes our feet have taken a pounding and we both had some pretty bad looking feet.  We made a great decision because we ran into a big problem.  We picked up our drop at the post office at 9 am after a huge breakfast at the Downsville Diner. We hit the market next door for some zero day provisions and then headed back to the hotel for some relaxation.

The cute and tiny post office  

​We sat down and sorted our box and I started making a game plan for tomorrow's hike.  Here is where I hit the snag.  If you're heading west out of Downsville there is a horse camp about 5 miles outside town.  The map goes on for 12 miles to the next map, which is 25.2 miles.  The only campsite for 35 miles is the one just outside of town.  The entire map that is 25.2 miles is all land owned by New York City.  There is absolutely no camping and they have their own environmental police to bust you for camping (the DEP).  Their headquarters is also at the start of this 25.2 mile map.  Now we have to figure out where to go.  I called a car spotter and he recommended I call a place.  That place recommended I drive 11 miles to a campground and didn't quite understand I was on foot and driving isn't possible.  I called the Finger Lakes Trail Conference for an idea of what to do next.

The FLTC office turned out to be a dead end and a pretty bad experience.  In fact, the woman who answered the phone, when I asked what they tell thru hikers to do in this long section, told me I should have planned weeks in advance and lined up my shuttles to hotels.  I asked her if there was a town between Downsville and Bainbridge that I maybe couldn't see on their maps and she told me no in a very firm tone.  She told me she couldn't help me and hung up.  I was shocked at the treatment I received from the FLTC and I'm really upset that I called asking for help planning our day and they flat out told me they couldn't help me. We again walked back to the hotel.

We decided to blow off steam by taking some kayaks out onto the river.  The Downsville Motel is right in the East Branch of the Delaware River and we took some kayaks out on the very small stream coming from the NYC-owned reservoir where you're actually allowed to boat.  We had a beautiful view of the covered bridge and even saw a bald eagle flying around.  It was a great way to end our long and frustrating day.

Screw it, let's kayak! 

I won't tell you guys where or what we'll be doing tomorrow.  I will say that this trail, so far, hasn't been the norm for us.  We normally run into people who are full of information and very helpful.  We've been lost, soaking wet, and now told to fend for ourselves.  After nearly 3000 long-distance hiking miles to say we finally have hit a big snag is pretty impressive.  I would like to say thank you to the people we talked to today who DID take the time to help us out on the phone - Richard, Tina, and Jim.  Thank you!  And also a big thanks goes out to Al and his employee at the sports shop/motel who sat down with us and looked at the map and tried to help out.  

It's gorgeous on the Delaware River! 

Day 4 - Finger Lakes Trail

We made it through the the whole night and woke up to a morning WITHOUT rain!  Blue skies awaited us and we got a pretty early start.  We began with an immediate steep climb up to Beech Hill, and this climb didn't mess around!  We went straight up to the top and walked through rock formations and stinging nettles that were thigh high. Even with my knee length gaiters I still got nailed.

Walking between rocks, like we did 10 times today. 

We made it up to Beech Hill and were treated to an amazing view of Little Pond, which is fed by Big Pond, where we camped last night.  We had a flat, albeit muddy, section of hiking before ascending steeply, through more rock formations to the top of Middle Mountain, before coming straight down the hill to Mary Smith Road.  This parking area was great because there was a bench! A bench is a huge deal to a hiker!  We took a short lunch break here to wring out our wet socks before beginning another steep climb.

The view from Beech Hill ooking at Little Pond. 

We once again had an incredibly steep climb up to Mary Smith Hill, which I think could be changed to mountain because this thing was steeper than the last one!  We climbed through more rock formations in stinging nettles up to our thighs (noticing a theme yet), only this time we both took a spill or two landing hands first in the nettles too!  The steepest section of the entire Finger Lakes Trail (according to our map) was coming down this trail to the next road crossing.  It was no joke and it took us longer to get down it (through rock formations and thigh-high nettles) before coming down to Holiday Brook Road.  From here, we had a road walk into the town of Downsville, where there was a motel and food!

Walking into Downsville, NY

The road walk was long, but we walked along the Pepacton Reservoir, which is where the town of Pepacton used to be before New York Coty decided they needed the water from the Delaware River more than these people needed a town.  The reservoir is HUGE and had lots and lots of "no trespassing" signs since it is the NYC public water supply.  This reservoir was beautiful and incredibly clean. 

