Date: 2016-06-08
From: Cosby Knob Shelter

To: Green Corner Road (Standing Bear Hostel)
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 4: Cosby Knob Shelter to Standing Bear HostelGPS MilesElev GainTrip MilesTrip GainDaily AvgAvg Gain11.6150977.319,13019.34,783I woke up even colder than yesterday and had to do some jogging around the shelter area to warm up. I slept in until 8, but wanted to haul a little ass in order to make it to Standing Bear in time to get the treehouse. Around 7 AM, while I slept, I had turned 40, and now needed comfort.Maybe three miles shy of Davenport Gap shelter, I ran into a guy with enough stuff to masquerade as a thru-hiker, who asked me how far it was to the I-40. Where I had come from. Ooops.I told him I was 101% sure I was headed toward the I-40, but read "NE" from my Garmin to make it objective. He had gone uphill for three miles in the wrong direction.I got my last bottle of park water at Davenport Gap shelter and kept right on going. After the I-40 crossing, I missed the staircase going into the woods, so I went back and hiked it southbound, with a nearly empty pack after I'd checked into Standing Bear. There was an orange tassel marking the staircase, so I must have been looking in the wrong direction to miss something so obvious. Morgan, who works at the hostel, said that going southbound was easier, and he was right. To get back up the hill, I redid the hot road walk in my ridiculous-looking desert hat with the built-in redneck preventer, while drinking a Diet Coke that was still cool.Standing Bear was great, though I suppose it's not to everyone's taste. It has a rustic, handmade look with its own charm. From what I know, most of the things there were built by Curtis, the late owner, and now by Morgan. Maria and Morgan were pleasant and the prices were reasonable, both for stay and for resupply. You can even park your car there for $5/day.For any fellow vegans out there, the resupply is more limited, but it should be enough to get anybody to Hot Springs whether they are vegan or not, unless they absolutely refuse to eat added sodium. There was even organic oatmeal.I bought a few sodas, a bag of blue corn chips (skipping the high-sodium salsa though), a few 720-calorie bags of trail mix, a few oatmeal packets, some ziplock bags to replace my worn ones, and a small bottle of hand sanitizer. That's just a small sample of what's available. There is the DiGiorno Pizza and the PBR.I drank 3 PBRs, and was treated to a 4th by a new trail buddy, who I had first met just before Tri-Corner Knob. He was a high school teacher from GA and a half-marathoner, who hiked a section each year after school was out. At Tri-Corner Knob, he had been lucky enough to witness a bear being tranquilized, tagged, and worked-up by a park ranger and a graduate student, so he told us the story as we sat around the fire and drank PBRs.As we talked and he learned of my plans, he discarded the idea of HYOH and decided he was going to hike my hike. He was going to try to hike to his car, which was parked in Hot Springs at the Laughing Heart Hostel, on the same ambitious itinerary as me. I wasn't absolutely sure I could make the hike, myself, but I was reasonably sure I could. I had put in the time grinding out back-to-back 20+ mile days in GSMNP over the last month. I had planned a 10-mile nearo that day specifically so I could rest and eat. Meanwhile, he had just finished an 18 mile day from Tri-Corner Knob, which I guessed was probably his longest hike ever.Anyway, there was a lot of laughter and a lot of stories and sharing around the fire. The highlight of my night was talking with Jolly. He is in the same industry I was in, when I lived in Chicago a few years ago. He really loves the trail and plans 30-day section hikes every year. There was another guy, from the Chicago suburbs, and a guy from West Virginia who taught us about asbestos removal. There was also a young couple, half of whom had to get off the trail for a little bit due to a knee injury. They had a well-behaved Weimeraner who was allowed in the Smokies by virtue of being a service dog and who was doing very well on the trail.The treehouse I rented was excellent, but I didn't get to lounge around because I felt more social with the small day I'd done, and I had to dump garbage, pare down my load to bare essentials, shower and wash my shirt and shorts, and repack. I washed my short-sleeved shirt and shorts in the shower using the rest of the dish soap I'd brought, and then stood around in the sun for a while, eating chips and drinking PBR. While at the hostel, I was supposed to be following my mantra of ABE: Always. Be. Eating. Always Be Eating. ALWAYS BE EATING! Unfortunately, I got distracted by alcohol and conversation and didn't eat as much as I'd liked. My eyes should have been bigger and I should have bought more easy to eat food rather than oatmeal, which I ate with orange soda instead of water.Finally, I'm shortening my name to Camel, because most people seem to confuse me with CamelBak products, which I have no connection to, although if you're out there, I'll mention you in my trail journals in exchange for some swag. Camel sounds better anyway.Note: There are two Garmin courses below. The first is the one with the road walk instead of the AT. The second is the missing piece only.View Course in Garmin Connect View Course in Garmin Connect