Date: 2005-10-20
From: Pigeon River, TN

To: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter, TN
Miles today: 17.2
Weather: broken clouds

17.2 miles todayTri-Corner Knob ShelterGreat Smoky Mountains National Park I slept well and woke up about 6am, but just layed in bed for a while. Dick said he was going to get up and cook breakfast after 7. I started to answer some emails about 6:45 and heard Dick out in the kitchen about half an hour later getting the coffee going. That got me up. :-))) Dick didn't want any help, so Charlene and I sat in the living room sipping coffee and talking. Dick made a nice fruit salad, then we had homefries, sausage and a good vegetable omelette. I had cherry preserves on my toast. That was something I never had before , but liked it alot. Dick and I left after breakfast to get me back to the trail. I had a few things to mail home, so we stopped at the PO first, then I needed to resupply to get me about 100 miles to N.O.C. I figured I needed 4 breakfasts, 4 days and 4 nights of food. We stopped at Super Wal-Mart and Dick got his exercise following me around. I probably bought too much again, but I shouldn't go hungry. Wal-Mart didn't have my fried pies, so we went to another store and I bought 8 of them. That's enough for 4 days at about 400 calories apiece. Dick also sent alot of fresh vegetables with me. He was very serious about me taking all that heavy stuff. He didn't seem to understand that I had to carry everything. I ended up with an apple, 2 tomatoes, a bunch of radishes and about a 1 pound carrot. That was the biggest carrot I've ever seen and he tried giving me 3 of them. He also stuck a 20 ounce coke in my pack. My pack probably weighed 35 pounds!! He took me back to the Pigeon River where he picked me up yesterday and I took 5 minutes to repack my backpack, then I crossed the river on my way south. Dick walked with me to where the trail entered the woods and started going up right away. When he saw the uphill, he said that was it for him and he walked back to his truck and drove off. I got started walking at 11:05am. It was later than I wanted, but I was only going to Tri-Corner Knob Shelter for the night. I did alot of climbing...more than I've done in a long time. I started at 1400 feet at the river. In a mile and a half I was at Davenport Gap at 1900 feet high. I sat down and ate some of my food for lunch. I started working on that 1 pound carrot too. When I started walking again at noon, I entered the Smoky Mountains. I climbed another 700 feet and walked by Davenport Gap Shelter without stopping. I climbed another 1000 feet and passed by Lower Mt Cammerer Trail. I walked by a large trail crew working on wood steps and talked to a couple of the guys as I walked by. Towards the end of the crew, I walked by a guy I knew. It was Hopefull '03. It was great seeing him again. We talked for about 5 minutes and I hiked on. I climbed another 1300 feet and passed by Upper Mt Cammerer Trail. There were about 9 women sitting there taking a break. They were on a day hike and told me they heard that it might snow in 2 days. I hiked on and came to a guy walking north by the name of Smokin' Jeff who was doing a prep hike for an '06 thru hike. We talked about 10 minutes before I hiked on. When I got to Low Gap, there was a family of 5 taking a break. We got to talking and when the father asked if I was thru hiking and I said that I was, he reached in his pack and handed me a beer. He said he had hoped to run into a thru hiker to give that beer too. I also got a few pieces of Venison jerky that he had made. We talked about 15 minutes and I walked on. I got to Cosby Knob Shelter and stopped to sign the register. Restless was there and a guy by the name of Quiet One. They were both staying there for the night, but I still wanted to walk another 8 miles before I stopped for the day. From Cosby Knob Shelter, I climbed 400 feet, descended 500 feet, climbed 1400 feet, down 100, up 400, down 200, up 200 and finally down 400 feet to Tri-Corner Knob Shelter. That was alot of climbing. :-))) When I got above 6000 feet, I walked into some clouds and the smell of spruce was very strong. I kept walking along taking in deep breaths of air to smell the spruce. It reminded me of Maine. I actually caught myself scanning the woods for moose. :-))) When I got to the shelter, I had a couple fried chicken sandwiches and that beer the family gave me about 2 hours before. I worked on eating more of that carrot too. I found a flat spot for my tent and went to bed after a very nice day. I'm up to 20 leaves in that leaf catching game that I'm NOT playing.