I decided to consolidate the hike through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park into one entry. The weather was windy, rainy with some hail, and the temperatures stayed mostly in the low forties. It was the most challenging part of the hike thus far. I was unable to work on my blog in these conditions.

Shua picked me up in Robbinsville at 7:30 the morning of the 30th and dropped me off at the Fontana Dam Shelter. This shelter is called the Fontana Hilton by hikers because it has electricity, bathrooms, and showers. It is reputedly the nicest shelter on the trail. The shelter was crowded with hikers when I arrived that morning, tents were scattered everywhere. Some of the hikers I knew were zeroing there that day after partying most of the previous night. We call places like the Hilton “traps” hikers go there to sleep for one night and end up staying for days. I was glad I had gotten a room in Robbinsville.

I entered the Smoky Mountain National Forest, deposited my permit in the box and started the hike. My permit allowed me to camp in the Smokies eight nights, I thought that would be plenty of time to get through the roughly 76 miles.

The trail started with a 4000 foot climb, the hiking was slow, hikers leapfrogged up the mountain. Some would take a break and others would pass. Later these hikers would stop and be passed by those they had passed earlier. The weather was cloudy and overcast. Rain was in the forecast for the next four or five days. I was a little nervous about the weather but the first two days passed with only cloudy foggy conditions but no rain. The temperatures held in the mid to high forties. It was good hiking weather, but all the views were mostly obscured, occasionally the wind would blow the clouds away and briefly there was a glimpse of the mountains. Once we made it to the summit we hiked along the spines of the mountains. The ridges were mostly three to four feet wide, with the eighteen inch path tracing a pattern right down the middle of this rocky spine. The mountains fell away hundreds of feet on both sides of the trail. The forest was changing. Until now all of the trees on the trail were deciduous. Now the forest was a mix of deciduous and Red Cedar. Hiking through the foggy stands of Red Cedar reminded me of the enchanted forests of fairy tales. The first two days of the hike were difficult, the trail was getting a lot more rocky, everything was moist and muddy. They say it takes two million steps to complete the Appalachian Trail, and only one wrong step in that two million can end your hike. I carefully placed each foot on the muddy rocks. Progress was slow.

The rain started the second night. I was in my tent outside the shelter as usual. In the Smokies you are required to sleep in shelters if there is space available. The Smoky Mountains have the highest density of black bears of anywhere along the trail. It is estimated that there are an average of two bears per acre. The problem with this is the National Park caters to day and section hikers, thru hikers are treated like second class guests. Section and day hikers can reserve a spot in the shelters, thru hikers cannot. If a thru hikers is sleeping in a shelter and a hiker with a reservation shows up in the middle of the night, the thru hiker has to get up and pitch a tent so the section or day hiker can have the spot in the shelter. I had never slept in a shelter, and really had no intention of doing so unless I absolutely had to. At dusk you can watch the mice come scurrying to the shelters from all directions. They are looking for scraps of food dropped by hikers. I’ve heard of hikers being awakened by mice crawling across their faces during the night. If there is a candy wrapper inside your pack, mice will chew a hole in it to get to the wrapper. I would rather take my chances with the bears than deal with the mice. Not to mention being crammed shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of other stinky hikers, many of which snore terribly. It just didn’t appeal to me.

Social distancing is still observed on the trail. Because of this, thru hikers are currently allowed to pitch tents even if the shelters are not full. I intended to use this out to avoid sleeping in the shelters as much as possible.

The wind and rain started around midnight the second night. The temperatures remained in the low forties. The rain continued after daybreak. I got dressed and ran to the bear cables to retrieve my food bag, then ran over to the shelter. Some of the hikers in the shelter were putting on rain gear and heading out to continue their hike in the pouring rain. I decided to wait. The rain slowed down around 9:00, and most of the hikers left the shelter. I stayed a little longer to see what the rain was going to do. It rained lightly for about another hour, and then the bottom fell out and it started pouring again. The sky was crisscrossed with lightening, followed by sharp reports of thunder. I felt for the hikers that had chosen to brave the weather. I felt for “Birthday Girl”, the pink haired 76 year old hiker who I watched leave the shelter that morning. She was trying to set the record as the oldest woman to thru hike the trail in one season. I was confident she would succeed. There was no way they all weren’t totally drenched and cold. As the morning wore on other hikers started showing up that had hiked in from the last shelter. They were completely soaked and shaking from the cold. Eventually it was nearly noon and I still hadn’t even taken down my tent yet.

