Date: 2015-03-19
From: Tri Corner Shelter

To: Standing Beat Hostel
Miles today: 19.2

Now we have a new entry in the competition for most miserable day on the trail. I'm not saying that today was a hands-down winner, but it's a good bet for honorable mention. Last night was pretty chilly in the shelter. We didn't have a fire to drive off the dampness, and we crawled into our sleeping bag early to get warm. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, raindrops started drumming on the metal roof and they never stopped. I put off getting our bear bag until the last minute possible and it was a wet job. Most of the shelters in the Smokeys have a bear cable system that has a number of hooks tethered to a cable that runs up over a pulley that's about 30 feet in the air. So each hiker is responsible for putting all his food, scrap wrappers, utensils, pots, anything that might have even the faintest odor of food into a bag, attaching it to a hook and hoisting it up so that its out of reach to any maurading bears. The cables are always some distance from the shelters, so it's a chore to get the bear bag when it's raining. Long story, I know. So it was raining when we got started and it rained all day. It was a cold, windy rain too. No slacking today, we were carrying our full packs. Our ponchos kept our packs dry, but that was about all. I shouldn't complain, hikers should be used to this, but it wasn't pleasant. I tried to take a couple of pictures, but cold fingers just wouldn't work right and I finally gave up. The trail got progressively worse as the rain continued. And we had a long hike planned with full packs. The uphills weren't as bad as the downhills, where it is much easier to slip in the mud or the wet rocks. Just as yesterday we saw very few other hikers, but we did meet a ridge runner - a park ranger who walks the trail to be sure that all hikers are following the park rules, like carrying a hiking permit. He was very nice, talked with us a few minutes and then asked if we had permits. We said yes and he said that he trusted us and wouldn't ask us to haul them out of our packs since it was raining so hard. Near the end of the day we passed the boundary of the Great Smokey Mountains Park, so now we've officially finished the Smokeys, a notable accomplishment. Not long after that Pa Bert caught up with us and I took one pic of him. Princess had been noticing some animal tracks in the mud along the trail and Pa Bert identified them as pig prints. They looked pretty big, so I was glad that we never encountered their creator. Later we learned that wild pigs are not unusual up here and the locals frequently enjoy fresh sausage. That was about it. We rolled into Standing Bear in the late afternoon, and we got showered and cleaned up before the crowd came in. We had reservations in the cabin, but then our plans changed and we ended up in a small (unfinished) room called the studio that they have just added. It's not plush, but it's toasty. Unfortunately, we have to share it with a horde of ladybugs. But eventually we learned that a shop vac cures that problem.So now we hit their supply store and have breakfast fixin's, and goodies for the trail. We're ready for tomorrow. Later when the other hikers got settled in the bunkhouse, many of them headed to the 'kitchen' to fix their dinner meal. Actually 3/4 of them bought frozen pizzas in the supply store and heated them in the toaster oven. Nothing like a slice of pizza and a PBR. Some of the hikers we talked with include Pa Bert, Stretch, Bruin, Sid, Moglie, Cookie Monster, and several others we can't remember. But the rain never quit.