DAY 5
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| Why they call them the Smokies |
Starting Point: Icewater Springs Shelter
Destination: TriCorner Knob
Today’s Miles: 12.6
Total Miles: 56.3
I sleep ok in the full shelter and wake up at The morning is foggy. Charles Bunion socked in so we walk on instead of taking the summit. The morning turns sunny and the trail is level. We have beautiful views once the fog lifts.
We stop for lunch right before Pecks Corner shelter and meet a day hiker who is about our age. He tells us he is doing a 27 mile hike to complete all the trails in the park. There are 800 miles of trails in this Park!
One thing I have missed on this hike is seeing dogs. They are not allowed in the Park. I never really know why, but it could be because of the number of visitors. This is the most visited of all the national parks, with over 10 million visitors each year.
We reach the shelter by . Janet has moved on, again. We won’t see her again until Saturday.
We stop for lunch right before Pecks Corner shelter and meet a day hiker who is about our age. He tells us he is doing a 27 mile hike to complete all the trails in the park. There are 800 miles of trails in this Park!
One thing I have missed on this hike is seeing dogs. They are not allowed in the Park. I never really know why, but it could be because of the number of visitors. This is the most visited of all the national parks, with over 10 million visitors each year.
We reach the shelter by . Janet has moved on, again. We won’t see her again until Saturday.
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| Day 5 on the trail |
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| The Virginia Ladies |
I have really enjoyed meeting the other hikers. It’s ironic because I like hiking for the solitude, but the people I meet are the best part. I enjoy hearing their stories. Some of the younger hikers tell me they are on the trail because they can’t find a job. When I was in college, if you couldn’t find a job, you went to grad school or in my case, law school. What would my life have been like if I had hiked the AT instead? That is a totally moot point because I had no desire to hike the AT when I was 22! In fact, I barely knew it existed, even though one fourth of if, or 540 miles , runs through my adopted home state of Virginia
Then there are the older folks like the Professors, Spot and Mark Trail Mark Trail
We arrive at Tricorner Shelter and we are relieved to find only grownups there. Annie (V-Dub) and Mockingbird, two women about my age, are doing a section hike from Clingmans Dome to Davenport Gap. Annie is a teacher from outside Savannah Georgia Florida Wyoming
Around dinner time, an Australian thru hiker named “Vegamite” joins us. He pitches his tent on a dirt mound that Sarge says was the location of the former privy. (I think Sarge is wrong; I saw the remnants of a toilet area on the hillside near the privy). Vegamite is undaunted, and after he finishes pitching the tent, he says cheerfully: “the stakes go right into the shit.” Sarge has met his match.
Around 7, the professors show up, and that rounds us out for the evening. After Sarge reads us several Aesops Fables, we all bed down for the night.
As soon as Sarge falls asleep, his sleep apnea kicks in and he snores louder than anything I’ve ever heard before. I’m stunned that the noise can be so loud. His snores increase in volume and intensity like an atonal Wagnerian symphony. They crescendo; he turns over, quiets down, and then the snoring builds up again. I have no earplugs and I don’t know what to do. It didn’t occur to me to get into my tent, but then again, the next morning Vegamite says he could hear him anyway. AK is lying between him and I, so I try to get her to poke him, but she’s actually sleeping. If only I had brought my trekking poles into the shelter.
Finally I turn on my I-pod and listen to “Flashman on the March”. I don’t care much about the book. I only bought it because Toby Stephens is the narrator. But I need to drown out the sound. It must work, because I keep waking up to different parts of the book. First Flashman is almost drowning in a river in Ethiopia, and the next thing I know, he is at a banquet where the entrée is some animal carved while still alive. At that point, I get out of my sleeping bag. I’m done for the night.
It's only about 6:30, so instead of going to the privy, I squat beside the shelter. I hear a voice saying, "I'm not looking!" A woman about my age is already on the trail, looking for the spring. Her name is "one of the chosen phew" and she is a thru hiker. I calmly pull up my shorts and show her where the spring is. Just another day on the trail.
It's only about 6:30, so instead of going to the privy, I squat beside the shelter. I hear a voice saying, "I'm not looking!" A woman about my age is already on the trail, looking for the spring. Her name is "one of the chosen phew" and she is a thru hiker. I calmly pull up my shorts and show her where the spring is. Just another day on the trail.
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| AK, Mockingbird, Sarge and Vegamite (in back) |
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| V-Dub (Annie) |
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| Snoring Sarge |
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| Tricorner Knob Shelter |
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| Vegamite's tent |
