Day 14: Lookout Towers!

March 21: The foggy, wet weather finally broke during the night and by morning, sunshine streamed down through the bare trees. My tarp was completely dry, my groundsheet dry, my sleeping bag dry. Everything was completely dry and I was in a great mood!

It was shaping up to be a beautiful morning! (That squarish thing in the foreground is the roof of the Silar Bald Shelter.)

Clifhanger, who slept in the shelter, confided to me that it was his worst night in the shelter because someone in it snored so badly. I hadn’t heard anything from my campsite so it probably wasn’t a sleep apnea thing and I thought, “You ain’t heard nothing!” But it made me that much happier I had decided to sleep outside of the shelter with my tarp rather than in the shelter.

Where the side trail to the shelter rejoined the AT, I climbed up a 0.2-mile spur trail to the top of Silar Bald where I had incredible 360 degree views. Fog still lingered at some of the lower elevations while mountains poked through like islands in a sea of clouds. It was a glorious sunrise!

The rest of the day’s hiking was relatively easy, peaking on two different mountaintops with lookout towers—and I climbed up both of them to admire the views. As the day progressed, the views weren’t as gorgeous. The fog at the lower elevations vanished leaving out the mystical quality that the fog provided. The views were still commanding, though—I could see all the way to Clingmans Dome in the Smokey Mountains (and also the highest point on the Appalachian Trail).

That’s Silar Bald up there! A mere 0.2 miles off trail, I figured the off-trail hike was worth the effort.

At a shelter late in the day, I arrived to see a fellow named English playing a…. I’m not sure what it is, actually. Kind of like a cross between a drum and a banjo. I hadn’t met him before, but he certainly seemed like quite a character. I also met a woman named Twiggy who arrived a short time after I did groaning about the weight of her pack. I don’t remember specifically the exact conversation that ensued, but somehow she ended up saying something about wanting to lighten her load, and I made some sort of bad joke about not having to worry about how much it weighed if she could get someone else to carry it. (Not that I was volunteering! Somewhere in the conversation, it had come up that someone had carried someone else’s pack at some point for some reason, but the details have faded from my head and I had failed to write it down.) She was thinking about staying at that shelter for the night and was digging into her food for something to eat when I noticed a heaping pile of flour tortillas. I was just about to hit the trail and said that I would help her lighten her load after all—that I’d be willing to eat one of her flour tortillas to help. =) So she gave me a tortilla, which I ate immediately making my stomach happy and her back was probably thinking, “Really? That’s it? That’s the best you can do to help me? Getting rid of one freakin’ tortilla?”

After 17.4 miles, my longest to date on the trail, I called it quits at Wesser Bald Shelter. In my journal, I noted that Clifhanger, Second Star, 5-Fingers and “several others” shared the shelter. (Not all of them were in the shelter, though—just the area in and around the shelter.) I’m not sure why I wrote “several others” like it was important information in my journal. Invariably, there are always “several others” around every shelter that I don’t write down by name unless something particularly interesting about them comes to mind, but for whatever reason, I did so today. So that’s my official account of today’s activities.

Steps today: 42,552 steps
Distance today: 17.4 miles
Total distance: 140.2 miles

The views from the top of Silar Bald were great! I especially liked how mountaintops like these poked through the clouds as if they were islands floating on the clouds. =)

Looking in the opposite direction on Silar Bald. This was the side I came up.

When I found this cairn, it was half the size it was in this photo. I felt like it had potential but wasn’t really tall enough to surprise or delight anyone, so I spent a few minutes doubling its height. =)

Lookout tower on Wayah Bald. On my first AT hike, this was cold, wet and rainy and provided no views. Things were much improved this time around!

View from the lookout tower.

I just knew when I walked up to this fellow (English) that he was going to be a character… I didn’t actually talk to him very long, though. Just a quick lunch break for me at the shelter and I moved on. He did not! But he played that instrument the entire time I was at the shelter and it was a delight to listen to. =)

Another thru-hiker was carrying this surprisingly large stuffed animal. I loved it! But I certainly wouldn’t lug around such a large, relatively heavy and useless object! =) (Apparently, it was a free gift he got when opening a Wells Fargo account. Which annoys me, because WHY DIDN’T I GET ONE when I opened a Wells Fargo account?!)

