Day 1 in the Smokies

After staging cars and grabbing some good Mexican food, we camped out at Smokemont campground Saturday night. It was me, Hemlock, SHOE, and Turtle. The next morning Kellye (Pyro/Happy Feet) met us around 8am and we all piled into two cars and headed up to Fontana Dam to start our 4 day backpack trip. I had never been to Fontana Dam, so that was an experience in itself. It was so cool to walk across the dam and get to the Smokies sign. I've seen so many pictures of this sign is several thru hikers galleries b/c it's the first notice that you are entering the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, and the anticipation, not to mention the reputation that the GSMNP has, can be exciting. It's known as one of the toughest sections of the AT, as well as having THE highest mountain on the AT. So it can be a bit intimidating. Plus, I heard the climb out of Fontana Dam can be a beast! Luckily for us, we were hitting the Lakeshore trail.

After crossing the dam, we climbed a gradual graded road .8 miles up to the intersection of the trail. To the left, the AT continued and straight ahead was our trail. We hopped on it and pretty much had a nice smooth steady graded trail for about 2 miles, with the lake peeking in and out of the trees. Around the 2 mile mark we saw some old abandoned 1930's Bonnie and Clyde looking cars. I snapped some pic's and Hemlock took one of me behind the wheel. A half a mile later we started a gradual uphill climb. It was over pretty quickly and not bad at all. I was hiking with Hemlock today. She's a fast and strong hiker and she really made me step my game up. It was a nice challenge to just keep up with her. Plus, she dropped some knowledge when it comes to all the plants, trees, and flowers we passed along the trail. Hemlock's a smart cookie too. She's got her doctorate, is doing research at UGA, and has plans to thru hike the AT next year. So it was fun, as well as educational to hike with her. There were times when she would spot the smallest flower off the trail and I would think, how in the hell did she SEE that? I mean it was about 20 feet off the trail, behind a log, hiding underneath leaves, and so small you didn't even know it was there! But she found it. In fact, Hemlock found several species of plants, some old, and some new ones she's never seen before. I felt like we were on some exploratory plant discovery trek and I was her eager assistant. It was pretty cool.

After the abandoned cars and the hill, we descended for a couple of miles down to finish up our 6mile day and into campsite #90. We got there pretty early, around 2pm, and decided that when the rest of the ladies showed up, we would hike on down to the next campsite, only 3 miles away. As we sat on the log, eating lunch, I saw a little gray blurb scurrying away. I walked over and discovered it was a baby mouse. I chased it around a bit and showed Hemlock my new friend. As we watched the mouse, a couple that was setting up right on the lakeshore walked over. We chitchatted a bit and I found out they were from Wilmington NC (my fav beach town in NC). I found out he lived right on the coast and kayak's out to Masonboro island often, so I talked about my recent Masonboro kayak trip and he was amazed I even know where Monkey Junction and Masonboro were. haha! Small world I guess. Anyways, I found out he and his girlfriend had driven 6 hours just to go on a weekend hike. It made me realize just how lucky I was, to be only 3 hours away from both the coast and the Smokies. I guess I take my location for granted sometimes.

We head back to the log to chill some more when I spot the tiniest little frog ever. He was smaller than my pinky nail. He was soooo cute. I pick it up and Hemlock gets a good picture of it. After a while, we decide to do some exploring, and walk over a creek on this log bridge and find an amazing campsite. It's right on the lake. So pretty and quiet and pristine. Hemlock wants to camp over here and I agree, it's a great site. We decide to just load up on water and continue to wait for the group. I borrow her filter and I pump 4 liters of water. I drink up 1 liter right then and there and filter some more. When I get back to the log, we discuss maybe scouting out to look for SHOE, Turtle, and Pyro. We hope they came down the right trail. Just as we decide to walk up the trail a bit, we spot Pyro coming down to the campsite. Whoo hoo! It's around 5pm when the others trickle in and we all collectively decide to just set up camp and stay here for the night.

Well, as soon as we start to make dinner, it starts to rain, no POUR on us. I invite everyone to sit under my tarp with me and as the rain is beating down on my tarp, and a river is starting to flow next to us on the ground, we eat up our dinner. When the rain lets up we venture out and explore a bit around a small trail along the shore line. Pyro decided to build a fire and after several attempts, she got it going. We lazily sit around the camp fire catching up and then around 9:30pm, we spotted some blue fireflies. I made sure I told Hemlock, who was in her tent for the night, to poke her head out to catch the fireflies. The rest of us decide to call it a night. After bear bagging our food, we headed to our respective homes for the evening. I ended my day snuggled up in my hammock and playing a quick game of trivial pursuit on my celly. All in all it was a good day, even with the rain. Til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!