In Bryson City — Finding A Path

We left Franklin on Wednesday and hiked 12+ miles, ending up at Lick Log Gap to camp. We had planned a stopped a mile’ish back, but the lack of good tent sites and some pot-smoking around the fire pushed us on. We had the gap to ourselves and had a very quiet night.

Rain started up just before our alarm went off. We have gotten really good at packing backpacks and taking down our tent in the rain, and we even surpassed our expectations on this particular morning. Part of our ease was that Charles dug our cat-holes the evening before, so that morning ritual was easier, too!

We normally pack up and head down trail for an hour before having breakfast since the process of heating water for coffee is rather loud, and as we are usually the first out of camp. But this morning, with no one around, we had coffee and hot breakfast as soon as backpacks were packed, and sat under our rainfly.

All that taken care of, we were ready to step onto trail. Just then, our friend, Strange Bird, sauntered past. Strange Bird is a large man who hikes with a specially-made tail that switches as he steps, and he wears a red hardhat with horns attached. The purpose of his outfit is to create smiles. Once you get past your initial shock and fear of the “weirdo” on trail, you will find yourself smiling. Strange Bird is also one of the fastest hikers I know. He goes fast, crashes for a bit, then continues speedily on. We’ll be following fast on his heels, and then, poof, he is gone, as if he has dis-apparated, ala Harry Potter. Amazing.

The day rained and rained.

We were passed by Bluebird, who we’d lost touch with, and her gang. She said they were getting off at Tellico Gap due to the “waterfalls in her shoes”, and while we aimed to go eight more miles to the NOC, getting off trail for the night into a dry motel seemed like a solid plan.

We got to Tellico Gap a couple hours later and had cell signal, so got a room at the Sleep Inn in Bryson City. Next, we needed a shuttle driver to pick us up at NOC and take us the 13 miles to the motel. It took a few tries and about 45 minutes sitting at the gap in the rain, but we eventually got that settled.

Now to hike the eight miles in less than 6 hours. No biggie, right? Except for the rain and terrain…

From Tellico Gap to NOC, most of the terrain is not too bad. There is a fairly steep section to get up to Wesser Bald where there is a tower, and if you’re hiking the AT, the path will take you up the steep parts. We skipped the side trail to the tower since we were socked in with fog and rain, so nothing worth walking a few extra feet to see.

The “fun” begins on the hike down. The trail goes along a ridge for literal miles. At some points, there are challenging rock “steps” to navigate while wearing your heavy rain-soaked pack and no side rails. Me? I kept reminding myself that we had a dry king bed with a flush toilet waiting at the end of this day. I’ll admit that I had quite a few “WTF?” bursts from my potty-mouth as these “challenges” kept coming. In truth, there were only 6-8 of them, each worse than the one before, so maybe I was getting a little shell-shocked. Even when the trail was no longer a ridge and the flora clearly changed, I was half-expecting another death-defying rock scramble to have to get down.

To keep it “fun”, there had been a big windstorm in the past week. There were so many blowdowns across the trail that I lost count. We’d be walking along the typical skinny trail barely carved into the side of a slope and come around a curve to be faced with the top of a tree blocking the path. At least one of these I know I could not have navigated thru without my trusted Charles. And, it was raining. I am not sure how my trail friend, Fortune Cookie, did it on her own (I am pretty sure she is ahead of us).

We did finally get to NOC, a 15+ mile day, got our ride to the Sleep Inn in Bryson City, got out of our soaked attire, ate a hiker meal for supper, and climbed into the king bed with dry sheets!

Feeling more beat up than usual, we have opted for our first zero. Not a bad option in light of the continued rain and chilly (40’s) temps.

We plan to head out into sunny 50’s tomorrow, slow our pace a tiny bit, and take three days to get to Fontana Dam and take another zero before tackling the Smokies.