Date: 2013-04-27
From: Peck's Corner Shelter

To: Standing Bear Hostel, NC-TN
Miles today: 23.6
Weather: clear sky

I planned to exit the Smokies today, making my traverse through roughly 70 miles in about 3.25 days. I thought of the symmetry of my entrance and exit, both on rainy days, which sandwiched a couple of picture-perfect sunny warm days through the heart of the park. I woke up to early morning rain in my tent, upslope from the Peck's Corner Shelter. I placed everything into dry bags and placed under the vestibule of the tent while I dawned my rain gear. I stuffed my pack quickly with my gear, with exception to the tent, which I grabbed loosely and carried down to the shelter. It was still dark inside the shelter, the majority of its occupants still sleeping. I used my chamois-camp-towel to wipe the excess water off, which seemed to take a good 20 minutes, as I attempted to awkwardly prevent the wet tent from touching the soil floor of the shelter's common area, where a high "counter top" in front existed. After removing excess water, I re-packed my gear, and pulled out some food for breakfast. By about 6:45, I slogged my way up the muddy blue blaze trail a seemingly long 0.4 miles to its junction with the AT. The ridges along this section were narrow, with several large fir trees that had not yet been cleared of the trail. I intersected a Ridge Runner (a park employee that mainly assists hikers in emergency situations and maintains shelters and trails along the way) somewhere before the Tri Corner Knob Shelter. During our brief introductions, he informed me about a historic plane wreckage site just off the trail. Apparently it occurred in the early 1960s -1963 If I remember correctly. It turns out, however, that this crash was one of numerous that occurred over the decades in the Smokies. The plane had crashed into the opposite side of the ridge, sending debris over the top of the ridge to a location just a few yards below the AT, where only small pieces of fuselage and engine parts remain. The RidgeRunner had mentioned that this pile of scrap metal is a protected historic land mark and that he had caught a couple of boys attempting to leave the park with a few pieces of the craft. They were asked to forfeit what they took, though I'm not sure if these fragments ever got returned to the site. I found the debris site at mile 226.1, and took photos of a few of the pieces. It appeared to be a war plane, with olive green fuselage paint, and a generous amount of rivets holding what aluminum was left, together like quilt work. While I guessed that the engine, being the heaviest component of the craft got buried on the other side of the ridge, the "air-cooling fins" of one of the cylinders appeared to be present in the debris. With exception to Mt. Cammerer following Low Gap, the AT made an almost 5,000 vertical foot descent from Mt. Guyot, just south of the plane wreckage, to the I-40, approximately 2 miles out of the Smokies. The rain continued though out the afternoon, at times, falling hard. I was able to hike a good pace regardless of the rain, due to relatively smooth terrain. The AT tread was largely yellowish brown silty clay, trenched in places from erosion, and potentially slippery, particularly in saturated conditions. I passed a couple of hikers who were leaving the Davenport Gap Shelter (the last one before exiting the Smokies at the north end) in the late afternoon. I passed them, with intent to reserve a spot at the Standing Bear Hostel before they did. Before the Pigeon River Bridge, I caught up with the two Tennessee college boys whom I first met at the Long Branch Shelter. Both of them had the same idea as me. We hiked under the I-40 to a steep flight of stone stairs off the gravel Green Corner Rd. The AT merely followed the road higher on the ridge, before dropping back to the road a short distance ahead. We proceeded up the gravel road, eager to get out of the pouring rain. Standing Bear is located directly off the road, about 1 mile up the road and perhaps 0.5 miles past the AT crossing of the road. As the rain continued, we toured the facilities under the guidance of a seedy long haired-bearded character, named Rocket. The bunkhouse and cabin were loaded. I payed the price of the bunkhouse for sleeping on the covered porch at the main house on Saturday April 27. The Tennessee boys arranged for a friend to pick them up and take them to Knoxville, I believe, where they'd enjoy the modern amenities of a home. I decided to take a zero day and dry things out the next day at the hostel. My cache had not yet arrived, so would not be arriving till at least Monday afternoon. I arranged to have it bounced about 100 miles north to Uncle Jonny's Hostel in Erwin, TN. I draped my wet gear out over chairs and the porch rail to dry, but it was futile in the humid air. I set my bag out on the porch and turned in for the night.