Date: 2016-05-13
From: Cosby Knob Shelter

To: Groundhog Creek Shelter
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: clear sky

Yesterday, I was riding the ridge, touching 6,300 feet in elevation. Today, before lunch, I bottom out at 1,373 feet. This exemplifies the greatest physical challenge to completing the entirety of the AT: the constant climbing and descending that tests one's stamina, leg strength and ability of the knees to withstand the pounding, particularly when going downhill. In the full course of its 2,189 miles, the AT registers total elevation gain of nearly 500,000 feet. Of course,it also shows nearly 500,000 feet of total elevation loss, since the net gain, from Springer Mountain's elevation of 3,780 feet to Mt. Katahdin's 5,269 feet, is roughly just 1,500 feet. In between, on the journey from one to the other of these two peaks, a thru-hiker will climb the equivalent of Mt. Everest sixteen times. He will also descend the equivalent of Mt. Everest sixteen times. It is a fact of AT life: a hiker fights gamely to gain elevation, only to give it back, sometimes as soon as the next bend. In a nod to thru-hikers, Sisyphus would stand in salute of the task. Yesterday, when I suggested in my post that "the sky let loose with one last deluge" in the early evening, I was dead wrong: that deluge was only the opening act. It poured, really poured, all night long. When I awoke at 5:30 am, I gave myself until 6:30 to get out of my sleeping bag, in the hope that it would stop raining. When this deadline passed with no change, I got up and readied myself for a long day. Starting out around 8:00 am, the rain actually showed some sign of letting up, as the skies brightened a bit and the birds started singing. By 9:00 am, all that was left was a drizzle, and the monumental amounts of water cascading down the trail from 18 hours of non-stop rain. As I descended down off the ridge to Davenport Gap, I walked in torrents of water that were anxious to find the the quickest way off of the mountains. With the water came prodigious amounts of mud, exceptionally gooey mud. In fact, the mud was so deep, gooey and slippery, that you appreciated the chance to once again walk in the torrents of water to clean your shoes. Towards the end of the morning, I completed the last of the AT's 71 miles that are hosted by the Great Smoky Mountain National Forest. I enjoyed my time immensely in the park, even with the seemingly omnipresent rain. When it counted most, however, as I traveled the fifteen miles of ridge from Icewater Spring Shelter to Mt. Guyot, I was presented with bountiful sunshine. It might not have lasted long, but it will last forever in my memory. By the end of today, I had hiked seventy miles in the past four days, a fairly torrid pace, necessary because of the one and a half days I sat still in the penalty box, awaiting my cellphone predicament to be resolved. With Alison, Holly, and now Katie, too, arriving in Hot Springs on Sunday, I thought it might be poor form if I were not there to join them. Hence, my push. With the seventy miles now behind me, I have just 26 more to cover in two days, allowing for a somewhat relaxed pace. Still, I am quite looking forward to two days' worth of rest in Hot Springs and the opportunity to visit with my family. On my way to Groundhog Creek Shelter this afternoon, I didn't see any of the namesake rodents, but did see my second bear. He was loping up the trail in front of me, evidently not wanting to get into it with me. He was extremely healthy-looking and beautiful. Now that I'm out of the Smokies and its enforced shelter policy, I am free to sleep once again in my tent. This makes me one very happy camper.