Day 17, 7-1

Caleb and I awoke and attacked Clingman's Dome, the highest point on the AT. Its in the Smokies (obviously), which surprised me. I had expected the highest point of the trail to be in the Whites, or somewhere else in New England, not in NC. But cool! So we got up and started hiking. It was a decent climb as we trekked along, and saw more actual factual real life Christmas Trees. That was neat. We get to the top, where they've got this huge spiral structure thing standing, and we see...clouds. We were socked in on every side, with no chance of seeing much of the incredible view. At some point, I'll do the Smokies again, night hike up to Clingmans, and watch the sun rise. But on a clear day. The odd thing about this place is that there's a parking lot...maybe half a mile away. This being the highest point of the AT, it's fairly popular. So C and I emerge from the woods, hairy, smelly, and funny looking (hiker clothes don't look like regular people clothes), and find a thin but consistent stream of tourists walking up the spaceship thing. We walk up and look around, then settle in. I walk down and get my and Caleb's long sleeved shirts, because it was cold, walk back up, and watch the people for a while. They were very odd. You get used to seeing other hikers, with the hiker mindset, etc, on trail. These people were so different. They were so fast...it was weird. Everyone would walk to the top, look about for maybe five minutes, then off they went, back down to their car. We were weirded out. So-Close showed up and we spoke with her, and we all shared our disbelief over the haste of people. Then she walked down to her pack (why carry our packs up when we could leave them there at the bottom?), picked up her stove and some oatmeal, and we made oatmeal. It wasn't that far from breakfast, but whatever. You have to eat everything you can. So we did. After the oatmeal we waited a bit more, hoping the clouds would clear. They didn't, so we decided to get moving, since we had to get to the next shelter (Icewater) and had...I don't know...10 to 12 more miles to go? So we started walking again. And found that the Mountains to Sea Trail and the AT shared some Trail for a while. The M-to-S trail goes from Clingman's Dome to Jockey's ridge on the Outer Banks of NC, and that's on the list of hikes to do. Caleb and I spent a little time on it a few years earlier. It was a lovely day, and immensely enjoyable to hike. After...11 miles, because I remember telling that to a lady we met there, we got to Newfound Gap. For those who have read 'A Walk in the Woods', this is where Bryson bails. Newfound Gap has a road. This road leads to Gatlinburg, where he (and Katz, who is COMPLETELY made-up) realizes that the AT is long (really? who would have thought...) and decides to cheat. I don't like Bill Bryson very much. But we'll talk about him at a later date. Newfound Gap weirded me out. It was big! There were a lot of cars, a lot of people, and C and I got a lot of looks from those people. The Prof (I'll talk about him in depth later) and So Close later said they were besieged with questions, but since C and I were together, I think everyone was too skittish to approach two of those smelly AT hikers. We hung out a little, got water and used a civilized bathroom, and headed out again. We passed a lot of people initially, but as we got maybe a mile out from the gap itself, the crowds thinned down a whole lot. Too far to walk. Apparently. A few miles later, we reach Icewater Shelter. Two members of the RSC were there, L and T, and we spoke with them for a while. T gave us some awesome gorp, and then they both recommended that we check out this spot we had passed earlier, 'The Jump Off'. So C and I truck down to that, and it was totally worth the trip. It was this incredible spot where you could stand at the edge of a cliff that was jutting out from the wall of the mountain, and saw this incredible valley stretching out away from you for ages and ages. Glorious. We marveled for a while, then decided that it was time to return (we may have been getting chilly...it gets ridiculously cold that high up (about 5000-6000 feet).
We returned to find The Professor and the other two members of the RSC, C and M. There'll have to be a long section on the RSC...it was good times. Memorable times. Anyway, we ate and then hopped into our sleeping bags...


More real life Christmas Trees. And clouds.

















Me, on the way up the spaceship/viewing platform!












C and I's packs, from the top of the thing.













