Into the Park

This post encompasses three days, March 29th through March 31st. The first two involved a lot of strenuous hiking, while the third (today) is a "zero day" in Gatlinburg, TN.

I started out on morning of the 29th (Tuesday at the Marina at Fontana Lake, where I had stepped off the trail the day before. I should note that I could easily have saved myself a 1.8 mile section of trail by having the Lodge shuttle driver drop me off at Fontana Dam instead; they were equidistant from the lodge.

This brings up the question of whether I am a "purist" or not. Thru hikers often debate this subject, sometimes vehemently.  Some say that since you occasionally have to walk off the trail a little to a water supply or shelter, that it all evens out in the end if you skip a mile or two of the actual trail. Others are even more lax, and have no serious issue hopping a ride for a few miles (or 10, 20, 50....miles) to catch up with their friends. The other camp, as you might suspect, claims that you can't claim to have hiked the whole trail if you skipped portions, even small ones. If you can justify skipping one small portion then you can justify skipping another, and another. It's a slippery slope.

I knew where I weighed in on this debate before I started the hike. After reading books, blogs, comments, etc. written by people who have hiked the trail, I decided that I am a purist. If I'm going to hike the entire Appalachian Trail, then that means I will pass every white blaze.

As it turned out, that easy-to-skip 1.8 miles was a fine section of the trail, skirting Fontana Lake from the marina to the dam.

Fontana Lake.

Fontana Dam.

At first, Great Smoky Mountains National Park looked no different than any of the national forests I had been walking through. The shelters were a little nicer, perhaps because they were built and maintained by the Park Service. Every Appalachian Trail thru hiker is charged $20 to go through the park, so perhaps some of that goes toward the shelters. It certainly didn't go toward trail marking, since the GSMNP had far worse marking than elsewhere. At times I didn't see a white blaze for what seemed like a quarter mile.

The GSMNP went to elevations I had not experienced before on the trail. On the 29th I stopped late in the evening at a shelter over 5,000 feet and it was very cold and windy. It was a clear night and I could see the city lights of multiple Tennessee towns and cities far below on the valley floor.

On the 30th the trail kept climbing until I finally arrived at Klingman's Dome, the highest point on the AT at over 6,600 feet. I had started at 1,700 foot Fontana Dam the day before. The last 500 vertical feet before Klingman's Dome was spectacular. I walked through several miles of dense hemlock forest covered with moss.

Hemlock trees on the trail.

Moss.

At the top I was rewarded with spectacular views of both North Carolina and Tennessee.  I still had to walk 7 miles to the nearest pass and, although it was mostly downhill, it was extremely rough in spots. I was thoroughly exhausted by the time I reached Newfound Pass and caught a ride to Gatlinburg. I had covered over 40 miles in two days.  I stopped in Gatlinburg, TN because I was running out of food and I was exhausted.  I took a "zero" day there.

A view from Great Smokey National Park.