100 Miles (almost) in the Smokies
Great Smoky Mountains Natonal Park
3-9 June 2010
| Day Five - 7 June 2010 | |||||||||||||
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Last night was pretty chilly...I ended up using the pad under my torso. Lots of fireflies again, too...pretty awesome. One cool thing - I walked around barefoot for a while last night...then this morning, I saw an old pile of horse crap right at the edge of my tarp. Cool. And polite, how the horse riders let their horses crap all over. It wasn't fresh so it didn't stand out in my headlamp, but it was at a part of my tarp where I know I didn't step on it. But still... I've been using a peak bag for a few days now, and I think I like it. I don't use the tie-outs on the hammock, so when I put heavy stuff in the Blackbird's shelf it can lean against me. Not really a big deal, but keeping it off of me is a bit more comfortable and the peak bag does that. I put my SEAL Pup knife and a water bottle up there...easy access and not bouncing against my shoulder. So I might stick with the peak bag for a while. |
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| As I mentioned at the boar blocker over the trail, the boars roto-till the ground looking for grubs and stuff...here are the results. This camp had several big patches like this where they had dug up big sections. None of them came to visit me last night, though. | |||||||||||||
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This camp had lots of leftovers from other campers...some 550 cord used as a clothesline, this utility cord laying on the ground between two trees (probably used for a bearbag since it had a rock on it, but there were bear cables so I'm not sure why), some nylon cord, and a sweatshirt. I couldn't bring myself to leave any of the cord behind...but I had just eaten several pounds of food out of my pack and this cord was all wet, so the weight goes back in! I hung the sweatshirt up on a tree...it was too much to carry for another three days! | ||||||||||||
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| Under 2 hours of hiking brought me to Site 70, right on the lake, where I wanted to camp last night. I saw two hammockers there so decided to go say hello. They both had the white Gear Guide 12x12 tarps that are so often out of stock, and pitched them together to make a big living area. One ENO and one Grand Trunk. Nice guys...they were camped out by the lake and fishing for the week. I hadn't planned on taking the time, but when I saw that fire I asked if I could hang out for a bit to dry out my shoes. I had put on clean clothes but kept my dirty old sock since my shoes were still soaked; now I could even put on my clean socks! | |||||||||||||
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The latter part of this hike had several little sets of ruins like this chimney. At first I thought it was the Civilian Consevation Corps that built so many shelters and trail along the Appalachian corridor, but I found later that there were a few abandoned towns along the way. More on that later. | ||||||||||||
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First views of Fontana Lake came shortly after hittign Lakeshore Trail. A lot of this trail doesn't actually follow the lakeshore, though. Still some great views. |
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Some nice flowers along this section. The moth in the top right picture stayed pretty still the whole time, just walking around the petals a bit. Salty says the picture on the left is wintergreen, which is different from the wintergreen shrub. Some folks call this striped wintergreen. This little guy was growing all by himself in this area...very few scattered over a pretty long section of trail. |
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| It was nice to finally make it to Lakeshore Trail, since I'd be on here for over 25 miles. The ecosystem around here was completely different from the others I had hiked thru. There was a lot less brush, and I ended up seeing more wildlife.
So I decided to keep walking and make it to Site 77, which would mean some more night hiking. It was just before dusk when I started walking, and less than five minutes on the trail I heard a huffing sound. HOOO HOOO HOOO, and a lot of shuffling up towards the ridge. I had just startled a bear! It walked on up the ridge, huffed a few times, and kept going. I got out my camera but none of the pictures came out good. But in about 3 more minutes it happened again! This guy was bigger, and he didn't go all the way to the top. He went off the trail about 40 yards, and paralleled me for a bit, huffing a few times. Then he went up a bit higher, but kept paralleling me and huffing! I wasn't too keen about that. He followed me that way for probably 200 yards before I didn't see him anymore...definitely made me a little nervous! But I was happy to finally see some wildlife. I kept on hiking, but I was sure to make some noise this time. I didn't want to startle a bear just waking up to eat. I walked along saying, "Hey Bear!" every minute or two. I don't like hiking by headlamp, preferring the moonlight, but it was really dark and hard to follow the trail so I had to pull it out...and at one point the trail ended at the lake! I was sure I was on the right trail about 1/2 mile back, so I backtracked and found the turn-off going up a steep hill. This lake area was a boat landing and had some big picnic tables. I had a couple miles left, and I got some pretty good blisters on my left foot from hiking in still-damp boots, so I decided to stop and dress them with duct tape. Somehow, though, I miscalculated...I hiked another 1/2 mile or so and there was my camp! Good surprise, I guess, but had I known I was that close I would have just let them air out overnight. Site 77 is pretty good, but nothing special. There was a little ridge on the other side of the creek, and I heard something rustling around there for a good part of the night. After seeing two bears within 10 minutes of the site I almost camped at, I was a little wary tonight. It sounded bigger than a squirrel but I don't think it was a bear. Still got some good sleep. |
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