After securing back country permits at the Sugarland Visitors Center, we leave SHOE's car in a small parking lot at the end of our section hike. We jump into my car, and drive over to the GSMNP Institute at Tremont where our adventure begins. I park the car, we lace up our boots, throw on our packs, and head up the trail. At 9:30am we started our loooong 2.4 mile climb UP Lumber ridge Trail. We stop to catch our breath a few times, then make it to the top for a quick lunch break. (Man, the first day of a trip is always the hardest for me. My trail legs haven't kicked in yet and my lungs haven't expanded yet. hahaha! ) After my lunch of beef jerky, some babybel cheese and a tortilla, we start the 1.7 mile rolling hill porti
on of the trail til we have to hop on Meig's Mountain Trail where we had another 1 mile climb up and then rolling up and down terrain for another 3 miles. In the rolling section, off a side trail, SHOE had read about a small cemetary that we decided to stop and check out. It was pretty well kept, as far as the grass 
being cut. The headstones were humbling smoothed out rocks with dates dating back to 1887. Most of the stones had the name Huskey on them. I can just imagine what a hard life the Huskey family had deep in the Smoky Mountains. We hop back on the trail and have to rock hop over some nice sized streams that look so inviting for a foot soak, but we tredge on knowing our campsite will have a stream next to it. Including the .7 miles we did this morning leaving Mt. Collins shelter, we hiked a respectable 9 miles before pulling into camp at 4:15pm. We arri
ve at campsite #20 and I am happy to see what a perfect site it is. It's got plenty of flat areas for ground dwellers like SHOE and some nice trees for me to hang :) There is also a nice steady stream about 25 feet away and easy bear cables to store our foods. (YAY for not having to throw a bear bag rope.). After having the entire trail to ourselves all day long, we find two gentlemen already at the campsite. We say hello and SHOE finds out they had hiked in 2 miles. One of them had a cooler of beer (which we eyed enviously) and a chair to sit on (which we eyed enviously). The other was pretty quiet and gave SHOE the vibe of not wanting t
o be disturbed, so we politely said hello and then left them alone. As soon as we put our packs down, SHOE puts up her tent, and I string up my hammock and tarp. We change out of our hiking boots and slide into our camp shoes (SHOE in her Rainbow Bright socks and purple Crocs and me in my red Croc wanna be's) and walk over to the stream to filter water and soak our tired dogs. The cold mountain water felt soooooo good on our feet. I chug the first liter of water that I filtered, that's how thirsty I was. After filtering 7 liters of water between us, we head back to cook some dinner. For this trip we decided instead of hauling two sets of filters and stoves, I woul
d bring my water filter and SHOE would bring her alcohol stove. I was a bit hesitant to use the alcohol stove b/c I was worried it would take forever to heat up water. Well, her anti-gravity stove totally impressed me. It was small, light, let out a huge flame, and had the water boiling in no time. For dinner I had a Mountain House spaghetti and meat sauce freeze dried meal that actually pretty good. After dinner, SHOE decided to "try" and make chocolate pudding. In theory it should of worked, but in reality it was more like chocolate soup! hahaha! She had instant chocolate pudding and powdered milk in a zip lock bag. All she had to do was add water and let it chill a bit in the stream. Well, she added the water and she let it chill in the stream for a few minutes. It just never congealed enough, but that didn't stop her from trying it. We both laughed as she tried to 
slurped up the chocolate soup. Afterwards, we went to organize our campsites a bit and I made the big mistake of getting into my hammock. Ooohhh..... did that hammock feel soooooooo good. It was only 7pm and I didn't want to pass out so I got out before the hammock fully sucked me in. We went and sat by fire ring, sipped on our water, and talked for an hour. By then I could barely keep my eyes opened. We decided to call it a night and went off to our little homes in the woods. I snuggled down into my hammock, breathed in the scent of the campfire that the other two campers had going, and fell into a deep, relaxing sleep. I think I woke up once, just to put on my sleeping bag, and then not again til 7am the next morning.
ve at campsite #20 and I am happy to see what a perfect site it is. It's got plenty of flat areas for ground dwellers like SHOE and some nice trees for me to hang :) There is also a nice steady stream about 25 feet away and easy bear cables to store our foods. (YAY for not having to throw a bear bag rope.). After having the entire trail to ourselves all day long, we find two gentlemen already at the campsite. We say hello and SHOE finds out they had hiked in 2 miles. One of them had a cooler of beer (which we eyed enviously) and a chair to sit on (which we eyed enviously). The other was pretty quiet and gave SHOE the vibe of not wanting t
o be disturbed, so we politely said hello and then left them alone. As soon as we put our packs down, SHOE puts up her tent, and I string up my hammock and tarp. We change out of our hiking boots and slide into our camp shoes (SHOE in her Rainbow Bright socks and purple Crocs and me in my red Croc wanna be's) and walk over to the stream to filter water and soak our tired dogs. The cold mountain water felt soooooo good on our feet. I chug the first liter of water that I filtered, that's how thirsty I was. After filtering 7 liters of water between us, we head back to cook some dinner. For this trip we decided instead of hauling two sets of filters and stoves, I woul
d bring my water filter and SHOE would bring her alcohol stove. I was a bit hesitant to use the alcohol stove b/c I was worried it would take forever to heat up water. Well, her anti-gravity stove totally impressed me. It was small, light, let out a huge flame, and had the water boiling in no time. For dinner I had a Mountain House spaghetti and meat sauce freeze dried meal that actually pretty good. After dinner, SHOE decided to "try" and make chocolate pudding. In theory it should of worked, but in reality it was more like chocolate soup! hahaha! She had instant chocolate pudding and powdered milk in a zip lock bag. All she had to do was add water and let it chill a bit in the stream. Well, she added the water and she let it chill in the stream for a few minutes. It just never congealed enough, but that didn't stop her from trying it. We both laughed as she tried to 
slurped up the chocolate soup. Afterwards, we went to organize our campsites a bit and I made the big mistake of getting into my hammock. Ooohhh..... did that hammock feel soooooooo good. It was only 7pm and I didn't want to pass out so I got out before the hammock fully sucked me in. We went and sat by fire ring, sipped on our water, and talked for an hour. By then I could barely keep my eyes opened. We decided to call it a night and went off to our little homes in the woods. I snuggled down into my hammock, breathed in the scent of the campfire that the other two campers had going, and fell into a deep, relaxing sleep. I think I woke up once, just to put on my sleeping bag, and then not again til 7am the next morning. 
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