Date: 2003-10-04
From: Cosby Campground

To: Low Gap	I-40
Miles today: 9.1

We are in the Great Smoky Mountains for a weeks vacation. We are hiking one day on the trail this week. Got up early at Roaring Fork Motel, Gatlinburg, TN. Had cereal in our room. We have to drive our rental car out to I-40, On the Waterville Road. We are going to hike from the Cosby campground up to Low Gap and down the Appalachian Trail, to our car on Interstate 40. So we have done our shuttling and parked our car at the Cosby registration area, that adds 4/10 of a mile to our hike. We got to the Low gap trailhead at 8:41 am. it¢s been nonstop since then, Cindy is a hiking demon, she¢s feeling strong. 1900 feet elevation nonstop and 2.9 miles off trail, and we got to Low Gap at 10:05 a.m. today is not a perfect day, it¢s cloudy, windy and cool. It must be 50° or so. There are a bunch of people up here at Low Gap, They are moving on now toward Mount Cammerer. They are a group of about eight people. It¢s Saturday in the Smokies Park, there is going to be people out. we are going to be on our way shortly, heading to Mount Cammerer. Check that out for lunch, then head on out to our car, before it gets dark.We are leaving Low Gap at 10:40 a.m. While sitting in the trees trying to protect ourselves from the cold and wind, this large group walked by from Murray State University or Walther University. They are all part of some class, human development. We did pass 2 guys about halfway up to Low Gap, puffing and huffing and having a hard time making it up the mountain. We passed several of the girls from the University on the way to mount Cammerer. We get to the turnoff for mount Cammerer at 11:47 a.m. Going to the lookout adds another 1.2 miles off trail to our hike. We arrived at Mount Cammerer at about noon and stayed there a full hour. it was cloudy cold and windy up there. about five windows of the lookout were broken out, so it was breezy inside.We sat inside with about a dozen other people and had our lunch. we drank our water and listened to the people talk. The girls were all freshman basketball players at Walther state. They all left after a short while, and Cindy and I were there by ourselves. We took a few pictures and tried to stay warm. it was very cold up there. We were a little wet from sweating on the way up. As we were leaving six more people come in the door to the shelter. And then another four people right in the door behind them. And then the two guys who were struggling earlier showed up. The two guys still look really beat, but congratulations, you made it. We got back to the Cammerer junction at 1:15 pm. Here we are back on the Appalachian Trail, a new section of the Appalachian Trail for us. so we are finally getting some new Appalachian Trail mileage. And we are in the Smokies and every now and then the sun shines. That makes it a great day now. The six people who just arrived at Mt. Cammerer as we left, have now just passed us. Running, they don¢t know why they¢re running, but they don¢t want to stop. We saw a lot more people coming up the mountain, it¢s Saturday and people are out. But now the weather has improved. It¢s sunny, 2:30 PM in the afternoon, we¢re sitting on the side of the recently maintained trail section. They¢ve been putting steps here on the trail. It was steep and rocky higher on the mountain. We passed the lower Mount Cammerer trail and then another mile to the Chestnut Branch Trail. We did that really fast. Then another mile to Devonport Gap Shelter, and we did that fast.It was a nice shelter with the original stone and chain-link fence front. It had a porch with benches to sit on, and two lawn chairs to sit in. While we were there some people showed up and Terry scared this little girl, because she didn¢t know he was in the shelter. Two more guys showed up from Atlanta and we had a good time talking with them. One of them was backpacking from Davenport Gap to Fontana Dam. His nickname was Turtle or Rabbit. His friend Dick was going back down the mountain to his car at Devonport Gap. He walked all the way with us down to the road (Tenn 32, NC 284). At the road he offered us a ride to our car, but we needed to walk that 1.8 miles of the Appalachian Trail. We continued walking mostly down and finally came out on a road from Big Creek. We walked over the Pigeon River, turned and walked a little way, turned and walked under the interstate 40, and got to our car about 5:40 pm. It took us nine hours, but we had one hour lunch on the mountain, and a couple half-hour breaks. It was 9.1 A T miles and 4.1 side trail miles. We shuttled the car back to Cosby campground. Went back to our room in Gatlinburg and then went out to eat at Anthony¢s Italian restaurant. it was nice and now we are beat. It¢s 8 pm, but we need to do the whirlpool tonight. Back to regular vacation tomorrow. We did about 243.1 miles on A T this year. We have completed 398.4 total miles on the A-T.