Date: 2009-10-13
From: Newfound Gap TN/NC

To: Tri Corner Shelter GSMNP
Miles today: 15.6

Bugsy and Burly Girl back down South to complete the Great Smoky Mt Nat'l Park piece of the AT. As we mentioned last week, the Park Service requires reservations (no fee, but you must call and reserve within the month that you would like to stay) at the shelters in the park. Most of the shelters sleep 12 and no tenting is allowed (due to the bear situation) so this is an attempt to control backcountry hikers' overnights and is also a security measure so that the Park Service knows who is where.Access:South--Newfound Gap is an easy 1/2 hour drive south from Gatlinburg. We were happy to escape all of the cotton candy stands, wax museums, and the swarm of humanity there! The parking lot at Newfound Gap is huge and appears safe to leave cars overnight.North--Tri Corner Gap Shelter is the third shelter north from Newfound Gap in GSMNP. The Hike:Our first choice for this northern stretch of the Smokies was to do another two shelter/three day hike (just as we had done last week in the southern portion of the park) due to the distance--23.6 miles from Newfound Gap to the Low Gap Trail where we would exit the AT and hike a side trail for 2.8 mi back to our second car. BUT we could not get two continuous shelter reservations for this time period so we bit the bullet and decided to hike to Pecks Corner Shelter on day #1 (10 mi) and the rest of the trail (13.6 plus the 2.8 side trail) on day #2.That was before we woke up on the morning of the hike, tuned in to weather.com and learned that day #2 was 100% chance of rain with 'heavy rain' between 11am and 2pm! What to do?? We decided to go ahead with the hike as the temperatures sounded decent and who knew what things would be like later in the month. Rain we can take...freezing rain we can't.We also decided that it would make sense to get in as much mileage today as possible and that we should move on to the shelter beyond Pecks Corner which was Tri Corner and which would tack another 5 miles onto today. We didn't want to move ahead without changing our reservation...what if there were already 12 hikers there and we were forced to sleep down on the dirt with mouse feces, etc.? What if a ridgerunner caught us with a 'false' reservation and fined us? More on all this later...Back to the trail...It was a beautiful day and a very nice trail. The 1200' up to Icewater Shelter was not bad at all and we did the 3 miles in 1.5 hr. We stopped in for a snack and met four men and their young sons who had spent the night here. The views down on the clouds below were spectacular.Right after the shelter the hike was a ridgewalk along the narrow path and we could see in each direction. Mist was blowing up the mountain and across our path making us feel like we were walking in a cloud!At every high point on the trail Bugsy pulled out his cell phone and tried to phone GSMNP so that we could change our reservation for tonight...no service! Then, much to our surprise, along came a ridgerunner...the first one we have encountered this season. We explained our situation, she got on her walkie-talkie, and our problem was solved. We think her name was Susan, so thank you Susan! We talked to her for a while and picked her brain about bears and what to do if we encountered one. She said that there had been a 400 lb-er hanging around Tri Corner Shelter (our new home for the night!), but that she hadn't seen it in a while and hadn't read about any recent bear activity there in a while (what is bear activity?? do they come out at night for a game of pinochle? have they been eating unaware hikers in the middle of the night?). At any rate, Susan said that they usually go away if you throw rocks in their direction and make loud noises. Tonight we begin our rock collection! We said goodbye to our ridgerunner friend who said that there would only be one other hiker at the shelter tonight (and we were worried about sleeping on the dirt with mouse feces), and that he would be glad to see us as he didn't want to stay there alone...more on this later...On down the trail we went with the beautiful ridge views continuing. We stopped at an open east facing rock face, put down, and cooked lunch on our JetBoil...if we are carrying it, we will use it! Besides, a hot lunch once in a while is a good thing.We came to the shelter (Pecks Corner) that was our original destination around 2:30 and pushed on. As we got closer to Tri Corner Shelter, the elevation increased and we were in the clouds. It grew damper and chillier.We arrived at Tri Corner Shelter around 5:40--9 hr and 40 min after we had left Newfound Gap. We were greeted by...a HUGE guinea hen!! There was no other hiker...he had either been eaten by the 400 lb bear or had decided to hightail it to the next shelter in search of human companionship (not knowing that we would be arriving).In any case, it was quite clear that this guinea hen lived at the shelter and that we were only temporary visitors! Burly Girl has cooked smaller birds than this at Christmas! We had to keep shooing it away from our packs, our food, and even us. It finally disappeared for the night.We quickly gathered stones (ammunition), cooked our dinner, filtered water, and prayed that Mr. Bear would not make an appearance, as we had the entire shelter to ourselves. It was a very LOOOOOOOOONG night...