Davenport Gap to Clingmans Dome (Smokies) - End of 2007 Hike

What a difference a couple days can make.  Just days ago we were planning on pushing ourselves to get to Springer on a particular day, still over 200 miles away.  At this point, we've left the trail for the season.

The knee pain that Anna developed on our fast hike after the picnic on Max Patch seems to have come back with a vengeance.  

We started up into the Smokies with a long climb to get up to the primary mountain chain.  The trail was very well graded as it was built with equestrian riders in mind, something we're not used to for the AT.  The first day we felt strong and thanks to the gentle uphill weren't really worn out at the end of the day, we were surprised for as much climbing we had done during the day. 

Just past the shelter the second day, Bluebird noticed a nice spot in the trail we had just walked down where the early morning sun was shinning through the trees on the trail.  We took a few pictures of it, and have posted what is probably the best one.  

The second day in the smokies was all up on the ridge, going up and down between peaks.  Much of the trail was not well graded as had been the day before, and we saw a small amount of rock scrambling.  With the more varied terrain, Anna's knees were challenged and toward the early afternoon she complained of some pain.  We rested, had some snacks and water, and Anna took a pain killer.  We continued at a moderate pace and made it into our shelter with plenty of daylight to spare.

Talking in the evening we realized there was nothing we could do but to keep going at a reasonable pace and see how the knee reacted.  Tommorow would be Anna's second Birthday in a row on the trail.  We both hoped she would get a pain free knee.  To help, I would carry some extra weight to relieve some stress on her knee.

Unfortunately, not even lifting the burden of Bluebird's tortilla's and cheese would ease her pain, however with the help of some more pain killers she made it through most of the day without being slowed too much.  We reached Newfound Gap, the road that tourists take to get from Cherokee to Gatlinburg or drive up Clingman's Dome, we stopped and Bluebird called her mom.  After stopping for about a half hour, we started back up the gradual climb up Clingman's Dome and the knee pain that had haunted Bluebird came back suddenly and strong.

We slowly made it another mile or so to the shelter just below Clingman's Dome and Bluebird got off her feet while I made her some Birthday Dinner of Pad Thai and Lemonade.  At this point all we could do was hope that things would get better.  Sadly things only got worse that night and the next morning.

At night we quickly found out the shelter was completely infested with mice, and I could hadly sleep.  I woke twice to find mice chewing on what I was using as a pillow.  The first time, I woke up hearing something that I thought was in my pillow... I just listed to it to try to figure out where it was really coming from and what it was... when I figured it had to be a mouse, I turned on my headlamp and sad up on my elbows to look around.  All the sudden a tiny gray furball ran up to where my head had just left and looked right at me.  I couldn't believe it.  In a fury I picked up my pillow and flipped the mouse down off the top bunk of the shelter and onto the ground.  Hearing him thud made me a little proud, but very creeped out, and I couldn't sleep on the shelter floor after that.  

Eventually after too many paranoid looks around the shelter, Bluebird and I set up our tent on the ground and weren't bothered again.

In the morning we were prepared for the idea of having to leave the trail to take another break.  And upon walking back from the shelter to the trail, it was evident that it would be a reality.  Bluebird was in pain from the first step.  We made our way up the trail until we could see the trail was close to the road.  We happened to see some maintenance workers cutting the grass at a turnoff and they offered to call for a ranger to drive us to Cherokee.  We took him up on it and half an hour later we were wisked out of the Mountains and down into the tourist town.

Bluebird's Uncle Jack came to pick us up (he did A LOT of shuttling us around) without hesitation and on the ride, he brought up the idea that we not go back to the trail.  At first I think we were both willing to hear it, but were combative to the idea.  The more we thought about it, the more we realized how much we were relying on others (like him and Bluebird's Grandparents among many others) and came to terms with letting our dream slip away yet again.

This way we can again focus on healing a nagging ailment and it hopefully won't be an issue when we come back.   

It is more difficult than words can express to have to say that our AT hike is over, again.

Buster & Bluebird

Erwin, TN to Davenport Gap, NC (North end of GSMNP)

Our journey is coming swiftly to its conclusion! Saturday evening we made our way into Davenport Gap in the Pigeon River Gorge where the trail enters the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. At this junction we have only 234 miles to go!

Since our last entry from Erwin a lot has happened. We've seen four bears through the hills (none of them threatening). We've stayed at a really great hostel and a not so great hostel. We were treated to a great big picnic on the top of Max Patch. And we've begun to set our watch by the regular afternoon thunderstorms.

We had hear the bears between Erwin and Hot Springs were very active. We did a 25-mile slack-pack from Sams Gap into Erwin our first day out with Uncle Johnny's help. Thankfully this meant we didn't need to linger around the No Business Knob Shelter where a resident bear hangs out looking for gullible hikers.

We had a good stay with Uncle Johnny. He had bicycles we could ride into town on the bike path. We thoroughly enjoyed all the buffets Erwin had to offer: Chinese and Pizza. It was a nice change to move around at bicycle speed as opposed to walking speed. On our hike out of Erwin we had a little dog follow us for a good 10 miles. The dog had a tag with phone number but the number was out of service. We think it might have been a lost dog we had seen a posting about near the Mountaineer Falls Shelter about 100 miles back. We finally passed a couple of overnight hikers who were headed back to Ashville that day and offered to take the dog with them to an SCPA. The dog was nice company while we had it. But we didn't have enough food to feed it all the way to Springer!

We were excited to hike into Hot Springs, our last town directly on the trail. We had heard lots of good things about Elmer's, a hostel/Inn with a lot of personality. Unfortunately our stay there wasn't especially great. We met some other cool hikers staying/working there, but Elmer himself wasn't who we expected him to be. He was very biased toward thru-hikers, much preferring them to section-hikers. Since we aren't going to be completing the trail in one calendar year (it will be 14 months instead) he told us we were 

second-class citizens to thru-hikers and charged us more for our stay than he charges his thru-hikers (most of which have only walked 270 miles of the trail thus far). Instead of being the interested and curious trail personality we had heard he was, we were disappointed with how he discriminated among hikers based on how they have chosen to hike. We left Hot Springs disappointed.

But our spirits were lifted when two of my (Bluebird's) uncles joined us at the Roaring Fork Shelter, having walked down from Max Patch. We camped out together and shared a little of our life on the trail with them. The next morning we all hiked up to Max Patch and met the rest of the family for a wonderful fried chicken picnic in the grassy field. It was about the most beautiful setting for a picnic imaginable. Buster and I then went on to hike the remaining 16 miles into Davenport Gap after lunch. We had arranged for our family to pick us up there at a certain time. In our rush, I strained my knee a little. This only encouraged us to take the next two days off at my Grandparent's house near Waynesville. Our time off has been great! It's nice to be with family around the holiday.

We head back out into the Smokies tomorrow. It looks the whole first day will be spent climbing up. Right now our projected end-date is around the 16th of July. Time is going to fly!

Bluebird (and Buster)