Saturday:
I woke up surprisingly not sore and feeling pretty good. We ate a good breakfast (again, similar to MRE’s) and headed out. Unfortunately, the very beginning of the trail was sigh uphill again. Archie started whining at the get-go because he was good and sick of hiking uphill. I must say I didn’t blame him! Phillip carried him about twenty feet or so. This was the only time he didn’t walk the entire hike. After we got up the hill, life was good again. Saturday was full of ups AND downs, which was much better than all up hills.
I know my Mom was concerned that we’d get lost or take the wrong trail or something horrible might happen. Just to ease her mind, one would have to be a complete moron not to be able to follow the Appalachian Trail, particularly through the Smoky Mountains. Here is a sampling of what the trail looked like. It looked similar to this, with terrain differences during our whole hike.
Dawn took this picture of Tyler, Archie and Phillip hiking along.
As you can (or can’t) see above, I am nowhere to be seen in this picture. Saturday was a much better day for me also, because everyone kind of went at our own pace. Tyler and Dawn were more comfortable at a quicker pace, so they hiked ahead of us. I was by far the slowest hiker, so I was lagging behind the whole day. It was actually kind of nice…Phillip and Archie were far enough ahead of me for me to get some time to commune with nature all by my lonesome, but not so far ahead that they left me way behind. They’d only be a curve ahead or so. Also, it was nice not to worry about holding up the group. Not that anyone was complaining before, but I could tell that I was the pokey one of the group. Every now and then we’d catch up with Dawn and Tyler while they were on a long break or something.
Here are a few pics from the day:
This picture above was a really neat looking hollowed-out tree. Archie was a bit nervous standing in front of it…I think he was afraid that something might be living in it. I was more worried that it had been used as a bathroom area…Not that it smelled, but it would make a perfect natural Port-O-Let!
We made it to the first shelter along the trail…Molly’s Ridge. It wasn’t the one we were supposed to stay at, so as you can see from the sign below, we had another 3.3 miles to hike to Russell Field Shelter. Which made a total hike of about eight and one-half miles for Saturday.
The last mile was just a killer for me! Even though I was slow, I did great all day long, as far as keeping up my energy, feeling good, and enjoying the hike immensely. I was slow on the up hills because of the obvious. I was slow on the down hills because I was very carefully watching my footing so as to not tumble down the remainder of the decline. Each was equally challenging in its own way. It did feel so good using different muscle groups going downhill! I was sufficiently worn out when we made it to our destination for the night, Russell Field Shelter.
As I made reference to before, news and happenings travel much more quickly than one might expect on the AT, even with no phone service or internet! Our arrival was expected by a whole slew of people we didn’t know! People we didn’t know and hadn’t previously met had already heard about us. They told Archie he was famous! I guess pregnant women and 6-year-old kids are pretty newsworthy!
We met some through-hikers (going the whole distance of 2k miles) who were manning the bonfire and roasting marshmallows. They even shared a marshmallow with Archie, which I would think is sort of a big deal because I’m sure marshmallows were a bit of a precious commodity for through-hikers! They said they were impressed with his distance and, of course, he chatted everyone up all the while, showing off his gear like before!
Phillip was the trail chef extraordinaire because he took charge of all manner of cooking for our family! Which was fantastic because I barely had enough energy to sit upright by that time! We ate some sort of sweet-and-sour pork with rice and had some hot chocolate by the fire. Amazingly enough, it got pretty chilly that evening…prolly somewhere around the lower fifties! Great sleeping weather!
I didn’t really know what to expect as far as sleeping in a shelter goes. I didn’t even know what one looks like. The folks at the Smoky Mountains are pretty particular about where you can camp in there. Camping is only permitted at campsites or shelters, and rangers do patrol the area. We had to have a reservation for this shelter. And it was filled to capacity. I found that sleeping in a shelter is very much like sleeping on a hard, flat, board with twenty or so strangers who have different sleeping habits than you do. Here is a picture of the shelter, along with another picture of “our” corner of the world, where we slept.
Thankfully we were on the bottom area. I don't think I could've climbed my way to the top! You’ll notice that there is a bear-fence in front of the sleeping area. It did a good job of keeping most of the wild life out…except for the mice! The folks sleeping around the perimeter had mice to contend with during the night. Also, Tyler accidentally left an old granola wrapper in a side pocket of his pack. The next morning, he found that the pack now had a hole chewed in it where the wrapper was located!