The gray sky.













A moment of clarity...













So Close took this of C and I! Highest point of the AT! That's C's superhero shirt. It's awesome.












The MST!!













Heading out! Doing well.


















Where the MST leaves the AT


















Some creative chainsawing! There were a lot of these. They're awesome!












A lot of trees had fallen, and this one had particularly impressive root structure.

















A giant Rock taken up into the air by the roots of this tree.












C on the line at Newfound Gap. We had been crossing the border for a while, but this was the first sign!











View from Newfound.













Rockerfeller put up 1/2 the $ to buy all the land in the Smokies. The Gov put up the rest. Lets hear it for philanthropists!











Another awesome view.













The view from the Jump Off...


















And again, The Jump Off


















Looking down the cliff...that's a long way down...


















Jump Off again. We were hoping we didn't have to go down that way...it looked steep, and I hate going down...

Day 16, 6-30

Caleb and I started off the day by climbing a mountain. Nothing new in that, because that's what we'd been doing for about two weeks now. But this mountain was Rocky Top, in the Smokies. And we emerge on the top of Rocky Top to a breathtaking vista of folded mountains and cerulean skies. We dropped our packs, looked around, and said: wow. a few times. and then we just looked. It was a moment to numb the brain with the immensity of the world. It was the first time I was able to continue taking pictures while moving a little, to get an entire 360 view of the grandness around us. It was truly gorgeous.
We kept walking. Around...lunchtime, perhaps? Afternoonish? We run into a shelter with some trail magic! There was a Backpacker's Pantry Chocolate Cheesecake freeze dried Glorious Tasty Dessert of Joy. We made it immediately. And then reveled in eating it. We lay back, on the grass, and let the sun soak into us for a while, just indolently lounging in the wonderful greatness of it all.
After a while, we had to get moving again. It was near this time that I had...well, a guy we had met earlier told us: 'watch out for the Smokies! They'll open your mind!' I hadn't thought of it much at the time, other than a very cursory 'yeah whatever', but this day sorta changed my mind completely about that. I was walking along after Caleb, and we were in the midst of these trees...short little things, I guess it was getting too high up for them to do well in that climate, so they didn't have many mid level branches, only a fluffy top and scraggly trunk, so it was very shade-and-light mottled, while we had been in shade for a while. Due to the abundance of light, there was a great abundance of grass on the ground. Not really on the trail, but thick, long, whispery grass. These little white moths kept flitting out of them when Caleb passed, and they would catch the light and shine and glimmer as they fluttered through the air. I walked and walked and looked and saw and knew that the Earth was Beautiful and Simple and Elegant. It was Beautiful in it's Simplicity, and Elegant in the Simple Beauty, and Simple in the Elegant Beauty of the World around me. I walked and I looked and I could feel the Beauty radiating from every leaf of grass, every brilliant moth, every tree and leaf. The air around me radiated Glory, and I basked in it. Reveled in it. Exalted in it.
It was in this mental state that we swung into a shelter that we were considering sleeping at, but it was full of dayhikers. Dayhikers can be awesome (great source of Trail Magic, if they know what the deal is), or they can be really annoying because they don't understand the Leave No Trace Principle and they don't really understand why we long distance hikers do what we do. So we moved on to the next shelter. At this shelter was a deer that had grown far too comfy with humans, and was munching on the tall grass around our shelter with only an occasional eye on us. So we took pictures.
Oh! We also saw some more bears today! Momma said move, and the cubs moved (to where, I don't know), but then momma snuffled again, and the poles were flying as C and I made our way past with all haste...it's something else to hear a bear snuffle at you with defensiveness. You're on even ground out there. I can't imagine what a grizzly would be like...quite...fear inspiring.

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A shelter. We had to sleep in them. They were hard.












The ascent up Rocky Top. Neat little meadows dotted the trail.












The Trail totally went through an arch of branches. It was awesome!

















