The Magic of the Appalachian Trail Family

Day 33- 4 Miles today from Davenport Gap Shelter to standing Bear farm, 500 Feet Up, 1300 Feet down, Total 317 AT miles (plus an additional 8 miles penalty 1800 feet up, 1800 feet down)

Are You Crazy?

I approached the Davenport Gap Shelter in the middle of the forest about an hour before sunset.  The shelter was packed with hikers doing their evening routines after hiking many miles through the Smokies that day. Are you Crazy? Are You Crazy?

I had no pack on my back and was wearing a short sleeve shirt as the weather was getting chilled by the night to come. I approached a hiker and asked him that question. Are you Crazy? He studies me for a moment then asked me if I was crazy? I repeated this several times. Each hiker wondering who the heck was this person without a pack in the middle of the forest asking everyone he met if they were Crazy?

I had posted on Farout the day before about leaving my water kit at the Tricorner Knob shelter and that I was heading NOBO. This morning Viking 2025 replied that he had my water kit but that he was a day behind us. He told me that another hiker named Crazy was planning to hike a long hike that day and would take my water kit to the Davenport Gap shelter by 6:00 p.m. tonight. We left Davenport Gap shelter this morning and were already at Standing Bear Farm but I decided to hike back to Davenport Gap and retrieve our water kit.

It was bitter cold last night but at least we would have a filter on our next leg to Hot Springs instead of relying on untreated water for the next 3 days. I assumed the filter was ok but in reality it probably froze last night and was useless. If it had been with us I would have slept with my filters to keep them from freezing. The magic that is the AT family is amazing. We all seem to take care of each other.

Hiding from the Freezing Weather

Other than this extra 8 mile hike with 1,800 feet of elevation gain and loss to retrieve our water kit, we completed the entire Smokies in 7 days. We feel great about that especially since we started the hell climb from Fontana after 5 days off trail which basically made us feel like we were starting the Smokies with brand new legs coming out of Fontana up to Molly’s ridge.

Overall we did 19,000 ft elevation gain and 19,000 ft elevation drop over 77 miles through the Smokies. From the base camp to the top of Mount Everest is about 11,400 ft. So in 7 days we almost did one and a half Mount Everest climbs in 7 days.

Last night we stayed at the Davenport Gap shelter which is the last remaining Smoky Mountain shelters with the bear fence in front of it. The shelters used to all have chain link fence in front but apparently people were locking themselves in the shelters and then feeding the bears through the fence to entertain themselves so the Park removed the fencing. A fed bear is a dead bear.

It was supposed to get really cold last night. We felt really good about doing our first 15 miler getting to this shelter our motivation being that allowed us to be at a lower elevation which was about six degrees warmer. This morning we had just a short little three and a half mile mostly downhill hike to the infamous Standing Bear Farm where we will take a Nero tonight as the temperatures are supposed to be even colder tonight than last night.

Back to “Civilization”

After crossing the first paved road we came up over a ridge and then we could hear the roar of the interstate below. The last time we heard traffic was Newfound Gap days ago. This was the first time we had been at this lower elevation since entering the Smokies at Fontana. The vegetation here is already sprouting spring and colorful flowers were popping up everywhere. It was entirely different than the vegetation we were at coming along the high ridges through the Smokies.

In addition we just did our first major creek crossing which we haven’t had to do at the high elevations we had been hiking at. It was an easy crossing but I had to build it up a little bit with extra rocks because of the heavy rains we had recently. It felt like all the sudden we’ve stepped into spring after traveling through winter. Even the trees are starting to leaf out down here.

As we approached I-40 we dropped into a really picturesque little cove with a very strong stream that we had to cross three times. There were picturesque waterfalls entertaining us as we descended. Then we came around the bend and we exchanged the roar of a waterfall and a flooded Creek to the roar of the interstate traffic as we passed under the I-40 bridge.

The interstate has been shut down to 2 lanes because of Helene so traffic was creeping and backed up for miles in either direction. It is always a blow to the senses when you leave the comfort of the deep woods and reenter society and this was no different.  We had two vehicles pass us and offer us food and water.  Water is heavy so we declined the water but of course we accepted the food!

Entering a Whole New World

We arrived apprehensively at the Standing Bear Farm about 1:00 p.m. after hearing horror stories from other hikers about this zombie vortex. We bought a frozen pizza that we were allowed to cook for free at the hiker kitchen. I saw a mouse run out from under the stove as we fired it up. The hiker kitchen is a communal area that hikers gather in and around.

The Farm also allows you to do your own hand wash and use their dryer for free but the dryer took forever to get the clothes dry. We then braved the free shower which has an interesting hot water system that goes from scalding hot to ice cold by wiggling the knob every time it goes cold. It was also exposed to the outside so you would get a double dose of chill every time a cold wind blew under the partial walls.

We rented a cabin in the “treehouse” next to the rushing creek which was also near a chicken coop that smelled kind of ripe with a sewer smell. We didn’t venture into the portolets which apparently were so full you might get a turd berg as you set down to do your biz.

The treehouse smelled liked disinfectant spray as if someone was told to clean the room and they just sprayed a whole can on everything in the room and called it “clean”. We slept on TOP of the bed using our pads underneath and our sleeping bags over us. For me it was better than freezing in a backwoods shelter.

As usual the town duties at the farm consumed the rest of our Nero day. I left the Farm at 430 pm to go back up the mountain to retrieve our water kit. With no pack on my back I did the 8 mile round trip 1,800 feet up and down both ways in less than 3 hours but I may have overdone it at that speed.

After returning to the Farm I bought a tall boy IPA and settled by the fire to talk with other hikers until well after hiker midnight. The magic that is the AT family is amazing. We all seem to take care of each other and this story of a lost water kit has a fascinating ending that I wouldn’t know about until the next night.

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