Trail magic on the trail! I was a little disappointed, though, that the cookies were already gone by the time I arrived. *big sigh*

Wesser Bald lookout tower

View from the Wesser Bald lookout tower.

Looking down from the Wesser Bald lookout tower. (See my colored pack next to the base of it by the staircase?)

My home for the night: the Wesser Bald Shelter.

This graffiti sounds more than a little ominous! I would take my chances, though… if I don’t post after this post, you know something bad happened to me! =)

Day 13: Albert Mountain

March 20: By morning, the rain had finally stopped, but the weather still looked foul with a pervasive cloud of fog and even some minor tree snot occasionally falling to the ground. Still, it was a huge improvement over yesterday when it drizzled the whole day. I ate breakfast, brushed my teeth and broke down camp and was ready to move by 9:00. When I checked on Mouse and Georgia, they were already gone. I was impressed! First they did a heck of a day to make it here and set up camp in such miserable weather conditions, and now they were already on the trail hiking. Those two, I thought, certainly have the strength and fortitude to make it to Maine if they had the time. (They were only planning to hike for two or three months until previous commitments required them to get off.) Even worse, they were making me look bad! ;o)

Instead, I found two other hikers—the one in the hammock and tent I saw earlier but didn’t know who they were. The girl introduced herself as Sweet Pea which was a name I only recognized from a couple of her register entries. The guy’s name didn’t ring any bells (and I forgot it before writing it in my journal).

Then Sweet Pea surprised me by saying we had met before. We had?! Where?

“Gooch Gap Shelter.”

I tried thinking back to that area of the trail. The exact shelter was fuzzy in my head. I remembered there being a Gooch Gap Shelter, but they all start blending in together in my head and I have a difficult time remembering which name went with which shelter after about two or three days. So I combed my brain trying to remember who she was, then I remembered a lone girl in a shelter early back on the trail which, now that I think about it, looked vaguely like this girl.

“Lindsay?” I asked.

She nodded agreeably.

“Ah-ha! You didn’t have a trail name then!” That’s why I hadn’t made the connection—she wasn’t Sweet Pea back then and a different name means a different person. =) We also didn’t really speak much at the time so there wasn’t any reason she was burned into my mind.

Then I was off hiking. Almost immediately, the trail started climbing Albert Mountain, a mountain I vividly remembered struggling to climb my first time on the AT. I remember the day clearly. It had been a bright, sunny day then, and I met a girl hiking with her dog, but it was the first girl I had met hiking alone on the AT and I was impressed she’d do it alone being a girl and all. I don’t think there’s any reason a girl isn’t just as capable of hiking the trail as myself, but a lot of women seem to be afraid of hiking alone. I never saw her after that and have no idea if she finished the trail or not, but I always hoped she had.

The view from the fire lookout tower on Albert Mountain didn’t look promising!

But I remembered she had to help her dog up some of the rockiest, steepest parts of the trail, and I remembered using my hands quite often in my own scramble to the top. It seemed like it lasted a half hour, but this time, it felt more like five minutes and I never needed to use my hands at all. Oh, it was certainly steeper than most sections of the trail, but nothing near as bad as I had remembered it. It seemed easier and considerably shorter than I remembered. If this was my first time climbing the mountain, I’m not sure I’d have even made a note of it in my journal because it was so uneventful.

And it really started settling in for me just how easy I’m finding my second thru-hike to be. I seriously struggled up this mountain last time. I was limping from blistered feet, twisted ankles and sore muscles. It’s not like I didn’t hurt at all, but nothing more than a mild soreness at times. It was sooo much easier this time around—even though the weather was decidedly worse this time around. I wondered if everyone else on the trail was struggling as much as I did last time, or climbing up the mountain like it was barely an obstacle like I was doing this time around.

At the top, there was a fire lookout tower which I considered not going up since I knew there were no views—the fog was so thick I could barely even see the top of it. But I figured I should, if for no other reason than to post a photo of the fog to Walking 4 Fun saying, “And here’s the VIEW!!!!” At the top was an enclosed area which actually was a great place to get out of the wind, cold and wetness. I’d have stopped for a snack break if I hadn’t started my day’s hike less an an hour earlier.

