The Latest Adventure....Smoky Mtn. National Park

It all started with Jim planning a hiking trip just before Thanksgiving. No one could go so Kathryn (my sister) and I decided to go with Jim, family bonding experience. Then my parents decided to go so they drove us up there and stayed in a lodge near Gatlinburg, TN. The drive was about 4 hours from Birmingham to Smoky Mountain National Park. Jim and I left the Auburn - Alabama game (jh ranch tailgate) at halftime and met the family in Birmingham. We woke up early the next morning and drove to the trailhead. The weather forecast looked ok maybe a little rain and snow, nothing to extreme, we thought.

Day 1
Our plan was to start at Fontana Dam and hike to Newfound Gap (a/b 40 miles) in 4 days. The first day started off well. The weather was nice. The hike was difficult, we gained 2000ft vertical feet in the first 3 miles. The last 7 miles were not to bad. We assured Kathryn this was by far the most difficult day on the trail. I forgot to mention this was her first backpacking trip. Kathryn later told me that the whole way up the first 3 miles she kept thinking that it wasn't to late to get Mom and Dad to come pick her up. She did a good job pushing through it. We had a roaring fire at the shelter that night (see picture of shelter) and some great dehydrated backpacking food that really is good. The high temps were in the 50's and the lows in the 30's that day. It was a great day.

Day 2
We woke up very early this morning since we went to sleep around 8 the night before. We hit the trail around 9:30 this morning to . It seemed to be another beautiful day...and then the rain started. It was a slow steady rain that would not stop. It rained and rained and rained. All 3 of us had our rain gear on but I was the only one who stayed dry because I wore a poncho over my rain gear. The temperature stayed in the mid 30's all day. It was a difficult day. Near the end of our hike Kathryn hit the wall and sat down on the trail. She said she couldn't go any more. Jim carried her pack and I hike the last 1/4 mile to the shelter. At the shelter we put Kathryn in her sleeping bag and made hot tea to warm her up. She was borderline hypothermic but warmed up fast. We cooked another great meal that night. Unfortunately there was no dry firewood so we did not have a fire. Around Dinner time the rain changed over to snow as the temperature dropped. It snowed all night. We hiked 11 miles today.

Day 3
The temperature was much lower this morning (in the 20's). It snowed about 8 inches during the night. Everything was covered in snow and ice. Our wet clothes were also frozen solid. It was a good thing we brought extra sets of our clothes. Kathryn felt fine and so I thought we were ready to go. Just before we got on the trail, Jim started feeling very weak and nauseaous and said he could not hike. I told him to get in his sleeping bag and I was going to try to use the cell phone to call the ranger to talk about our options. I hiked up and down the trail trying to get the phone to work. It never did. So I went back to the shelter and Jim was starting to feel a little better. It was getting late (12:00pm) and we had to make it at least 6 miles to the next shelter. The weather was to bad to not make it all the way. So we left about 1pm. The hike through the snow was very difficult and slow and mostly up hill. We hiked on a pace similar to climbing Mt. Shasta, 20 steps...rest...20 steps...rest... It was slow but we made to the shelter around 6pm after hiking in the dark for over an hour. I hate hiking in the dark. We were very cold and tired when we arrived at the shelter. The temperature was below 20 and dropping fast.

Jim somehow managed to get frozen wood to burn and made a nice fire. There were two older guys (40's) staying at the shelter that night named Don and Tom. They were very nice and offered us everything from food and water to liquor and weed. They were very entertaining and had been coming to hike the AT since they were in highschool. It was a cold night. I think Kathryn was the only warm one since she has a 0 degree sleeping bag. Jim and I decided that night that we needed to hike out earlier than planned. At this point were behind schedule and did not think we could make it all the way to Newfound gap in one day. We found a bypass road that would take us out early at Clingman's Dome if the ranger would pick us up. We decided to call them the next morning.

Day 4
We woke up early this morning to try to call the ranger and Mom and Dad. Jim was only able to leave a message for mom. The rangers at first did not want to come get us but eventually we were able to convince them to meet us at the Klingman's dome road around 1pm today. It was only a 5 mile hike to the dome, but it had snowed another 10 inches or so that night. Everyone felt good and was excited about the possibility of hiking out by lunch time and making it home in time for Thanksgiving. Don and Tom decided to hike out with us. Kathryn said she finally realized we were not going to die and it was more fun now. Mom later told us, after receiving our message about hiking out early that she recruited a local "experienced hiker" (as she liked to call him) to knock down the gate and go in after us for the rescue. Thank goodness she waited since we were fine. Probably not a bad idea though.

The hike out was slow because of the snow but not to bad. The views from the ridges were amazing since it was clear today. Everything was caked with ice and snow. The climb up Clingman's Dome was very hard since we were tired. We made it to the dome around 2 pm and found out later we had just missed the ranger. The road was closed. So we started hiking down the road to stay warm. We hiked 5 of the 7 miles down the road before the ranger picked us up. She took us to the bottom of the road where dad was waiting for us. We were out! We thanked the Ranger and went to meet mom who did not know if we were out yet because there was no cell phone service.

Overall I had a great time. I felt like we were prepared for everything that happened. The one thing that scared me was Jim getting sick because I don't know why it happened. It was a great adventure. Kathryn struggled a little more and I think it was very challenging but good for her. We plan to take her on a less extreme trip sometime soon. Jim had a good time to. Look for the pictures soon. I will try to post them tonight. It was a great trip. I told Kathryn that it was more like 4 or 5 trips combined because of all of the things that happened to us.