Just Jeff's Outdoors Page

"Going to the woods is going home, for I suppose we came from the woods originally." ~John Muir

100 Miles (almost) in the Smokies
Great Smoky Mountains Natonal Park
3-9 June 2010

So I finished up my first semester teaching and had three weeks of leave coming up. We had a lot to do...seeing family in Nebraska, checking on the rental place in North Carolina, visiting family in Atlanta, and finishing off by seeing my mom in Florida and watching my sister graduate from high school! I'm so proud of her... ...but that also meant that I could squeeze in a weeklong hike for myself. I posted a thread on Hammock Forums asking for suggestions, and I settled on a week in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). Hiking the Appalachian Trail thru the park wouldn't take me a week, but I wanted to hike at least part of it...Charlie's Bunyon and Clingman's Dome. I also really like waterfalls, and the Smokies have a lot of falls. So I took out the Smokies map that came with my AT guide for NC/TN and started connecting waterfalls.

I ended up hiking the length of the park. My family dropped me off at Mt Sterling Ranger Station just off I-40 at the north end of the park, and I hiked a smattering of trails to get to Fontana Dam in the south. The mileage on the ATC map was consistently less than the mileage posted on the trail signs, but all told it was right around 100 miles...probably 97 or so.

This was a great trip! I did some night hiking, saw some bears (one walked right thru the campsite and circled us all night), drank water right from springs, got rain-soaked and didn't care, sweated, thought about nothing and everything, used the Bushbuddy with wet wood every day, slept alone most nights, sweated some more, caught a snake, ate free smoked pork chops, bought two ice creams from the Fontana Dam gift shop, where the lady made me eat half her hamburger and most of her fries, and I took a glorious shower...then drove straight to FL for Megan's graduation.

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Day One - 3 June 2010
We stayed in a nearby hotel last night, so I planned on about an hour's drive and I'd be hiking no later than 10am...but that didn't work out so well. We left the hotel almost on time, but then...well, I couldn't read the map to find the trailhead. It's not so much that I couldn't read it, but I'm used to reading 1:24 topos and this was 1:70 so the road we were on didn't look like the right one (proportions on the map weren't what I was expecting to see)...even though we were on the right one...and we missed the turn. Then went back and made a best-guess on the other road, and ended up taking a great scenic tour of hairpin turns and steep climbs. It was actually great scenery, but I think Jennifer was a little nervous on such a narrow winding road.

So we finally got to the Mt Sterling Ranger Station about noon instead of the ~10:30 we would have been there had I not gotten us lost (still trying to figure out how to blame it on Jennifer :p ). We said some quick goodbyes and they left to check on our rental place in North Carolina and see old friends. I had to call for my shelter reservations and eat some lunch before I started walking...but the reservations phone wasn't working, and of course there was no cell signal there. So I just wrote that on my permit and said I'd try to call later when I got reception. I ended up getting started around 1pm. On Day One I planned ~12.5 miles, going from Mt Sterling Ranger Station to Laurel Gap Shelter:

Trail
Miles
Notes
Mt Sterling1.0Road walk
Big Creek Trail5.2Midnight Hole, Moose Creek Falls
Camel Gap Trail1.0
Gunter Fork Trail4.1Gunter Fork Falls
Balsam Mtn Trail1.1
Here's my pack size at the Mt. Sterling Ranger Station. It's just under 30 lbs and has everything I need for the seven day trip without resupply.

It's a Gossamer Gear Miniposa, and this pic shows one of my favorite simple pieces of gear. The SmarTube is a hydration tube with special caps that fit all kinds of different bottles. There's one for Nalgene-sized lids and many kinds of commercial water bottles. I like using the 1L Fiji bottles, and this cap fits it perfectly. I like 1L because I use MicroPur pills and they're sized for 1L, and I like bottles so I can drink out of them like a normal bottle at meals and so that I can put drink mix in there and just throw them away...I don't use mix in my bladders b/c I don't like them to get cruddy. But with the SmarTube I get the benefits of both. Plus, with two bottles I just switch the tube to the second bottle while I refill and treat the first.
This trip had LOTS of stream crossings...this picture was taken from the bridge between the ranger station and the beginning of Big Creek Trail
Big Creek Trail Sign...took this one for ~5.2 miles to Camel Gap Trail, passing Midnight Hole and Mouse Creek Falls.
I ended up passing Midnight Hole, but I spent some time getting pics of Mouse Creek Falls. The light was so harsh that none of them came out very well, but it's a beautiful waterfall. It's only two miles in and the trail is wide and heavily used, so it looks like this spot gets a lot of visitors. Three folks showed up as I was taking pictures, making me realize that I'd have to keep hiking before finding any kind of solitude.

