March | 2016

On Saturday, 5 March the weather forecast suddenly presented several days of dry and relatively warm weather. The lows in the Smokies were predicted to be around 30F, which was perfect for the new quilt I wanted to test out. So, on Sunday at about 1:15 PM I started up the Appalachian Trail from Fontana Dam. I often enter the Smokies from Fontana Dam, mainly because it is the closest point for me driving-wise, and there is a lit parking lot there.

It is a pretty good 11 mile climb up to Sheep Pen Gap, where I would be camping. SPG is about a half mile past the peak of Gregory Bald (on the west side). I’ve stayed there before and like the views. But the winds can be tough. The hike up to Gregory Bald was tougher than I remembered, and I cussed myself for getting out of shape during the winter. It took me 4 hours to cover the 11 miles. I cussed myself some more, which is unreasonable. It’s not a bad pace when gaining a lot of elevation, and it is just March. There is a pretty tough task master living within.

The views on Gregory Bald were fantastic. I took a couple of panorama pics and will try to post them. I was surprised to see so much snow on the hike up and around the north side of the bald. And, as expected, about 4:00 the temps started to drop. I was sitting by my tent having supper at about 6:00, and by then it was in the upper 40s, quite cool.

On day 2 I did something I’ve not done in many years. I kept my camp at the same location and didn’t have a goal of reaching some other far flung part of the park. Instead I did some day hikes, and gave myself time to play the mandolin, read, contemplate, and rest. It was quite nice.

On day 3 I laid in ‘bed’ kind of late, which was nice. I was packed and walking away at 8:00 am. I decided to return to Fontana Dam using Wolf Ridge Trail, a trail I had not hiked before. It was a good choice. I really enjoyed the trail. Plenty of time to admire the many different kinds of trees, and shapes of trees. In the mountains there are trees that are straight and tall, there are trees that have been split–perhaps from lightning, there are trees that are bent and twisted–perhaps from wind or snow loads. There are even trees that have fallen across the trail. I noticed that I did not feel inclined to judge the trees. I didn’t look at the tall straight ones and think ‘now that is a GOOD tree’. I didn’t look at the bent and twisted tree and think ‘that is a stupid tree. it should have done better’. I didn’t look at the fallen trees and think ‘you have no one to blame but yourself. loser’. It’s possible to accept trees as they are. It would be good to accept people as they are.

Along Wolf Ridge trail I encountered a stream that appeared typical, but then it disappeared for about 20 meters (yes, I’m using metric) and then resurfaced. Very cool. I took a video of it. Not sure I can post it on this blog, since I have the free version. If I can’t, I’ll post it on my youtube channel (thepapawhisky).

So, all in all, a great first outing of the year. Got to test out my new sleeping quilt, which is great and super light. Looking forward to more hiking!