Date: 2016-11-01
From: Cosby Knob Shelter

To: Standing Bear Farm (Green Corner Rd.)
Miles today: 10.7

11/1 Day 10: Our last day was upon us. We had a longer hike than the two previous days to get to Standing Bear Farm hostel, but our packs were light and water was aplenty.   We dropped in elevation a ways in the morning and then made our last significant climb in the Smokeys, passing Mt. Cammerer Trail. For the rest of the day we were walking down down down down. Step after step we were losing elevation and gaining temperature. After almost dropping 2500 feet, we decided to take a break and eat lunch at Davenport Gap Shelter. I was able to talk to my wife on the phone and was very happy to hear her voice. The shelter had good water and we topped off a liter and headed further down the mountain. I was a little disappointed at the lack of signage/fanfare at the northern end of the Smokeys. There is a metal box for thru hikers to deposit their permits, and a road crossing, but nothing else. After realizing we had reached the northern boundary of the Smokeys, I fist bumped Blister and proclaimed we were Great Smoky Mountains thru-hikers! Ta daaaaa!We continued on up and down some hills and eventually passed a giant power line. You could hear all the traffic on I-40 that was getting close. The trail followed a stream down the mountain until we reached the Pigean River Bridge. Blister said, where was all this water a few days ago?? We crossed the bridge on a road walk and went under our first interstate, I-40. It was hard to believe I could hitch a ride with a trucker and be in Flagstaff, AZ in a couple days. Following the road walk, we were met by 36 straight up stone stairs that thrust us back into the woods up a steep hillside. The climb to Green Corner Road was the last kick in the pants that the AT wanted to give us, just to be sure not to forget her.At last, we reached mile 241.3, Green Corner Road. The AT miles for my 2016 hike had been completed. All in all, we did 104 AT miles on this trip. We walked up the road towards Standing Bear Farm and were greeted by a rustic looking set of buildings. When we entered the driveway, there was a gray haired skinny gentleman with a long ZZ Top kind of beard sitting in a rocking chair smoking a cigarette. He said, ¢What can I do for you?¢ I asked if we could spend the night and he proceeded to tell us the skinny about the place, bunk house, tent area, etc. I asked if there were any trees to hang our hammocks (I didn¢t want to stay in the bunk house since this was my last time camping out for a while). He showed us some trees on the side of a hill in the driveway. In all honesty, there was really only one set of good trees for a hammock and I insisted Blister take those. I figured I would make do. We set up our camps and walked back to the main area of the hostel. The gentleman who greeted us was named Clark. He showed us where the shower was, the pantry where you could buy food and drinks, the fire pit area, the kitchen and the washer and electric dryer. I decided to take a shower, but of course there were no towels. The shower, under normal life circumstances would have been foul, however after 7 days without a shower, it¢ll do donkey, it¢ll do. One wall of the shower was made of empty beer bottles cemented in place to make a semi cement glass wall. I closed the moldy curtain to the shower and a praying mantis flew down to the bottom of the shower. Don¢t get me wrong, I am wholly glad I stayed there to experience this unique place. As much as you have to embrace the suck on the AT at times, you have to also embrace the muck. I reached up high on a wooden shelf and found a motel sized bar of soap to scrub myself. The water turned from hot to cold several times, and was flowing out of a shower head that was placed in an old rusty metal pipe in the ceiling of the shower. Honestly, a shower never felt so good. There were no towels, and I forgot my drying cloth in my bag, so I had to dry off with my old sweaty wool undershirt! Yay! I got my night clothes on and did feel much cleaner. While Blister took a shower, I got a pack of chips from the pantry and Clark got me a $2 Pabst Blue Ribbon. I was in heaven. The cool thing about this place is you take an envelope, write everything you take out of the pantry on it with the price, and just settle up in the morning. They even take credit cards. When Blister was done, he came over to the common area and had Clark get him a Digiornio pizza. That looked so good, I got one as well. There were three thru hikers staying there and I shared my pizza with Stumbledwarf, Mojo and Pringles, who had just finished her through hike. Stumbledwarf was a very jovial Englishman who had raised nearly 10,000 pounds, donating 6,000 pounds towards the British Heart Foundation. Grizzly, another thru hiker showed up later in the evening. There was an odd couple from Ohio also staying at the hostel. This one lanky red haired guy was walking around in bare feet and wearing hiking pants. He bounced around like he was full of nervous energy. He and his girlfriend would take turns massaging each others backs as they sat around conversing. This wasn¢t the usual massage on the traps, rather a full up and down the back, elbows and knuckles digging in massage. I nicknamed him the gargoyle because he never fully sat down. He would perch his feet up on the rock and crouch down like a frog like gargoyle. He was an odd ball for sure. I almost burst out laughing when his girlfriend was asking the thru-hikers questions while sounding like she was in a helicopter because the gargoyle had gotten to the karate chop on the back part of her massage. Following watching Mojo struggle to make a fire, something you would think he may have mastered over the last 6 months (although through hikers probably rarely have time for a fire) I went off to my hammock to get some sleep. My body was sore from 10 straight days of hiking and I needed to relax. Unfortunately for me, the trees from which I hung my hammock were far too close. I was shaped like a ¢V¢ trying to get comfortable all night to no avail. I think eating the Digiorno pizza and a whole sleeve of lays stackers so soon after eating trail food also took its toll on my stomach. I was fighting off having to get out of my hammock to hurl. I was afraid I had somehow come down with novo-virus. My ill feeling finally subsided and I think I got a couple hours of sleep.