While I was here, I also put on some DEET and had some Ultralight Joe's Moose Goo. The gnats were crazy on parts of the trail...getting in my eyes and sometimes my ears, but as soon as I put on the DEET they poofed away (but only for a little while).

The Moose Goo tasted great. In my home tests I was a little concerned about how rich and sweet it was, but on the trail I was craving the calories. This stuff feels heavy until you realize how many calories are in it. I made two batches for this trip - one according to the recipe and one with half corn flour and half protein powder. Both were great!
Here you can see the injury that almost cancelled my hike. We visited some family in Nebraska, and for three days we took Joker to the skate park...where I had to prove that I was still young enough to ride a skateboard. I did pretty well, too...until the last day. After we had packed up, we dropped by to show mom what he had learned, and planned to get right in the car and leave from there. And that's when I fell and smacked my wrist on the concrete. I didn't let on that it hurt, though...it didn't feel like anything was that bad.

So I put some ice water in a sandwich bag and drove for 3 hrs with it on my wrist...and the swelling hadn't gone down at all. I went an ER in Nebraska City right at the eastern state line and got some X-rays. The radiologist wasn't there to give me the results but said to call back and get the results. They gave me this brace, which helped a lot. I don't think it would have been safe to go w/o this brace. I know I couldn't have used poles without it!
Some of the more well-used sites were closed due to aggressive bear activity. This sign was at sites 36 and 37, about 5 miles in.

The gnats were pretty bad along this area...GRRRR!!
Much of the trail looked like this. In other areas, the Rhododendron and Magnolias were dropping flower petals all over the trail...lots of color everywhere. I also saw lots of deer tracks, centipedes, and those black and red millipedes that curl up and smell like cherries when they're threatened.
My camera stopped focusing well so many of the pictures came out blurry. I think some moisture got inside the lens, actually.

This is a little falls into a pool that wasn't marked on the map...I think it was on Gunter Fork Trail. Beautiful area...I wish it showed up better!
Another shot of what the trail looks like in this area. Even with such beautiful trail, one thing kept popping into my head...seven days of food is heavy.
So I did my 12.5 miles in about 7 hours...maybe a bit ambitious for the first trail day, with my pack full of food and not having my trail legs yet. But it felt great to be on the trail again (even with 10 stream crossings today) and I rolled in to Laurel Gap Shelter just before it got dark. I gotta say it was nice coming from 7000' in Colorado to hike at 3000' in North Carolina. My upper hammies were a bit tight, but I was rarely out of breath even on the climbs. I felt strong. I do think that miles in the Smokies are longer than normal miles, though...at least 7000' instead of 5280'. Maybe it's only 5281', but whatever the real number is I just know it's not accurate and I'm gonna talk to somebody about as soon as I figure out who to call.

There were already some folks in the shelter so I tried to be quiet...three women in a group and a man hiking solo. I still had to eat, and I debated having a cold meal b/c the wood was all pretty wet from recent rains and all I brought was the Bushbuddy Ultra. Those thoughts didn't last long, though, and I brought back a big branch from the spring to split up with my new SEAL Pup Elite. It took a bit to get the fire going...the firestarter didn't want to work, and even olive oil didn't want to burn. But I got it going, cooked dinner (Mountain House Beef Stroganoff...pretty good), and kept the BB burning while I ate, just for the atmosphere. Used that fire to dry out some good tinder and kindling for tomorrow's dinner, and put it in a sandwich bag. I finally crashed at about 11pm.

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