Date: 2016-04-17
From: Crosby Knob shelter 

To: Standing Bear Farm
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: clear sky

What a great night! It feels so good to have slept well. It's a beautiful morning with the sun coming up in the east facing the shelter. Crumpet and I sat at the shelter enjoying our breakfast, the peace and quiet and watching the birds bathing in the creek. I got up after most of the hikers had cleared out. The majority usually hit the trail before 8 a.m. We took our time, savoring the morning, laughing about how we 'only' had 7.6 miles to hike today. That used to be the maximum miles I would hike in a day. Now I have broken another mental barrier where a 12-mile day is The New Normal. Spirits high, we set off around 10 a.m., to climb Mount Cammerer. That was the only climb for the day. Lots of day hiker were out and it is fun to stop and chat. Mount Cammerer is at 4950 feet elevation and has a fire tower on top. To go up to the fire tower would have added 1.2 miles to our day, so we both agreed we didn't need to go there. Instead we prefered to head down hill, looking for the next water source to refill our bottles and a place to have lunch. The spring was right on the trail. We threw down our packs, filtered water and decided to lunch right there. It was a cool shady glen area and very pretty. A few day hikers came through and were able to navigate around us and our packs strewn about on the trail. Checking our map we saw it was now down hill to the next shelter, our destination for the night. Off we set, down the trail on the sunny side of the Mountain. The day was getting warmer and warmer and soon it was over 75 degrees. I was feeling the sun beating on me and I had no hat, so I got my umbrella and used it as a parasol. It worked perfectly and thankfully the trail was wide enough to avoid smacking into bushes and trees with it. I practically ran into the shelter area, sporting my new hiker fashion accessory and got SprinkleToes and Crisco, who had passed a while back,laughing at my antics. Then they agreed it was a great idea. Davenport shelter was to be home for the night,another stone shelter with a fireplace except it was enclosed by a chain link fence. It is a relic from the past when shelters had fence enclosures to protect hikers from the bears. Except the hikers made it worse by throwing food out to the bears, knowing the bears could not get in at them. I believe all of the shelters in the Smokies were like this originally, and all but this one have had those horrible fence enclosures removed. It was dark and dank inside and very smelly. As we sat there resting, Crumpet saw a fat Mouse running along the wall. This did not please her at all. She looked at me and said "it's only 3 more miles to a shower and a real bed, not to mention a hot dinner that we do not have to cook!" I looked around, taking in the dank shelter, the mouse, the toilet "area" signs that mean there is no privy and checked the map. It was all downhill to the road. I nodded and we threw on our packs and practically ran down hill for 3 miles, chanting "shower, dinner, bed"! We made record time down to the road, and sat and waited for Crumpet's husband to come pick us up. Just as he arrived, SprinkleToes, Crisco, SoLow and Crow came down the trail looking hot and tired. Crumpet's husband offered them Gatorade and snacks which they gratefully accepted. Then they moved down towards their next campsite for the night and we loaded up the truck with our packs and went up the road a bit to Standing Bear Farm to retrieve my resupply package. I had originally planned to spend the night there, but had my arm twisted into going to Pigeon Forge and staying in a wonderful condo with clean sheets and a hot shower. Who could resist? Since we completed the trail a day early it meant I would be able to take a zero tomorrow and rest my knees and my feet once again. Rest is a good thing......