I woke up surprisingly not sore and feeling pretty good. We ate a good breakfast (again, similar to MRE’s) and headed out. Unfortunately, the very beginning of the trail was sigh uphill again. Archie started whining at the get-go because he was good and sick of hiking uphill. I must say I didn’t blame him! Phillip carried him about twenty feet or so. This was the only time he didn’t walk the entire hike. After we got up the hill, life was good again. Saturday was full of ups AND downs, which was much better than all up hills.
I know my Mom was concerned that we’d get lost or take the wrong trail or something horrible might happen. Just to ease her mind, one would have to be a complete moron not to be able to follow the Appalachian Trail, particularly through the Smoky Mountains. Here is a sampling of what the trail looked like. It looked similar to this, with terrain differences during our whole hike.
Dawn took this picture of Tyler, Archie and Phillip hiking along.
As you can (or can’t) see above, I am nowhere to be seen in this picture. Saturday was a much better day for me also, because everyone kind of went at our own pace. Tyler and Dawn were more comfortable at a quicker pace, so they hiked ahead of us. I was by far the slowest hiker, so I was lagging behind the whole day. It was actually kind of nice…Phillip and Archie were far enough ahead of me for me to get some time to commune with nature all by my lonesome, but not so far ahead that they left me way behind. They’d only be a curve ahead or so. Also, it was nice not to worry about holding up the group. Not that anyone was complaining before, but I could tell that I was the pokey one of the group. Every now and then we’d catch up with Dawn and Tyler while they were on a long break or something.
Here are a few pics from the day:
This picture above was a really neat looking hollowed-out tree. Archie was a bit nervous standing in front of it…I think he was afraid that something might be living in it. I was more worried that it had been used as a bathroom area…Not that it smelled, but it would make a perfect natural Port-O-Let!
We made it to the first shelter along the trail…Molly’s Ridge. It wasn’t the one we were supposed to stay at, so as you can see from the sign below, we had another 3.3 miles to hike to Russell Field Shelter. Which made a total hike of about eight and one-half miles for Saturday.
The last mile was just a killer for me! Even though I was slow, I did great all day long, as far as keeping up my energy, feeling good, and enjoying the hike immensely. I was slow on the up hills because of the obvious. I was slow on the down hills because I was very carefully watching my footing so as to not tumble down the remainder of the decline. Each was equally challenging in its own way. It did feel so good using different muscle groups going downhill! I was sufficiently worn out when we made it to our destination for the night, Russell Field Shelter.
As I made reference to before, news and happenings travel much more quickly than one might expect on the AT, even with no phone service or internet! Our arrival was expected by a whole slew of people we didn’t know! People we didn’t know and hadn’t previously met had already heard about us. They told Archie he was famous! I guess pregnant women and 6-year-old kids are pretty newsworthy!
We met some through-hikers (going the whole distance of 2k miles) who were manning the bonfire and roasting marshmallows. They even shared a marshmallow with Archie, which I would think is sort of a big deal because I’m sure marshmallows were a bit of a precious commodity for through-hikers! They said they were impressed with his distance and, of course, he chatted everyone up all the while, showing off his gear like before!
Phillip was the trail chef extraordinaire because he took charge of all manner of cooking for our family! Which was fantastic because I barely had enough energy to sit upright by that time! We ate some sort of sweet-and-sour pork with rice and had some hot chocolate by the fire. Amazingly enough, it got pretty chilly that evening…prolly somewhere around the lower fifties! Great sleeping weather!
I didn’t really know what to expect as far as sleeping in a shelter goes. I didn’t even know what one looks like. The folks at the Smoky Mountains are pretty particular about where you can camp in there. Camping is only permitted at campsites or shelters, and rangers do patrol the area. We had to have a reservation for this shelter. And it was filled to capacity. I found that sleeping in a shelter is very much like sleeping on a hard, flat, board with twenty or so strangers who have different sleeping habits than you do. Here is a picture of the shelter, along with another picture of “our” corner of the world, where we slept.
Thankfully we were on the bottom area. I don't think I could've climbed my way to the top! You’ll notice that there is a bear-fence in front of the sleeping area. It did a good job of keeping most of the wild life out…except for the mice! The folks sleeping around the perimeter had mice to contend with during the night. Also, Tyler accidentally left an old granola wrapper in a side pocket of his pack. The next morning, he found that the pack now had a hole chewed in it where the wrapper was located!
Stay tuned for Sunday's recap! I promise will be posted either tonight or tomorrow! It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks around here, so I'm trying to play catch-up!
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