Date: 2005-05-19
From: Newfound Gap/Gatlinberg, Tenn

To: Tri-corner Knob Shelter
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Day Four in the Smokeys!I have to say that my stay at the grand Prix was not entirely satisfactory. "Management" was a family affair, though I was never absolutely sure who exactly was in charge. There was a mother and two or three daughters, along with a number of rowdy friends who occupied the swimming pool, and a live-in 'fiance' of one of the daughters - the one behind the desk sporting a recent-received black eye. I arrived from Newfound Gap after 4PM, but rooms had still not been cleaned as one of the daughters apparently did not show up for work, though they all lived on the premises. The mother then cleaned my room, and was careful to call my attention to the envelope with a rather long, hand-written mesage on it, the essence of which was that, if I liked my room, I should be sure to leave a generous tip, which, I was assured, would be much appreciated, and God would bless me for my kindness. I would have been more inclined to do so if I not had to clean a gob of hair from the drain of my bathtub before I could take a shower, or if I had not been woken up twice after 11PM by her kids and their rowdy friends runnng up and down the hall outside my room hollering and shooting each other with some kind of dart gun, or if the 6AM shuttle I thought I had arranged for the night before was not canceled at the last minute - resulting in a long delay in starting my hike. I had asked for an early shuttle for Base and me, as we were planning a 15 + mile day and it was a half hour ride back to the trail. I also asked for an early wake up call. This was met with a (not too subtle) which generated some mirth from the daughter behind the counter. It seems they have rather a hard time getting up themselves, and if I wanted her 'fiance' to give us a ride at 6 am, then I should call THEIR room at 5:45 and wake HIM up, to which I agreed.The next morning, however, two minutes after I provided the requested wake-up call, the mother called me back to inform me that "We don't have no keys to the van - you'll have to wait until 9 o'clock when the owner gits here."To make a long story short, Base and I hoofed it down to the highway, stuck out our thumbs, and waited an hour and a half for a ride. A retired couple, heading up to do a day hike, gave us a ride in the open back of their Toyoto pickup truck. I was really glad I had my Golight wind shirt with me as the wind chill factor was pretty dang low on the drive up to the trail head!We finally started our hike at 8AM, and the trail was absolutly my least favorite of all the AT miles I've hiked so far. It wasn't the long uphill climb out of Newfound Gap - that's always a given. But most of the day we were either struggling up poorly maintained and badly erroded treadway, or walking very narrow trails with precipitous drop-offs on one side or the other, and sometimes on both sides!As a result of erosion, the trail was often simply a deep trench - several feet deep - filled with rocks. And in other places, one slip and you'd be off the mountain the hard way, with almost sheer drop-offs of several hundred feet or more. I especially liked the knife-edge sections where we had an 18 inch treadway, and precipitous drops on BOTH sides. (Did I mention I was ascaird of heights?) To compensate for the late start, the weather was once again beautiful, though with late afternoon thunder storms predicted, and to compensate for the trail conditions, the views were the best in the park - especially around Charlies Bunion. Sure hope my pictures come out!The Smokeys realy are something. Its a harder hike than the trail through the Shenandoahs, both in terms of trail conditions and the size of the mountains, but the grandeur makes it all worthwhile. There is also a stronger sense of isolation. The trail in the SNP crosses the Skyline drive 18 times in 104 miles, whereas there is only the southern end, the northern end, and one bailout point in the middle for the 72 miles of the Smokeys.Ater a rather long and exciting day of hiking, I arrived at Tri-knob shelter to find it almost full. As there were no available tent sites, however, and storm clouds were gathering, I decided to try my first night in a shelter without being in my tent. Nothing between me and the shelter mice but my sleeping bag. But it was a very long day, and frankly my dear, I was too tired to give a dang. Today' hike is dedicated to the folks who made my Leki hiking poles. The pair I'm using now are called Super Makalu's and have a spring loaded tip that really helps lesson the strain on my wrists as I jam them into the ground on downhills to help brake my momentum. The poles themselves help me to reduce the weight and jarring on my right knee. They also allow me to use upper body strength on the uphills and, most important, they help me maintain my balance - saving me from falls many times a day. This was especially appreciate today as I hiked the knife-edged ledges with the preipitous drop-offs noted above!Stay tuned, Longhaul