This was a low mileage day – only 13 miles – but a lot of elevation gain, because we were climbing Kuwohi, the highest peak in the Smokies and on the AT. It is at 6612 feet. One of the interesting things about climbing that high is how the vegetation changes, in phases. At lower elevations you have healthy hardwood forests. As you climb the tres get smaller and scrawnier, the buds stop showing, more birch and less oak. Then it transforms to spruce, with moss on absolutely everything. The trout lilies, which are in full bloom lower down, are mostly just one tiny leaf per plant higher up. In one spot I counted at least ten different kinds of moss on a small patch beside the trail. I also spotted some wild leeks, but resisted the urge to harvest. It is a national park after all.
Kuwohi itself was a disappointment. Massive crowds and a spiral concrete ramp to a viewing platform where the views were spectacular if you could see over the people. I enjoyed the views better on the way up, where occasional breaks in the trees gave a view of one part of the landscape. There sure are a lot of mountains here!
A bunch of us – Listener, Lucky, Ranger and Corky (husband and wife team – it’s his first thru hike and her fourth, including one done entirely in crocs) were planning to meet at Mount Collins shelter tonight and head to Newfound Gap tomorrow to catch a free shuttle to Gatlinburg for a resupply. Not sure where Lucky wound up. Ranger and Corky are just staying the day. Listener and I plan to stay overnight if we can find rooms in one of the motels not too far from downtown. I’d like to take a shower and do laundry as well as charge my big power bank. But I can probably manage just a day trip given I still have 70% battery on my phone and my second pack can probably do two full charges. I do need food. If it were just me I don’t think I’d stay, but Listener is very friendly and I told him I’d prefer to spend the day in town with someone rather than alone. If staying over doesn’t work out, I can try to get my shopping done quickly and then park myself in a restaurant and charge my power bank while I eat.
The shelter and campgound is very crowded. Two levels in the shelter itself, probably room for 12, and at least 10 tents up in the woods nearby. This made for a fairly long and animated conversation at dinner, about the young Pennsylvania threesome who went to Gatlinburg today and had all you can eat pizza (and are seriously considering going back tomorrow), about Corky’s croc hike (Ranger says she is a thru hike addict like Lucky), about where people are from, why they wanted to do the AT…. one question that rarely gets asked is What do you do when you’re not thru hiking. I spent probably two hours chatting with various people. That lifted my mood, as the fairly gray weather and the Kuwohi letdown had made me feel a bit blue.
One thing I noticed today was how intensely the spruce firest smells of conifers. It’s almost overpowering. The good thing about that is that it means my sense of smell might be coming back, although now that I think of, all the Knorr sides I’ve been having for dinner taste pretty much the same.
In other news I passed the 200 mile mark (Kuwohi is at 200.3) so fewer than 2000 miles to go!
Mile 190.1 to mile 203.3 so 13.2 miles.
