Date: 2005-04-22
From: Smokies

To: cherokee national forrest
Miles today: 0.0

   Friday April 22:I woke up in the shelter, and knew it would be an interesting day since it was about 50 degrees, and it was still thundering and nasty outside. I had to do about sixteen miles and it was a hard sixteen miles as I was hiking all downhill which kills my shins and feet. It rain all day, but it was interesting to come across a helicopter piece from a wreckage I found. There was no signs of what it was, and so it was a bit erie. It looked like a Vietnam style chopper or something. The views weren¢t that great since I was in the clouds, but I made to the shelter early and was glad since my feet hurt pretty badly from the downhill. I was so excited when I saw funnel cake walking towards the shelter later that night with a to-go box from a restaurant that Mr. Fusion had bought for us!The restauraunt/hostel was a few miles off of the trail. Mr. Fusion stayed at the hostel and funnel-cake hiked the extra miles to eat their famous giant cheeseburgers, and so we ate great that night @ the shelter! There was mice running all around at the shelter and the thunder was crazy that night. It was another day of rain and crazy weather, but it was my last night in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and It was bittersweet to leave the park. The wind pounded the shelter all night and we knew that tomorrow would be a rough day, climbing out of Davenport Gap, back into the mountains, in the freezing temps that rolled in, and would supposedly bring snow.Saturday April 23:I awoke at the shelter with plans to hike about 18 miles today and nothing went normal after that moment I woke up. When I ate my breakfast of poptarts and crackers, I listened to everyone including myself whine about our 18 mile day ahead of us and it was not starting off to good, but then we starting joking about it and the mood lightened. I left the shelter early because I needed to go to a hostel off of the trail for a moment to grab a little bit of food to get me to hot springs since I was running out. I hiked out of the smokies that morning and it was great to be in a valley since I have been hiking ridgeline so much lately. The hike was actually beautiful, as it ran along waterfalls and streams that were rushing from the t-storms lately. It reminded of the Cumberland falls area back home and I loved it and felt comforted by the familiarity of it all. I hiked off of the trail a little bit and ended up at the standing bear hostel around 11:00 to resupply myself some food. I said hello to some hikers staying at the hostel that I knew, and tried playing a guitar that I found laying around, but it was missing some strings. The hostel was a re built 1920¢s farmstead and it was neat, but in the freezing weather I didn¢t stand around too long to check it out more. Me and funnel cake decided to leave together and we had a great chat climbing up and out of the smokies and the time went by quickly. Funnell cake is a surfer from the jersey shore who is pretty funny. He was an english major and we can quickly go from talking really deep to joking like kids about immature stuff so it is funny and enlightening talking and laughing with him.It was a great conversations we had about the roller coaster aspect of the trail, and how when things seem bad, they quickly turn around into great things, just like today when we complained about the hard day ahead of us, but good friends and conversations make everything awesome in an instant. After the huge climb, we had done about 11 of our supposed 18 mile day and in the freezing rain and strong hail, we decided to break for lunch at the shelter. We saw our good friend Mr. Fusion and thanked him for sending the cheeseburgers and he told up that the next shelter was closed and that if we wanteed to continue we had to go another almost 12 miles to the next shelter! Mr. Fusion had already decided to stay put but funnel cake and I didn't want to stop because it had started snowing badly and the mountains weather was getting nastier and nastier, and we had also hear that there was trail magic up ahead and at the next road crossing about 4 miles ahead there was hot food and fruit and tons of free food for hikers. I started violently shivering and so I ate some food and rushed out to get the trail magic and press on for my first day over twenty miles, and it was especially hard in that weather, and because It was one of the hardest day in terms of verticle climbing as well. Me and funnell cake missed the hot food at the trail magic tent, but we stuft our faces with loads of fruit which I miss dearly while hiking and some incredible triple chocolate brownies. It was getting even colder and we knew that snow would be accumulating quickly and so we didn't stay long after eating because the weather looked increasingly scary and we had a lot of HARD hiking ahead. The snow and wind kept on picking up and we found ourselves ontop of a mountain on a bald, (A bald is a totally bare moutain top with no trees or vegetation), and the wind and snow were very dangerous. The wind knocked us over and was over 50mph and the snow had made the trail invisible amid the lack of vegetation. The snow and ice cut into our faces liike razors and we knew the situatiuon was getting really bad. We got momentarily lost but we knew had to press on to get to the shelter and get into some trees also for protection. We finally got out of the bald and into some trees and talked about surreal the expreice was and how we are glad that we pressed on to get out of this weather ASAP instead of staying up in the moutnains at the shelter. We finally made it to shelter, and the weather eased up for about an hour as we hiked our final miles. We got to the shelter, freezing and tired, but proud of our feat and accomplishment. The worst thing was that the shelter was full and we couldn't stand to set up our tents, but two guys gave their spots to me and funnell cake and it was greatly appreciated, because the ground outside was wet and the blizzard was coming back for round two. We quickly got into our sleeping bags and the day came to abrupt ending around 8:15 which is only 15 minutes after we got to the shelter. We both fell asleep quickly but slept poorly amidst the winds blowing slow into the shelter. It was a crazy day that seemed like a dream, but I felt good at the end of it, considering what I have done. My body felt better than I thought it would.