Begin: Day 153- Friday, September 20, Flint Mountain Shelter, NC/TN border
End: Day 158- Friday, September 27, Newport & Hartford, TN
Most Trail Miles in a day this period: 17.9
Total Trail Miles Hiked: 1673
Miles to Springer Mtn., GA: 242
Photos corresponding to this week’s post can be found in the “09-08 TN” folder. Sorting by name is recommended.
Day 155- Sunday , 9/22
Zero Day
Hot Springs is a nice town for an off day. We liked staying at Sunnybank Inn (in a house built in 1840), resupplying at a a well stocked Dollar General, and eating at several restaurants within walking distance. (9/28 update: most of the restaurants we visited have been flooded out by Helene)
There is a good outfitter downtown that carries decent backpacking gear along with some items for non-hiking visitors. The outfitter let us use their computer to obtain and print out our backcountry permits for thru-hiking in the Smokies.
Internet service was spotty during our stay in Hot Springs, but the outfitter let us know that the best wifi to be found in front of the library. So once we completed our usual in-town tasks, we sat on a bench on the main street in front of the library and enjoyed a FaceTime call with friends.
Day 156- Monday, 9/23
Start: Elmer’s, Hot Springs, NC - 275.2
End: Roaring Fork Shelter - 257.3
Miles: 17.9
Ascent: 5905 | Descent: 3227
While in Hot Springs we purchased additional food that would be needed to make it through the Smokies. As we hiked up and out of town wearing brand new hiking shoes, I found my pack to feel extra heavy. Going from Sunnybank Inn at elevation 1,340’ to Bluff Mtn at elevation 4,680’, crossing several gaps, resulted in 4,515’ of ascents over 10.7 miles made for a tough morning.
We originally meant to hike only 13 miles, but with bad weather in the forecast (early signs of Helene) we pushed on an additional five miles. It was neat hiking the stretch of trail south of Bluff Mtn since we had hiked here in 2020. It’s such a pretty section and it was fun to reminisce our prior hike.
However the big climb in the morning began to affect me as the day wore on. Trail Horse took some weight from my pack and hiked on at his faster pace to our planned tentsite. The last two miles were very tough for me and I significantly slowed down. So much so that Trail Horse left the tentsite and hiked back on the trail to find me. was only a quarter mile back, collecting water from a stream, but he kindly carried my pack and my extra 2 liters of water back to the tent to close out our newest highest ascent day of 5,900’ total.
Day 157- Tuesday, 9/24
Start: Roaring Fork Shelter - 257.3
End: Standing Bear, TN - 241.8
Miles: 15.5
Ascent: 2981 | Descent: 5301
My feet were still a little tired when we set out before sunrise. However I was rewarded with clear skies once the sun came out and we approached Max Patch (elev. 4,615’). We half expected this bald area to be fogged in with all of the previous night’s rain. So we were delighted to reach the top of Max Patch with great views of the Smokies to the south. There was a small moment of annoyance when a loud drone flew past us and the sign prohibiting using drones…
Thankfully the ascents for today were a good bit less than yesterday, even with two summits on today’s hike. After yesterday’s big push, I was glad to end the day at Standing Bear Farms where we had a pleasant evening talking to several section hikers by a fire.
Day 158- Wednesday, 9/25
Day 159- Thursday, 9/26
Day 160- Friday, 9/27
Day 161- Saturday, 9/28
Zero Days
With Hurricane Helene predicted to head towards the Smoky Mountains, we opted to go to a nearby town to wait out the storm. My concern was the forecasted wind gusts up to 60 mph which heightens chance of trees falling. Also, once we enter the Great Smoky Mountain National Park the options to get off trail are far and few between. So it did not seem safe to enter the park until the storm has passed.
Maria, the owner of Standing Bear shuttled us out to Newport, TN Wednesday morning . It turns out that fellow thru-hiker Data got off trail on Wednesday afternoon at the same spot that we got off at the day before. He then shuttled to the same hotel as us. (9/28 update: we suspect that Standing Bear was flooded out, but cannot verify this yet)
These zero days were spent doing town chores, eating, hanging with Data, and worrying about the effects of Hurricane Helene. It was rough watching the storm approach the Big Bend area. Friday morning I felt incredibly relieved that the storm had passed the Tallahassee area with minimal damage. My heart goes out to those to the east that are affected by Helene, many of which were impacted by Idelia last year.
We had a shuttle scheduled to take the three of us back to the trail Saturday morning. However as Friday progressed, we learned about many road closures (including two nearby interstates) and our shuttle driver had to cancel the pick up, so now we are rather stranded here. In addition, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy highly suggests people stay off the trail through the weekend. With all of our days at hostels, hotels, motels and restaurants on this backpacking trip, and especially after this long delay, I am really considering some part-time work once we finish the trail.
So we were in limbo here, watching for trail updates and searching for a shuttle driver that can take is back to the trail. At one time we had another shuttle scheduled for Sunday morning. Trail Horse and I had some reservations about heading out and having to deal with fallen trees and muddy conditions, but felt we make a decent plan to handle issues. Eventually we decided not to go to the Smokies and felt bad about not accompanying Data in returning to the trail. However late in the afternoon Data received word that there were nine search and rescue efforts in the Smokies today. It took one crew seven hours to clear three miles of trail. His source felt that it may be a month before the Smokies are hikable. With this news, none of us will not be waiting around to hike the Smokies.
Horse and I found another shuttle driver that can take the three of us to Knoxville where we can pick up a car rental. Data will either fly home from Knoxville or we will drop him off somewhere between the Smokies and the NC/GA state line to continue his hike. Trail Horse and I will skip down closer to Georgia where we will have better opportunities to get off trail if needed after visiting some friends in NC.
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