Date: 2008-06-11
To: Smoky Mountains Part I
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

I have a friend, Helen, whom I have know for about 25 years but when she lived near me we never hiked together. She then moved to Knoxville, Tennessee and we lost touch with one another. Last year, she heard that I was Thru hiking and she offered to pick me up at the beginning and the end of the Smoky Mt. and voila (that is for Helen as she is French Canadian and I am English Canadian (small world), we have become hiking buddies. We decided to hike part of the Smoky Mountains together and so I was back on the trail for five nights and six days and it felt wonderful. I drove down to her house and her friend, Kim, took us to the trail Monday morning. We went up Big Creek Trail and that connected with the AT at Low Gap and we hiked to Cosby Shelter for the first night. Now I had not expected to meet any Thru hikers, as it was June 9th, way to late; right! WRONG! I met them every day starting with the first night. Helen had not been to the Cosby Knob shelter since it had been replaced and now even has a privy. It was quiet warm the first night and the gnats were horrendous! The next day we hiked to Tri Corner Knob Shelter. I think it is amazing how I can remember what the day was like; whom I stayed with at each shelter, or that I just had lunch there, and the sights I saw more than a year ago. I guess when you are traveling at 2 miles an hour or less you tend to remember things better. At the Cosby Knob Shelter we had had a very quiet night, but not here. First we met Stacy from Florida, who is out for a three day hike alone, then there was a trail maintainer group led by Hopeful (AT-04) who were tenting nearby but needed to cook, etc., at the shelter. They were a lively group and even brought along a guitar to play. Later, Turock, a northbound Thru joined the growing group. I really enjoyed talking to him and told him if he can get to my house by July 4 I would pick him up!And the Cotton family arrived. They are a family of three from Wisconsin who are backpacking for a few days. We call them the Cotton family, as everything they had was cotton and damp already: sweatshirts, socks, t-shirts etc. and only fleece sleeping bags with no pads. By the morning we were really teasing, them but they took it well and looked at a lot of our gear for their next trip. Day three we hiked to Peck¢s Corner Shelter only 5 miles away. In the Smoky Mountain National Park you have to have a permit to stay at each shelter and we had tried to go north and make it a five day trip but they could not accommodate us, so we changed direction to south and added a day to be able to complete the hike. I actually liked going south as we were mostly alone during the day and the hiking was somewhat harder as we were going up most of the time. Our new friend, Stacy, caught up to us as she has hiked an extra 6 miles and we were going very slowly and taking lots of breaks and, in general, enjoying ourselves. She came panting up to us as she had just seen a bear cub with no mother and it had frightened her, as it should. We all stopped at Eagle Rock and then hiked to the shelter together.There were three male section hikers there when we arrived and three more Thru hikers came in later. We had another rainstorm but kept dry in the shelter.That night Helen and I had gone up to the privy before we climbed into our sleeping bags and when I came out she said, ¢I think I saw a fox!¢ So we crept down the trail to see it closer, and all of a sudden this huge wild boar poked its head up and started running up the trail toward us! We turned around and ran for the safety of the privy and stayed in there until we thought it was gone. A pretty funny sight, I am sure.