Date: 2017-10-03
From: Davenport Gap Shelter

To: Pack's Corner Shelter
Miles today: 21.6
Weather: scattered clouds

I got up at just after 6:30 a.m. this morning at the Davenport Gap shelter just inside the northern boundary of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park or GSM NP. Normal morning routine of packing, breakfast, chatter, water, hygiene. On the trail just before 8 a.m. Today's hike to the Peck's Corner shelter would start with a climb from 2800 feet to 5200 feet. Most of what we would hike over the next few days would be above 5000 feet, but you have to get up there first. When I had stopped at the Standing Bear Hostel yesterday, Twisted had said the first 6 miles would be up a stone staircase, torture. Anyway, off I set to start that climb.About 9:30 I reached a nice viewpoint and took a panoramic picture. Sniffles and Sauce were already there. I had passed Rock Spider and Pickles on the way up, as well as the section hiker named Tom. After hanging out at the viewpoint for a few minutes, I continued up the trail. At one point, I left my pack and took a .6 miles side trail to the Mount Cammerer observation tower, where I took some pictures and videos of the countryside. I returned to the trail by jogging, since I had brought only my poles, camera, and wallet with me. Then I put my backpack on and continued south.Just after 11 a.m., I reached the Cosby Knob shelter which was closed due to aggressive bear activity. Therefore, I just kept going. Coming the other direction around 11:15 a.m., I saw section hikers Bambi and Roadrunner, whom I had met the morning I left the Laughing Heart Hostel. We stopped and chatted for a few minutes, wished each other good and safe hiking, and continued. The trail went along a narrow ridgeline for a little less than a mile. It was a beautiful, cool, sunny day. I could see between the trees on both sides of the narrow ridge, and the sky was perfectly blue. (Picture)Around 11:30 a.m., the trail went back down a few hundred feet. But then I began the second long line of the day, from 4800 feet to 6300 feet. As I reached higher elevation, I noticed a change in the forest from mostly deciduous trees, dominated by the rhododendron to short leafed fir trees. The latter was often covered with a light green fungus and light green Spanish moss. (Picture) I could often smell the mixed scents of the pine from the fir, the pungent decay of laurel leaves, and the warm odor of moss and grass.I had been planning to stop at the top of that climb for lunch, but at about 1:15 p.m. I reached a clearing that was marked in my guide as an old helipad. Sniffles was there taking a break, & I decided to just stop there for lunch. While I was eating, Sauce and Pickles caught up, and they began their lunch breaks too. I got back on the trail after 1:30 p.m. I kept walking up and down on relatively smooth trail, mostly up. Around 4 o'clock most of us wound up together at another break, and we decided to stop at one of the upcoming views to have dinner. This would give us an opportunity to walk a little bit after eating, and it would reduce the odor of food in the vicinity of the shoulder where we would stay, consequently reducing the probability of an encounter with bears. Around 5:30 we stopped and used some cut tree trunks as benches near a viewpoint from which we could see beautiful surrounding mountainside to the north. (Pictures) This is where we cooked dinner. Or I should say all except Rock Spider who arrived a little later than the others and decided to keep walking and have his dinner at the shelter.After dinner I continued walking to the shelter and set up there as usual. There was one other section hiker there at the time, his name was Larry. Before we knew i,t it was starting to get dark, and Larry went to bed. As I filled another liter water from the local water source, I could hear the sound of a bunch of other hikers arriving. I was tired so I went to bed before they fully arrived. Then I heard another group arrive even later. Noisy.They also used white lights and talked loudly until about 10 p.m. when they crammed 6 more people into the remaining shelter space, so it was a pretty tight fit for them. At one point I think one of them was trying to get a settled hiker to move over so they could fit yet another person on the bottom bunk. That didn't go over well.After that they didn't bother us too much and I was able to sleep. In the middle of the night, though I was awakened several times by the sound of an elephant. That was actually one of the late arriving hikers snoring extremely loudly. I tried to ignore it and went back to sleep.19.6 miles trail1.2 miles observation tower.8 miles side trail to the shelters21.6 miles total