Yep, not much to see from the top. I could barely see the ground at the bottom of the tower! (That colored object at the corner of the base of the tower is my backpack.)

At the road crossing for Franklin, I caught up with Sweet Pea, her hiking companion whose name I now forget and—most surprising of all—Mouse and Georgia! Sweet Pea and friend were trying to hitch a ride into town while Mouse and Georgia were waiting for friends to pick them up. If I were them, I’d have hitched a ride into town and told my friends to pick me up there instead of waiting in the cold, damn fog. Unless, of course, the hitch didn’t work, then they could find me on the side of the road trying to hitch a ride into town. =)

They weren’t sure if I was ahead of them or behind them since they didn’t know where I set up my tarp and left without looking for it. A large semi-truck pulled soon pulled over near Sweet Pea and I wasn’t sure if the truck was picking them up or testing its breaks before the long descent into Franklin or what. I’m not sure Sweat Pea knew either—but it appeared he had stopped to pick up the hitchhikers. She certainly seemed happy to finally be getting out of there. I don’t think they’d been at it for very long, but it was long enough!

Georgia said he’d check out my Walking 4 Fun site, and perhaps virtually walk the PCT while actually waking the AT. Which sounds kind of funny when it was said out loud, but that’s what I’m actually doing now as well!

I had trouble finding the trail on the other side of the road at first since it wasn’t directly across the street from where I came out at. I had to hike a short ways up the road following a blaze before I saw the trail reenter the woods on the other side and onwards I went.

The rest of the day’s hike was uneventful, and I eventually pulled into the Silar Bald Shelter late in the day. The shelter looked a bit crowded and I decided to set up my tarp nearby instead of sleeping in the shelter. The ground was still wet from the rain the day before—although it hadn’t rained, the air wasn’t really dry enough to dry the previous day’s rain. And my gear was still mildly wet from the day before. I figured if I set up the tarp and slept under it, everything might dry off overnight and I wouldn’t have to worry about wet gear anymore. The weather forecasts were improving with each passing day.

So I set up my tarp, then joined the rest of the shelter creatures and made dinner there and chatted with the other hikers. I might be sleeping outside of the shelter, but I didn’t have to be a loner either!

Bill—who, when he introduced himself, I thought had said “Dill,” and I asked, “Like the pickle?” No, Bill! Ah, no trailname then…. “But you know, Pickle is kind of a cute trail name. You could be a pickle.” =) He didn’t much care for the name, though. Another great trailname from me, foiled again!

Anyhow, Bill managed to create a campfire, which was pretty miraculous in my opinion given all of the wet wood he had to work with, so I recited the Cremation of Sam McGee in appreciation.

Three hikers pulled into the shelter after I did, and they set up camp out in a clearing away from the shelter. I wandered down there to invite them up to the fire—just in case they didn’t feel welcome to take the initiative themselves. And because I’m curious about my neighbors. =)

The three came out for a few days from a nearby school and for the two young students, it was their first time ever backpacking. This was their first night ever in the woods. I don’t know why people tell me stuff like this, because it just brings out my mischievous side. I now wanted to scare them with bear stories (which don’t have to be true!) and other horror stories. Maybe sneak over to them in the middle of the night when they’re asleep and scare the bejesus out of them by throwing a broken branch on them. (It “fell” from a tree. Sure, it fell weeks earlier, but still, it fell!)

But the thing I noticed the most, those two kids had shorts on. It was fairly chilly outside, and they looked pretty cold. “Don’t have have any long pants to wear?” I asked.

No, they did not. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. First timers. *shaking head* Well, we all make mistakes our first time out. =)

Anyhow, I invited the three of them to join the fire up by the shelter at their leisure, and wandered back to it myself. About five minutes later, the three of them joined us where we all spent the next couple of hours chatting away.

After dark, when everyone else had gone to sleep and I was under my tarp about ready to do the same, I pulled out my smartphone and decided to give it a try. I could see a lot of lights from civilization far down the horizon and it seemed logical that I might get some sort of connection—and I did! I called Amanda to give her an update on my progress, and I checked on permits for the Smokey Mountains which I’d been hearing about.