We made it to Downsville at 5 pm and checked in to the Downsville Motel, taking showers and then walking the FLT over the historic covered bridge and down into town to have nearly 1-lb hamburgers at the SchoolHouse Inn, a restaurant that used to be a schoolhouse, built in 1908.  We stopped by the fire station, the only place in town with a cell phone signal, to make some texts before heading back to the motel to crash for the night.

Walking the covered bridge into town, built in 1856. 

Day 2 - Finger Lakes Trail

Today we had long road walks ahead!  We woke up to rain at around 6:30, so we stayed in the tent until it stopped at around 8:30.  We packed up and took off late, around 9:40, to begin out road walk.  The road mostly skirted private land owned by the Frost Valley YMCA, which our cab driver said is where a lot of kids from NYC come during the summer.  We walked a paved road with very, VERY little traffic for 5.5 miles before coming to Blue Hill Cafe/lodge/liquor/grocery store in Claryville.  We had huge lunches and real coffee before we continued on the road for six more miles.

Uually we hate road walks, but this one wasn't so bad since it was only about 65 degrees and overcast.  I had woken up with a severe headache (pinched nerve in my neck maybe?) and stomachache, so these miles were kind of tortuously.  We started uphill on a road that had been paved, but turned to gravel and got more narrow, passing nearly a dozen private hunting clubs and off-the-grid vacation cabins before finally getting onto a real trail.

It was a short 1.3 miles from this point to the Fallbrook Lean-to.  We had originally planned to go further, but with my stomachache and the wet trail conditions we decided to stay and dry out in a shelter rather than walking the next 2 miles through what the guide calls "a perpetually mucky area destroyed by Hurricane Irene in 2011."  I think we made the right call.  We set up our tent to dry and settled in early for the night.  Tomorrow we hit the highest point on the FLT!

Day 1 - Finger LakesTrail

Getting to the trail was definitely an adventure today! NoKey's dad had to work this weekend so our ride to the trail fell through.  After getting a friend (thank you, Darryle!) to drive us to Ithaca, we took the bus to Binghamton and then to Monticello, where we got lucky and got a taxi.  Lucky is the word I use because we met Rock- he's a hiker and he knew where we needed to go ... Well, sort of!  We got us to the YMCA in Frost Valley, which I just assumed would be a building but no!  It was an enormous camp encompassing the entire valley, which is on both sides of the mountain range in the middle.  In the end we got to the Slide Mountain trailhead, but not the RIGHT Slide Mountain Trailhead.  Instead of a 1 mile up and back, we had 4 miles one way to the FLT eastern terminus.  We dubbed it bonus miles and walked it happily. 

From here, it was 1 mile to the parking lot where we started our very long road walk.  We walked about 2 more miles before coming to the only campsite we could legally use, so we gladly stopped since it was already 5:30.  We built a campfire and had small dinners before calling it a night.

Don't go any further! Unless you're on foot!  

A cool totem we saw on our road walk! 

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 19 - Benton MacKaye Trail

It rained all night and finally tapered off just around sunrise.  We got out of the tent at about 7:50 and wiped everything down as best we could before setting out for, on paper, looked to be a tough day.  We began by climbing to the top of Hughes Ridge and meeting the Enloe Creek trail for a few miles before finally heading back downhill.  The trails were slick, but in great shape considering the weather.  We forded Enloe Creek and NoKey actually managed to rock hop the whole thing!  We passed a few pretty cascades before coming to campsite 47 and beginning our next climb. 

A beautiful waterfall in the remote Smokies Backcountry. 

The next climb to Beech Gap Trail started steep, but leveled out near the top giving us a much needed break. Towards the top of this 5000-foot peak we were once again walking in the clouds, but didn't mind because it kept us nice and cool.  From here we had a steep downhill of nearly 2000 feet of descending down to Straight Fork Branch, where the sun came out for a few minutes and we had a quick lunch before beginning our last big climb!  

Walking a verdant path through the high clouds in the Smokies

After lunch the clouds rolled back in and we had to climb nearly 3000 feet yet again!  We took our time and took lots of breaks at some beautiful springs, filling our water as we went.  This has been such a nice way to end our trip, not carrying so much water!  Near the top of our climb at the junction of Beech Gap and Balsam Mountain, the trail levels out as we walked through a spruce forest at nearly 5600 feet of elevation before heading downhill into Laurel Gap shelter. 

