Smokey Mountain Anniversary

This year we mark our 11th anniversary!  Can't believe we have been together that long.We decided we wanted to get back to our old way of celebrating, by taking a week off and back country camping at a national park.  We were trying to remember the last time we did that and we think it was for our 5th anniversary.  It's definitely been too long!  But we are in need of some time away together without a cell phone signal. So we are going to the Smokey Mountain National Park for some back country camping and knocking off another state while we are at it (Tenessee).We had a 5am flight out of Houston, so we stayed at the on airport hotel the night before so we didn't have to wake up any earlier than necessary.  Turned out to be a really good call because we received an update that our plane was delayed 30 minutes at 3am.  We were able to rest in our room a bit longer before heading down for our flight.The delay meant we were going to have a tight connection in Charlotte, but we have been in the airport before and were comfortable that we could make the quick dash between gates.   The gentlemen that sat next to us on the delayed flight had a 5 minute connection window and he was headed to St. Marteen!  We are hoping he made it, although we doubt his luggage did!We amazingly made it along with our luggage to Knoxville, grabbed our rental car and headed to the local REI.  A downside about flying and camping is that we always have to buy fuel and matches after landing and then leave them behind when we head home.  We are hoping to find some fellow trekkers  to pass our leftover items on to after we are done.It was a very curvy and slow but beautiful drive from  Knoxville to Gatlinburg.  We got to the Tree Tops resort, checked in and immediately laid down for a two hour nap.  We were exhausted from our early morning flight.We wandered to downtown Gatlinburg and were amazed (and a little disappointed) at just how touristy the city was!  There were crazy tourist attractions everywhere and plenty of people to pack them all.  We are looking forward to getting out into the backcountry of the Smoky Mountains and getting away from all the tourists tomorrow!  We did however enjoy a moonshine tasting and found a Mellow Mushroom pizza (a favorite of ours from Denver) for dinner!Day Two:After a long discussion about whether to beat the crowds and get movingearly, we opted to sleep in. So when we finally headed into Gatlinburg for breakfastat around 10:30 a.m., the traffic was ridiculous! Out of frustration we pulledinto a parking lot and paid $10 just to park and walk next door to the McDonalds.Probably the most expensive McDonalds breakfast we've ever eaten!Then it was back into the line of the slow moving traffic as we crawled up thetwisted road the the park. After what seemed like forever we arrived at thetrailhead where we started our anniversary trek. We plan to spend 4 nights and5 days hiking a loop that will include about 10 miles along the AppalachianTrail and return back close to where we started.The hike to our first campsite was a 6 mile hike straight uphill. While therewere a few downhills, they were immediately followed by an uphill. However itwas a nice hike through the forest and the constant tree cover kept the sun awayand a few nice breezes kept the temperature reasonable.We reached our first camping spot a little after the 6 mile mark. Afterselecting our spot (the sites can be reserved by up to 10 people at a time), we strung up the hammock we got in Knoxville and spent therest of the day relaxing and listening to the birds and chipmunks chattering.We only ended up sharing our campsite with one other person. A girl who washiking alone and hoping for a quiet night. She told us she had spent theevening before with a rowdy group at one of the Appalachian Trail shelters andnow we are nervous about the next two nights as we are spending both inshelters.  Day Three:Today is our longest day of hiking, with about 7.5 miles until we hit ourshelter for the night. It's also our first day on the Appalachian Trail!We got a good sleep last night so we were up and going around 7am. We took ourtime packing up and eating breakfast and got on the trail around 9am.The trail to the Appalachian Trail was covered in high brush and we spent abouttwo hours pushing through brush and singing our "Hey Bear" song, to ensue wewere making enough noise and letting the bears know we were passing through.Once we hit the Appalachian Trail we stopped for a snack and soaked in thedifferences that we noticed right away from the trails we had been on... theAppalachian Trail was more defined and open, less brush and a lot more people.In the 10 minutes or so we sat there, we saw 5 people hike by; having not seenanyone the day before.The trail was easy-going. There were constant ups and downs but nothing toostrenuous. We stopped at the first shelter we came to, about 6 miles into ourhike for a lunch break. There we met two other gentleman who are doing the samehike as us for the next two days. So we will see them again tonight andtomorrow night at our shelters. They are brother-in-laws and both in their 60s.  They introduced themselves as Colonel and Grampy Mij.  They are section hikers, just doing the part that runs through the Smoky Mountain National park (72 miles) this time.  They have already done the section from Georgia to the park and plan to do the other sections as they can in the coming year.