Trail magic at one of the road crossings of the day. Not a lot of variety to choose from, though!

Last time I did the AT, there were permits available at the entrance of the park that thru-hikers could fill out themselves and it cost nothing—but only for thru-hikers. Now, apparently, we had to make a reservation in advance and print it out and that it would cost $20. Twenty bucks?! Now, $20 isn’t that big of deal, but the principle of it kind of bothered me. Last time, I was able to thru-hike the entire Appalachian Trail and not be charged once for using it. I remembered hearing about there once being a toll to walk over the Bear Mountain Bridge across the Hudson River—something trivial like 10 cents that galled hikers because it was the only place on the entire AT that charged them but it had eventually been dropped—and now the Smokey Mountains National Park was charging thru-hikers twenty bucks to hike through?! It was a sad day when that happened…. And since I hadn’t kept up with AT news, this change was something of a surprise for me.

I managed to fill out the necessary forms online to make my reservation, although I misspelled Seattle as “Seattlr” and couldn’t figure out how to fix it so left it as is. Close enough, right? But I still needed to print the permit, and I still had no idea where or how I would get that done. I figured if push came to shove, I’d write all of my permit details on a piece of paper and shove that in the box at the entrance instead.

Then I went off to sleep. My day was done!

Step count today: 36,389 steps
Miles today: 16.4 miles
Total miles: 122.8 miles

Graffiti on the trail! Graffiti on the trail! I usually don’t like graffiti, but I appreciate that this was on the road and not a wilderness area, and I couldn’t help but smile at the unexpected pat on the back. =)

This creek had some “plumbing” installed to make it easier to fill up water bottles.

Although it never rained today, it never cleared up either!

Sweet Pea and unknown companion hitching a ride into Franklin.

Georgia and Mouse waiting for their friends to pick them off from the trail. I’m still not sure why they didn’t prefer to wait IN town, though! =)

My home for the night. I hoped by morning, the wet fog would be gone and all of my gear suddenly find itself dry! One can always hope! =)

The campfire by the shelter.

Day 12: ‘Twas a wet, wet day

March 19: It rained during the night and into the morning, and nobody in the shelter seemed excited about walking out into it. But as we all intended to reach Maine, walk in the rain we must!

The entire day, I saw almost nobody on the trail. It rained pretty much constantly—a light drizzle throughout the day. Occasionally it stopped, but it was often difficult to tell because the tree snot continued to fall during those brief interludes. It does keep one motivated to keep walking, though!

I stopped briefly at the next shelter—Standing Indian Shelter—for a snack break where I found Ice Cream buried deep in his sleeping bag. He had decided to take a zero day in the shelter in the hopes of waiting out the rain. Frankly, he looked more miserable than I did, and I was the one out in the rain hiking! I asked if he had any reading material to pass the time, but he said he didn’t. I know if it were me, I’d be crawling up the walls with insanity. To sit around all day long with—quite literally—absolutely nothing to do? I don’t know how people do it!

I continued onwards without any rests because it’s horrible to stop to rest in the cold, wet rain. I did pause briefly when I found a tarp on the trail, like it had fallen out of someone’s pack. It looked fairly clean and likely dropped recently, so I added it to the contents of my own pack and continued onwards in the hopes of catching up to the owner at the next shelter.

I continued onwards with plans to stop at the next shelter for the night. A shelter on a miserably rainy day like today would certainly hit the spot, but when I arrived, there were already a whopping nine people in the shelter. $#*#! Was I the only person hiking the trail today? Do these people not realize that they aren’t going to make it to Maine if they let a little rain take them off the trail?!

Even with nine of them, conversation between them seemed empty and hollow as if they had run out of things to talk about hours earlier. One of them commented that he was glad it rained all day because then he didn’t feel like he “wasted” an entire day doing nothing. I just wanted to slap him—but you did waste an entire day doing nothing!

And it’s weird, because every single one of them looked absolutely miserable tucked away in their sleeping bags like mummies. Cold and—although they stayed out of the rain—damp from the moisture that permeated the air. I was wet and generally miserable, but at least I felt like I accomplished something today instead of spending the whole day whining about the weather.

None of them claimed the tarp I had found, so I left it at the shelter for whoever came along and felt like they needed one. I certainly wasn’t going to carry it all of the way to Maine!