One of the panorama Pictures...













Another Panorama













Another...can you see what I loved it?













Caleb!













Bobbin and Oops.













More great scenery













And again!













A tree fell on Caleb. But he caught it, then tossed it off the trail. He's a beast...what can I say?















No, really...

We are tired. We are happy. Glorious!













Clingman's Dome. Tomorrow!













Another vista before bedtime.


















C in front of a real life actual factual Christmas Tree! Oh, they smelled marvelous!

















The deer of Closeness


















More of the Deer of Closeness. You can see the AT Hiker's Handbook in my pack.

Day 15, 6-29

So we woke at the Fontana Hilton fairly early. C because he was uncomfy in the shelter, and I because I heard him crunching on the rocks that are around the shelter. Or So Close wanted to get an early start and woke us. Regardless, we woke early, and wandered down to the Fontana Dam Visitor's Center, where we were planning on calling a shuttle and getting picked up to go into Wesser. There was little to no traffic on the road, so hitching was out, and we wanted a sure ride, even if we had to toss a few bucks to get it. We show up at the center, and its closed. Moreover, it won't open until 9, and it was like, 730. There were bathrooms with showers in them, so I took my dirty self to those with some camp soap, showered and washed my clothing, which went right back on, then emerged. C went in to do the same, and soon after he came out, a van swung by with some guys. They had gotten a shuttle from Hot Springs, and were doing the section from Fontana to Hot Springs. We talked to the shuttle driver, and he ended up giving us a ride into Wesser, the town nearby. C and I needed to pick up our mail (PO opens at 9...sigh), and we both wanted a large breakfast. We get into town, and its...frightening in its smallness. I can't express aptly how small this town was. It was tiny. Miniscule. Mote-like. There are almost more people in my family than live in that town. There was a general store, a PO, and a hotel. The hotel was very nice, and people go out there to get away from it all...little realizing that away from it all means that there's nothing nearby remotely resembling anything to do. Except hike an awesome trail. But if you're into that, you'd have gotten there the old fashioned way, and not stay at the hotel. Unless you really wanted to, because you needed to stay someplace and shower. I digress.
We wandered around a while trying to find a place to eat. The restaurant was closed, so we ended up going up to the hotel. We had only split a clif bar (I've a passion for splitting, I don't know why) at the shelter, so we were hungry at this point. Very much so. The hotel had a restaurant. The restaurant was open. Caleb and I were happy. We ordered, and lots of food came out. And we finished it all. I don't think I could have in real life, but this was a special occasion. Caleb got some perfect French Toast. It looked perfect. Exquisite. Slabs of soft bread dusted with powdered sugar and radiating toasty brown tastiness. I ordered...something large. I forget what, but I had syrup. Pancakes, perhaps? I'm going with those. My syrup was in a little ramekin, and when I saw it, I thought: I'm going to finish that. And everything else on my plate. So C and I shoveled in, were silent for a while as we shoveled, and then sat back, replete and satiated. Then we wandered over to the PO. We were warned the lady was cranky, so we were very polite, and she was as well, so I think the people just annoyed her. We picked up our stuff, sorted through it all, picked up a few items (cheese) at the general store that we needed that couldn't be mailed, and called the shuttle. Wandered back over to the Dam, and set off towards the Smokes.
The Smokies...mmmm...incredible. Early on in the trip, we ran into a guy that said, 'you guys will really enjoy the Smokies. They'll open your mind'. I didn't believe him until the day after this one, when my mind was opened...it was crazy.
So the entrance to the Smokes isn't as magnificent as the Smokies warrant, but it starts off with a climb up Shuckstack mountain. This had been compared with the Jump Up from the NOC, so I was worried, but about an hour or two later we stood at (basically) the end of the climb, and thought: are we done already? It was a really simple climb, and one that convinced me my trail legs showed up. Which is nice. There was an awesome tower off the trail a bit, we had been told to go see it, and it was totally worth it. It was, I think, for fire-spotting, but had long since been discarded or unused or whatever. Anyway, we went up. It was awesome.