About one o’clock the rain slowed down and stopped. The sky seemed to lighten up, so I took down my tent and packed it up. It was soaking wet and muddy, everything was muddy. My pack was still mostly dry and my clothes were still dry. I went back to the shelter and started packing up my stove and my food bag. I went down to the water source and filtered some water. The trees were dripping and water ran down the trail like a tiny river but at least it wasn’t raining. An older hiker, trail name “Gandalf” from Lord of the Rings, looked over at me and said, “looks like you’re about to start walking Juanito.” I nodded to the affirmative. “I bet I can at least get to the next shelter if I’m lucky, it’s only about 7.something miles.” He smiled and said, I believe I’m gonna start walking too.” More and more wet hikers were staggering into the shelter. I was ready to get out of there. Gandalf was a much slower hiker, but we left the shelter together. I left Gandalf after a couple of miles. I figured worse case, he would only have a few miles left to hike if the skies opened up again.

I made it to the next shelter without getting wet. The trail was muddy and the rocks were slippery but I took my time and about all that got wet were my feet. When I got to the shelter all the hikers that left the last shelter during the rain where bunched up under this shelter, soaking wet, Birthday Girl had made it safe. I met up 5.0 at that shelter. I told him I was headed to the next shelter because there were still a lot more wet hikers I had passed that were headed there. It was going to be a full house, and already most of the tent spots were taken. He was at a low point, but agreed that we should probably go on. We headed out, the rain still held off. We had about eight miles to hike and we were starting after 3:00PM, but we figured we could make it in less than four hours, getting there well before dark.

The trail ran mostly along the high ridges, so there were no major climbs or descents to be made. We were making good time and the rain still held off so far. We were about three miles from the shelter when rain mixed with pea sized hail came pelting down. We were hiking together, mostly for safety on the ridge lines. We were already soaked with sweat from hiking despite the cool temperatures so at that point it really didn’t make sense to put on rain gear. The wind and rain was furious. Lighting flashed and was immediately followed by thunder, we knew it was close, the air smelled faintly like an electrical fire, we had to get off of that ridge line. The problem was the only way forward was to keep following the trail until it took us down off the top of the mountain. There was no other way to get down. We just kept hiking, and suddenly we saw the sign for the shelter. We had hiked the eight miles in two and a half hours. Bad weather is a great motivator, neither of us could believe we had made it that fast. We ran under the shelter and put on our puffy jackets to keep from getting chilled. The rain slowed down and stopped. I set up my tent and 5.0 elected to sleep in the shelter. I got in my tent and put on the few dry clothes I had and got in my bag. Shortly thereafter the rain begin falling in earnest again.

I woke up the next morning and everything was dripping wet. My pack was sodden, My tent was wet both inside and out, my sleeping bag was damp from condensation inside my tent. My hiking clothes, socks, and shoes were soaked. My food bag was wet, hanging from the bear cables. I put on my wet hiking clothes and shoes, took down my tent, and we started hiking toward New Found Gap. We were halfway through the Smokies, and if we could find a ride, we were headed to Gatlinburg Tennessee. For the first time since I started, during the hike the day before, I developed chaffing issues between my thighs from the wet clothes. It was torture to hike in the wet clothes to New Found Gap, but at least it was only seven miles.

We found a shuttle to take us to Gatlinburg. I found a room and couldn’t wait to be dry. I bought a cheap pair of shorts in the hotel gift shop and wore them and my iffy jacket while I washed and dried all my clothes. I hung up my sleeping bag and everything else I could find a place to hang up to dry. Most of my gear was not only wet it was filthy. I washed what I could in the bathtub. I took a zero the next day, I was so exhausted I slept for most of it. The skies cleared and the sun shined, and a lot of my gear dried out.

5.0, Jimmy Dean, Eclipse, and I caught a shuttle back to New Found Gap the next morning and continued through the Smokies, we were halfway done. It was overcast again but not raining. My pack was still damp, it felt heavy on my back. We made good progress that day and the next. We avoided the rain, but the trail was a mess, my feet stayed wet and muddy the entire time I was in the Smokies.

On Friday the 6th it started raining again. We arrived at the shelter and it was pouring. There were some hikers we didn’t know there, but it wasn’t crowded so I decided to stay in the shelter that night, instead of putting up my tent in the rain. It was a rough night. Three older guys in the shelter were snoring incessantly all night long. To top it off, about two in the morning the guy sleeping next to me abruptly jumped up on his hands and knees and started screaming. Then he just laid back down and went back to sleep as though nothing happened. I never did go back to sleep that night. I decided it would have to be pretty bad for me to ever attempt sleeping in a shelter again.

Saturday We hiked out of the Smokies and stopped at Standing Bear Farm Hostel which is situated right on the trail. They had a dryer but no washer, so I dried my wet dirty clothes and got a room in a cabin with four other people. I knew two of them, a couple named Charles and Jenna, the other two other people I never did meet. Standing Bear Farm is another “trap” hikers were piling into the Hostel coming out of the Smokies. Many were zeroing on Sunday. We opted to get back on trail and zero in Hot Springs where we could resupply and dry out our gear. The rains seemed to have passed for now.