I ate a quick snack and thought over my options. I probably could have squeezed into the shelter if I wanted to. The main sleeping area was stuffed full of people in their sleeping bags—looking suitably miserable, but there was an overhanging roof that covered the dining area and I had little doubt that I could have squeezed into it if I wanted to for the night.

But I really didn’t want to spend an entire night with these people. They did not… impress me. Their lack of ambition and general look of misery suggested that it might be contagious. It seemed to have infected all nine of them, and I wanted no part of it. The next shelter, however, was so very far away for as late in the day as it was—and would have included a hike up Albert Mountain which I remembered being distinctly difficult and steep from my previous thru-hike. I had no desire to go up it in the rain.

My guidebook showed Betty Creek Gap a few miles ahead, though, where there would be water and places to camp. I’d shoot for that.

Onward I trekked through the miserable rain, finally arriving at Betty Creek late in the day. I saw a tent and a hammock already set up, which surprised me. It didn’t seem like anyone else was on the trail all day, and who’d be crazy enough to camp in the rain except someone like me? So I said, “Hello!” to meet my new neighbors. There was a slight pause of quiet before someone in the tent said, “Is that you, Green Tortuga?”

What?! Someone here knows me?!

“Uhh…. yeah. Who is that in there?”

A little section of door to the tent unzipped and a face peered through. It was Mouse and Georgia, who I had shared the shelter with last night (and this morning). They had left the shelter before me, but I hadn’t left much after they did and I hiked at a pretty good clip. I was sure I’d catch up to them at one of the shelters eating a snack, but I never did and wondered if maybe they had gotten off the trail somewhere to wait out the rain. They hadn’t, though—they had hiked exactly the same miles I did, but faster! I was impressed and delighted at their ambition.

Turns out, they had much of the same day I did, wanting to stop at the last shelter but deciding to go on after seeing how full it already was. Then they asked if I had seen a tarp on the trail—they had dropped one.

Oh…. crap! “Yes…. I did! And I carried it to the next shelter, but when nobody claimed it, I left it there.”

Oh, if I could turn back time, I’d have kept carrying that tarp for at least one more shelter. It would have been so great to have a happy ending—the lost trail item catching up with their owners. I’ve been the benefit of such mishaps and so wished I hadn’t given up on finding the owners of the tarp so quickly. I felt terrible.

Mouse tried to reassure me that it was okay. They had been concerned about littering on the trail and were happy to learn that at least I moved it on to a shelter. They didn’t even realize it was missing until they pulled out their tent to set it up and had no idea where they had lost it. “Well, I can tell you that much!” I said. “I probably carried it for four or five miles before I reached that last shelter.” They were surprised to learn that they had lost it so far back.

Anyhow, we caught up a bit. Nobody from the hammock ever spoke up, so I didn’t pursue who my other neighbor was. I also noticed another tent hidden even further back, but they also never said anything either so I didn’t pursue who they were. I was getting cold now that I wasn’t hiking and needed to set up my own shelter for the night instead of chit-chatting. =)

I found a place for my tarp and proceeded to set it up, then threw down my ground sheet underneath and unpacked my gear. Everything had a wet feel to it—that pervasive dampness that gets on everything because the air is so wet. I changed into my dry clothes, but even those had a clamminess to them, then into my sleeping bag for the night. I was done!

Total steps for the day: 34,826 steps
Miles for the day: 16.2 miles
Total miles: 106.4 miles

I found this graffiti in the first shelter I stopped at for a lunch break. Glad I didn’t have to sleep here! It looked like one scary shelter!

I did take a photo of the tarp where I found it on the trail—which I offered to show Mouse and Georgia in place of bringing the real thing to them. (They said it wasn’t necessary, though!)

Someone cleverly used this leaf to make it easier to collect water from this spring. =)

My original destination for the day was stuffed full of nine people when I arrived, so I decided to carry on.

My shelter for the night. It wasn’t crowded—that’s for sure! =) Camping alone like this, though, I was able to catch up on a lot of my reading rather than talking with other hikers all night long. I miss my reading….

