Date: 2013-04-10
From: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter

To: Davenport Gap Shelter
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Wednesday morning, April 10 2013, I continued my new practice of arising at 6:00 AM and targeting an 8:00 AM start. I¢ve seen others, like my hammocking neighbor at Tri-Corner, be up and out in about 20 minutes, but not me! (For one thing, the Achilles night splint must be packed first, so the entire main compartment must be emptied each evening and morning.) The plan worked today: Arose at 6, and back on the AT northbound at exactly 8:00 AM, headed for the Smokies¢ last (NOBO) shelter, Davenport Gap. Tracy planned to make that too.        The Microspikes again did their job for about 15 minutes of icy west-slope trail, and the day¢s first hour and a half of trail was somewhat rocky and rough, calling for a lot of care and reliance on poles and arms to protect my knee. By about 10 AM, though, we were on the east face of the ridge in bright sun on a pleasant, though gradually ascending, path. I encountered a few flying insects, including a couple of house flies, first seen yesterday; I recall thinking, in Georgia¢s freezing snowstorms, that I would welcome them! One of them bit me. Oh well...        I kept my eyes peeled for the ¢plane wreckage¢ mentioned in the guidebook, but the ominously named Snake Den Ridge Trail arrived at 10:26 AM and the wreckage had been, unnoticed, 0.1 mile before it. Around 11 AM I noted how delightful it was to be able to be doing this ¢ walking this trail on this beautiful warm day. I was taking it easy, with rocks preventing me from letting my stride out, but it just struck me what a huge privilege it was to be able to be doing this! I took a shot of the trail ahead, at 11:12 AM, and stopped for lunch for fifteen minutes around 12:30 PM ¢ a SPOT message went out, but (as usual) there was no cell-phone coverage. The Cosby Knob Shelter turn arrived at 1:08; I didn¢t go there, but did pause to shift to shorts (removing my zip-off legs) and T-shirt.        Low Gap came along at 1:48... and, boy, was it ever! We ascended 800 feet in the next hour and fifteen minutes ¢ I finally reached the top at 3:03 PM. I leapfrogged with Tumbleweed, the young woman who told me of the 800¢ rise, and her companion Dennis (no trail name yet), and at 2:30 PM a southbound day-hiker said I was the 59th person headed north that he had passed that day! It was a long, frustrating climb; several times I thought I¢d reached the top, descending...only to begin another ascent. But shortly after 3:00 I came to the Mt. Camerer Trail intersection. A pleasant young man I¢d met at Low Gap, Chicago, was sitting there, and he encouraged me to follow that trail 0.6 miles for a spectacular view. I instantly demurred and moved on, pausing from 3:30 to 3:40 to collect and treat water from a small but clear trailside seep.        A 4:43 PM photo of the trail ahead shows it curling across a slope, mildly descending, covered with brown leaf duff. At 4:50 the Lower Camerer Trail sign reported 2.9 miles to Davenport Gap, and another sign (Chestnut Branch Trail) at 5:22 reported 1.9 miles. The turn to shelter arrived, to my pleased surprise, at 5:55 PM, and I depacked there at 5:58 PM! (I later decided that I¢d formulated my 7:00 ETA by confusing ¢Davenport Gap¢ with ¢Davenport Gap Shelter.¢) The shelter, of course, was full.        I shared a narrow flat area behind the shelter with Dennis and Tumbleweed¢s small tent; Tracy McG arrived half an hour later, again having taken an hour¢s break (this time at Cosby Knob). I was greeted warmly by another lady, Salsa (hiking with her daughter, Twix), who kindly inquired about my knee. I was to meet them again, but can¢t recall where I¢d met them before. The Davenport Gap Shelter is fenced in, with stiff wire mesh covering its front opening, against bears; I¢ve heard that it is the only AT shelter still using this system. We just hung our food bags inside, and at night the wire gate was closed and latched.