A surprisingly full house for a Tuesday after a holiday! 

We camped with 12 people at Laurel Gap and met lots of interesting people!  It was so nice to stay under a roof and be social for the night.  Just around 7 pm the rain started to fall for a few hours - a nice way to fall asleep knowing our tent had been dried out and we were dry, listening to the rain fall on the tin roof.  A great way to spend our last night on trail! 

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 12 - Benton MacKaye Trail

Zero day at Green Cove Motel!  A zero day means you don't do any hiking and I didn't expect we would have any days like that on this trail.  After the nightmare that was yesterday's hike we definitely needed a day off and we slept late.  We fell asleep at about 9:30 last night and stayed in bed until 10 this morning.  We wandered down to the store and poked around for a bit before the owner, Tubby, offered us some of her leftovers from dinner the night before.  We had a huge breakfast of cube steak with country gravy, mashed potatoes, peas, and Mac and cheese.  Tubby comes from a family of eight, so she always makes enough to feed an army she said.  We sat with her for about an hour talking about just about everything before we left her alone for a while.

Breakfast of champions on a cool table Tubby made from YooHoo caps. 

I made a few phone calls, the first to Rick and Brenda Harris - BMTA board members and maintenance directors.  I asked about trail conditions coming up and Brenda assured me that our next section had been worked on very recently. She was aware of the condition of the trail we hiked yesterday and told me they were working on getting it cleared.  Since we were in a wilderness area, they cannot use anything like chainsaws or weed whackers.  The ranger district here is focusing on maintaining horse trails this year so the BMTA is kind of on their own.  I then called the Tapoco Lodge and confirmed we would be there this weekend so we definitely would have a place to stay.  

Bloody and battered hiker legs from the tough day yesterday. 

We ate huge dinners and then lounged around the rest of the night.  Even though there are no laundry facilities here, we were able to wash our clothes in the sink with a bar of soap and get them mostly dry for tomorrow.  Laundry on this trail is few and far between!

Drying laundry hiker style- chasing the sun around the parking lot! 

For anyone looking for a quiet, clean, relaxing place to get away I highly recommend Green Cove Motel.  This place is out in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  There is no TV or phone in the hotel rooms.  No phone service works here.  The windows and doors open up back onto the Tellico River and men are outside fishing all day long.  I was telling NoKey this is how it must have been doing a long distance hike 30 years ago - walking nearly deserted roads to get to town, get a stack of quarters, and use the pay phone to call places.  Tomorrow we go back into the woods with a guarantee of better trails and nice weather. It was been a perfect day off!

Green Cove Motel- middle of nowhere and heaven on earth!

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. 

Day 10 - Benton MacKaye Trail

We woke up to rain and decided to stay in the tent until it stopped.  About 9:15 it sounded finished and we began to pack up, leaving camp about 10 am.  Since we once again had to follow water we had no choice but to hike a 14.4 mile day.  It's really starting to get annoying having to hike a certain way on this trail!  Since we know most water sources aren't even on trail, the map I bought in Blue Ridge has been helpful, but it's still not fail safe.  We hiked out of camp carrying more than 9 liters between the two of us.

NoKey crossing Coker Creek

Climbing up and over Unicoi Mountain left us saying goodbye to the John Muir Trail we had been following and took us on an easy climb following old roads to highway 68.  After a short lunch and some foot surgery on both of us, we began walking again on the nicest trail we have seen yet on the BMT!  This part of the trail for several miles is also dirt bike trail, so maintenance was great!  After reaching a forest service road that maintains the power lines, it started to turn into more trail like conditions.  We were supposed to pass a campsite with water and once again never saw it, or any evidence it had been there.  We reached the top and saw an old homesite and a nearly dry spring.  We attempted to get water but it was mostly mud. Thankfully, the other side of the hill had a gorgeous spring and we were right at the source!  We completely filled out bottles and camelbaks and headed down the trail to Tate Gap, our campsite.  

Looking ahead at our last climb of the day. 

When we got to the gap, we had read that there was a secluded and sheltered site 0.3 off the old road.  I left my pack with NoKey and went to scout it out.  There was a nearly dried up spring and a HOUSE with garbage everywhere at the supposed site.  I went back to the gap and we made camp right there on the trail.  This is how the BMT works I guess - no water and no camps... Make your own!

At least we had some pretty mountain laurel blooming!