Day 11: One State Down! Thirteen To Go…

March 18: We woke up to a beautiful sunrise, and I parted ways with Pink Panther and Jacoby. Pink Panther was heading into town and I didn’t expect to see her again. Jacoby, I figured, I’d see later that evening at the shelter. He might hike slower than me, but he seemed to keep up the same distances as I’ve been doing!

The first person I saw on the trail was a girl stopped along the side of the trail. It was near water, and I wasn’t sure if she was stopped to get water or just to rest, but she wore a black, long-sleeved shirt which made the bright, pink cap she wore really pop out, so when she said she didn’t have a trail name yet, I suggested Pink. She didn’t much like the name and said that there was already a Pink Panther on the trail (yep, I know, I shared the shelter with her last night!), but this girl seemed more Pink than the Pink Panther did. =)

I continued onwards where eventually I bumped into another fellow who told me his trail name was Clean Shave because he didn’t intend to grow a beard like most men on the trail. He was a little pudgy and spoke with a thick accent, so I asked where he was from: Puerto Rico. He seemed to enjoy talking… a lot! But there’s something likeable about the guy. He also told me that he started the trail with a 90-pound pack explaining that in the military, he had to carry even heavier loads and thought a 90-pound pack didn’t seem particularly heavy. Yikes!

Apparently, however, that didn’t work out well for him and he had since lightened his load to 40 pounds. Still a bit on the heavy side, but at least within the realm of normal. He asked about the girl “wearing pink” behind me. I laughed. She really needed to find a trailname or get rid of that pink hat if she didn’t want the trailname Pink to stick. =)


I headed onwards, including a quick stop at the Plum Orchard Shelter. When I left the shelter, I found Clean Shave and “Pink” sitting on the side of the trail resting and eating a snack. Neither of them seemed inclined to walk the 0.2 miles off trail to the shelter like I did, but I did tell the girl she should get rid of the hat because when I ran into Clean Shave, he asked about the girl “wearing pink.”

“NO!” she exclaimed, looking at him. “You did not call me Pink!”

“It’s the hat,” I told her. “You need another trailname quick or you need to ditch the hat!”

Apparently, Doppelganger had also been suggested as a trailname for her after someone mistook her for someone else (Pink Panther, perhaps?) Clean Shave and I both thought that sounded like a great trailname, but she didn’t much like that one either.


I continued on, never to see either of them again on the trail. (At least not by the time I’m writing this post.) I have no idea what trailname the girl settled on or was forced onto her, but I hope she likes whatever she ends up with. =)

Near the end of the day, I reached the North Carolina border. Georgia was finally done! The first time I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, I remember being absolutely ecstatic about reading this point. At the time, it marked the longest backpacking trip of my life. I’d never hiked to another state before. This time, I still felt a sense of accomplishment, but nowhere near the ecstatic feeling I had before. I hadn’t even hiked a hundred miles yet. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a scratch compared to my previous exploits.

As I remembered from my last thru-hike, North Carolina welcomes hikers with a serious punch, climbing steep hillsides with not even a hint of a switchback. It wasn’t as hard as I remembered it, but I was in better shape this time and not suffering from blisters and other ailments which slowed me down the last time. The trail, however, definitely turned more difficult almost immediately after crossing into North Carolina, even if it was easier for me this time around.

I finished the day at Muskrat Creek Shelter where I met an entirely new cast of characters. It seemed like I was meeting entirely new cast of characters on a daily basis—I was definitely hiking longer and farther than most people. This time, it included a father-son pair named Martha Stewart (clean up your crap!) and Dr. Pepper (for drinking 4 liters of it in an hour), a couple named Mouse and Georgia (I tried to convinced Georgia to name his blisters after each state the trail runs through so his first blister would be named Georgia. He claimed that there wouldn’t be enough states, though!).

Then there was Copperhead—named for her red hair—another Seattleite! Seems that our section of the world happens to be well represented on the Appalachian Trail this year. =)

Somewhat surprisingly, however, Jacoby didn’t make it to the shelter that evening. I guess I finally outpaced him too.

Total steps today: 37,888 steps
Miles today: 15.9 miles
Total miles: 90.2 miles

Sometimes shelters are built off-site then brought into the backcountry by helicopter like this depiction shows in the Plum Orchard Shelter. I’d really like to see that happen in real life, though!

