We have spent the last 7 days in the Smoky Mountains which rise to over 6000 feet and form the border between North CArolina and Tennessee. We had one day where we were walking on a ridgeline which was only one metre wide - with TE to our left and NC to our right.
The highlights of the Smokies
Staying in the shelters - you are not allowed to camp in the smokies, you have to stay in the shelters which can sleep about 20 people. Before this we have been camping and keeping much more to ourselves. Now we are amongst the hordes and mingling much more and enjoying the company. The AT is a community which is 2100 miles long and a strip 10 miles wide, and as you move amongst the hikers you keep reconnecting with people you saw a few days ago, and will see again. Think of it like a cloud, always moving and changing shape. For 4 days we have been walking with Food Network and Pocohontas Mode, but they left the trail 3 days ago to hitch into the nearby town of Gatlinburg, so now we are ahead of them, and expecting them to reappear at any time as they walk faster than us.
Seeing our first Black Bear - 30 metres ahead on the trail looking straight at us, he decides to amble off to the left 20 metres into the bushes and watch us walking by. Very close, very big - to me anyway - and very fluffy. Nobody else in our cohort has seen a bear so we are very privileged. We met a ranger - called a ridge runner - who said the bear is a burglar not a robber. You hang your food at night high in the tree so the bear cant steal it, but he is not likely to attack you for your food.
Climbing Clingmans Dome - with great views into 6 states. At 6,643 ft it is the highest point on the Appalachian Trail.
The route between Pecks Corner and Tricorner Shelters - a wonderful sunny day and a narrow ridge walk with great views, followed by deep forest andconifers covered in moss reminded us of the forests in Lord of the Rings.
Some other stuff
The forests of the Smokies are dying en masse. This is being caused by coal burning power stations in Tennessee. The air pollution weakens the trees and then they are attacked by insects. Apparently the authorities are now spending billions trying to clean up their act, but the forests are skeletons. Really sad when you read how a few amazing forward thinking individuals were able to prevent the logging companies from destroying the forests in the early 1900s, and to put them land into the national park.
Digby left his reading glasses behind at Tricorner shelter. We have sent out a message via the AT grapevine and we hope that they will turn up somehow - we will have to see if trail magic really works.
Digby teaches 'Food Network' the words and tune to Walzing Matilda and he plays it on his ukele. We have to explain every second word in the song - what is a swagman, what is jumbuck, what is a billabong - the americans dont speak our language.
We have discovered 'section walkers' are a great resource - hikers out for a few days or weeks or a month only. They always have spare food, and when they say, does anyone want ...... we always say yes. At one shelter Digby cooked pancakes for 10 hikers from some donated pancake mix, honey and dried strawberries. the section walkers were going home - it was too wet, so we got the food. Thru hikers never turn down food.
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