We came on down, continued our trek, and had some other interesting adventures. We saw our first bear! It was...incredible. So Close, because she was hiking by her lonesome, and quietly, had seen several at that point. C and I, because we made lots of noise, had seen none. But we're rolling along, we hear a big noise to our right and behind us, and lots of movement. Lots. Think...well...a bear running through lots of crunchy leaves. Its loud. I assume it was a mom, and the crunching was the cubs running away/up trees, but we didn't see them. Just momma's head, swinging around, interested in what was going on. We were torn between looking back and moving forward, because she was big. We only saw her head, and she was big. Big like woah. That was the first bear encounter. It was awesome.
A few hours later, we roll up to the first shelter. We were thinking of spending the night there, but quickly changed our minds. You have to spend your nights in the shelters in the Smokies, they have bear cables rigged up, and you hoist all your stuff up out of reach, then sleep in the shelter to minimize impact on the trail/surrounding area. This was great for the people who tented and stuff, but horrible for C and I. Our hammocks are the most comfy things ever, and not having them...sad times. So we show up, and there's a troop of Boy Scouts there. C and I look at each other, plop down on the bottom tier, and look at our map. There was another shelter maybe 2.5 miles down the trail...we eat some gorp and think it over. The boyscouts had various and sundry conversations that teenaged boys have. C and I were still thinking of stopping, until a conversation started about bears. One said he'd punch one in the face if it came into the shelter. Another gave an example of how he'd hold knives between his fingers, and then punch it. C and I moved on. Boyscouts. While there are good ones out there, the vast majority...sheesh.
Anyway, we keep going, and roll into the shelter to find So Close there already. We set up and sack out, then meet a few others. We had passed a guy with two sons of his on Shuckstack, and they ended up wandering in. Two ladies that were doing the smokies next, and then a guy from the UK who was spending a year in the States. He was leaving on July Fourth (a bi' ironic, me leaving for england on the 4th, isn't it?) for back home. He had been all over, climbing in Utah, hiking all over, and now was out for a few days before heading on back.
We're all eating dinner, or finishing up, or doing dishes, when So close looks up from her journal, and says, 'Guys, a bear!'. Everyone freezes and looks. There's a juvenile bear moseying down the trail, following the AT and ignoring us. It was surreal...he walked right by all of us, as we all watched him warily, moseying along. He stood about 3 feet high, didn't look that thick. His fur was black and tan striped, which was really neat, but a little odd too. Like a tiger, almost. Didn't make any sound as he went, just tottered along and disappeared down the trail, further down the road. Surreal, but totally awesome.
Then it was bedtime, and we discovered the mice. Mice in the Smokies are bold. This one scurried all around, amazing us with his acrobatic agility. I was very glad that my pack was the one hoisted this night.
This was also the first shelter we felt the effects of drought, and not having our own water filter. When we show up, they report to us that the spring is dry, and basically, its a drainage puddle we'll be drinking out of. So Close lent us her filter, so we were able to procure water, but it would have been a thirsty one if we hadn't found it.

The Smokies in the Morning from the Fontana Hilton. What a sight to wake up to.












The Smokies, and the level of Fontana Lake. It fell a lot...












Part of Fontana Dam













I think that's Clingman's Dome in the distance, but I'm not sure.












Fontana Lake again.













Here we go!













The Dam we just walked over. Its a long dam.













Fontana Lake, from the Shuckstack Tower













And again. I think we climbed up that ridge.













Picturesque Valley













The tower. Someone lived down there, you can see the old chimney on the right.












The Smokies...













The Tower


















Us, and an awesome sign. I loved it. We had to get a picture of it.












There was a bear around there somewhere! I'm not sure where, but that's where I took the picture in the bear's general direction.

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