Clean Shave used to have a 90-pound pack at the beginning of the trail. He’s managed to whittle it down to a mere 40 pounds now. =)

She actually wears more black than pink, but that bright pink contrasted against that black really makes the pink pop. However, she does not want to be called Pink. So from now on, I’ll just call her “Not Pink.” =)

I make friends with the tree that marks the Georgia and North Carolina border. =)

I took this photo because it was such a strange tree, but No Toes was using it as a resting place and wound up in my photo! =)

Day 10: Stalking the Pink Panther

March 17: The next morning, I met Jacoby while eating the continental breakfast at the hotel. I knew he had been planning on going into Helen for a maildrop but hadn’t realized we were at the same hotel. Later, Amanda caught sight of him about to hitch a ride back to the trail while I was still packing all of my gear and asked if she’d have time to take him to the trail while I was packing. “Yeah, sure!” I told her.

I waved Jacoby back towards our room explaining that Amanda could take him back to the trail. They left and I continued packing. When I was done, I left a note on the door for Amanda telling her that I walked over to the post office to ship my laptop ahead to Gatlinburg in case she got back before I did, then left to do just that.

Amanda caught up with me again at the post office, then we headed back to the hotel were we checked out and I got a ride back to the trail at Unicoi Gap.

Amanda had picked up the ice chest she had left the day before when she dropped Jacoby off—it had been cleaned out by thru-hikers except for one root beer. I was sure it would be a Cheerwine that was left thinking that a lot of people on the trail weren’t even going to know what that was, but all of the Cheerwines were gone. (Cheerwine is like a cherry cola—a very regional product that’s pretty well known in North Carolina, and somewhat known along bordering states, but you’d be hard-pressed to find it outside of those locations!)

Amanda and I hugged and parted ways. It would be awhile before I would see her again.

The rest of the day was largely uneventful. I caught up with Jacoby after only an hour of hiking which surprised me given his head start. Passed a few other hikers along the way, and I saw two different fires burning in the distance, but neither of them were in the direction of the trail or warranted my concern. I was a little surprised, though. Forest fires? But it had just been raining not that long ago! No lightning that I was aware of. Controlled burns, perhaps? Even more surprising, none of the other hikers I talked to had even noticed the smoke in the distance. If I hadn’t gotten photos, I might have thought someone was trying to gaslight me!

For the night, I headed into the Deep Gap Shelter and was somewhat surprised to see only one other person there—Pink Panther. I wasn’t really “stalking” her—I didn’t even know she was there until I arrived. I just liked the title “Stalking the Pink Panther.” =)


It was, by far, the emptiest shelter I had seen so far. Pink Panther said everyone else nearby wanted to walk the extra few miles to get a ride into Hiawassee leaving just her on the trail and until I showed up, she thought she might actually have the shelter to herself.

She set up her tent on the front porch of the shelter and said she could move it if it were a problem, but I didn’t have a problem with it. In fact, I’d been thinking I’d camp out under the stars myself since it wasn’t supposed to rain overnight and wound up joining her on the front porch area.

Pink Panther and I had some hiking experiences in common as well. This was her first long-distance thru-hike, but she was from Florida and to prepare and test her mettle, she did some dry runs along the Florida Trail including the Big-O hike with the Florida Trail Association which I had also done (back in 2008). So we reminiscenced about our times on the Florida Trail.

Near sunset, Jacoby rolled into camp. I’d given up on him arriving once it started getting dark, but by golly, he proved me wrong! He set up camp in the shelter.

Step count: 34,357 steps
Miles today: 13.1 miles
Total miles: 74.8 miles

If I hadn’t taken photos of the smoke in the distance, none of the other hikers I talked to would have believed me!

It’s a beautiful day for a hike!

Don’t worry! Be happy! =)

A hiker takes a rest with a view!

The Pink Panther set up her tent on the shelter’s front porch. (I’d do the same on the left side.)

Turns out, Pink Panther and I had both done the Big-O hike with the FTA around Lake Okeechobee, so we did a lot of talking about that. =) That’s a lot of orange for someone named Pink Panther, but I think her hiking clothes gave her her name—not her nighttime attire. =)