Thru hikers doing the entire or major pieces of the Appalachian trail are supposed to come up with a trail name, so most people along the trail don't use their real names.  We spent our anniversary dinner in a shelter with 5 other hikers, enjoying a campfire and trading stories with Teacher, Colonel, Granpa Mij and a couple from Houston (who were doing a loop hike like us so they didn't have trail names).

We enjoyed a delicious and romantic meal of freeze dried mystery meat and noodles and a delicious chocolate soup for desert (that was supposed to be freeze dried chocolate cheesecake).

As the evening wore on, a few other hikers straggled in, exhausted from the day's hike and collapsed into their sleeping bags.   In total we ended up sharing the shelter and our anniversary with 9 other hikers. 11 little hikers all lined up on the bunks grateful to be out in the wild and enjoying the windy and rainy evening.

Happy 11 years to us!

Day Four:

The day started with a heavy down-pour of rain that brought the fog rolling in. We were getting to experience the true smokiness of these beautiful mountains!

To start off year 12, we enjoyed a celebratory breakfast of freeze dried breakfast scramble (aka "anything-but-oatmeal"), and began the hike up to Clingman's Dome. This is the highest point in the park and along the Appalachian Trail, topping out at a bit over 6,600 feet. Once we summited the observation tower, we had clear views of about 10 feet as the Smoky's were living up to their name - the fog was so think that you could barely see the ground from the top of the tower.

After leaving Clingman's Dome we enjoyed a nice hike downhill for a bit before heading back up for final two miles to our next shelter. Most of the hike was spent in the drizzling rain, but we stayed relatively dry due to the dense forest canopy overhead. The drizzling rain, rolling fog and thick trees made us feel like we were walking through a scene from Sleepy Hollow.  At times the fog and trees were so thick that it was almost too dark too enjoy the lichen covered forest.

We rambled into the Mount Collins shelter around noon. Soon after we arrived and started unpacking for the evening, several college students showed up.  Apparently they were there to check out the many types of lichen in the area and seemed genuinely fascinated by all the fuzzy green stuff that had us thinking of leprechauns all day.

Soon after, Colonel and Grandpa Mij showed up again.  They had started out after us in the morning and seemed to have kept a pretty good hiking pace.

We all ate lunch and got our water refills and soon more people were arriving.   The next group to arrive were Pebbles and her two boys.  They had all started out as individual hikers but had recently all decided to hike together because they were lonely.   The two guys didn't seem to have firm trail names yet; but we heard them throw out things like "tatter chip" and CMac.   They seemed to be very obsessed with food.  They had just gotten off the trail for a day in Gatlinburg and from the sounds of it they ate everything they could get there hands on.

That got me asking about how and why people got trail names.  How long do you have to be on the trail to get one?  Why do some people have them and some don't? Apparently it is not a formal process and you just get a name when someone comes up with one and you or the people around you use it.   If the nickname sticks - it's your trail name.

Around diner time a girl and guy strolled up with just a small backpack.   Apparently there was a parking lot near by and they were hiking around trying to gather AT hiker stories for a college project the girl was working on.  She is working on her photojournalism major at University of Tennessee and her instructor noticed she didn't like to approach people so he challenged her with this project.  After some awkward moments of them standing there quietly observing us, we got them to come over and start talking to us.  Kelly and Pebbles picked up on her discomfort and started asking each other and the other hikers questions they thought she might ask.  That seemed to calm her down as she got caught up in the storytelling that was going on.

Partway through her "interview" a young girl showed up with no backpack or supplies  and informed us that she was lost and had been wandering around for 4 hours, unsure of how to get back where she started.   After she was given food and water she calmed down and was able to give us more info about where she had been and the couple that were interviewing us promised to drive her back to where we thought she had last seen her family as soon as they were done.

So they quickly wrapped up with a few questions, took photos of everyone and got our information and they headed out with the girl.   Within 30 minutes of them leaving a park ranger showed up looking for the girl.  Joining him was Colonel's wife and Grampy Mij's sister!  She surprised them with a visit since we were staying so close to a parking lot for the night.  She is here to refill them tomorrow with supplies but just couldn't wait to see them. They caught up while the park ranger verified the information about the missing girl and they soon headed back to the parking lot together.

During all of that we were joined by an Australian and his father in law, and a daughter and dad duo and several others.   We ended up with 13 people sleeping in the shelter and two in a tent outside.  While we were shoulder to shoulder sleeping in the shelter, everyone was nice and considerate.  

Day Five:

We woke to another foggy morning and made our coffee and oatmeal as the rest of the hikers were waking and getting ready for the day.  Colonel came by as we were preparing breakfast and declared that he had trail names for us.  Kelly was given the trail name Smiley and Todd was given Grumpy. So if we ever decide to hike more of the Appalachian Trail we will be known as Smiley and Grumpy. :-)

After breakfast, we said our goodbyes to Colonel and Grampy Mij (Pebbles and her entourage were still asleep) and started our hike down the mountains and off the Appalachian Trail.

Since we were going downhill, we made great time and the covered the first 5 miles in almost no time.  After a brief break, we turned off to head to our final campsite for the week.   It was a steep downhill trail that was seldom used so the brush was high and we were often walking through brambles up to our shoulders.

As we followed the switch backs down the mountain we eventually came to a creek and followed it down the steep trail with white and pink-flowered rhododendron climbing up high above us.

Along the way, we encountered the couple from Houston, who we met at the first shelter - they warned us that our next campsite was pretty, but covered with bees and that there were signs warning of bear encounters. We hiked the last two miles with worries that we might have to hike more than double our planned mileage if the site was closed.

When we arrived at the site, we met a wild-life warden who was in the process of closing the campsite due to bear activity!   Apparently someone left a bag unattended and a bear had been making multiple trips to the site over the past couple of days looking for yummy human food.  When this happens they close the site for two weeks, and the bear finally gives up and doesn't come back to check on the site regularly.  

We were glad our timing was so perfect.  If we had gotten there much later we would have just seen the closed signs and not known what to do.  The warden radioed the main office we were assign another site about 2 miles away.  With the additional two miles of hiking, this became our longest hiking day of the trip.  Lucky for us most of it had been downhill and the remaining two miles was fairly flat.

When we arrived at the new site, it looked perfect. There river was right next to the site. A welcoming fire ring and even a few trees to provide some shade and to hang our hammock from. And then the yellow jackets came.

First, Kelly was stung on the foot while we were attempting to hang the hammock. Then while we were at the river soaking her sting in the cool water, more bees started buzzing around. By the time we got back to the tent there were dozens of yellow jackets buzzing madly about. We ducked into the tent and zipped it close and watched the bees swarm on the other side of the mesh.

We decided to take a nap and hope that the yellow jackets would calm down and buzz away as long as we weren't bothering them. We were wrong.   For the next several hours the bees angrily swarmed around the campsite, covering our shoes, hats and other gear we had left outside the tent.   All we could do was watch and keep the tent zipped up tight so that none were able to get to us. Our plan was to relax in the tent until the sun started to go down and the yellow jackets returned to home with the cooling temperature. At first our plan was working as the sun dropped, the yellow jackets slowly started to disperse.  And then the second plague hit in the form of a thunderstorm and a torrential down-pouring of rain!

As soon as the rain hit, the yellow jackets disappeared and we dashed outside to secure our shoes and other gear in an attempt to keep it all dry. But the rain was too much too fast and we got soaked. Thankfully our tent stayed dry even though the campsite was flooded so bad that there was at least an inch of water under out tent!

After another dash outside to move the tent to higher ground, we dried ourselves off the best we could and resigned ourselves to a night without dinner. While we may have been hungry, we were at least safe and dry!

The rains continued for several more hours and we eventually fell asleep while listening to the rain and thunder booming and echoing off the mountains.