Running from the Smokies and off to New Adventures

My tent was dripping on me, not because it was leaking, but because the condensation had built up so much overnight that it started to drip on me. I sat in my tent for the longest time because I was not about to get out in the cold and wet. Finally I had to pack up and get out because I was on timeline. One of my lifties from the ski resort I worked at was coming to hike, and I had to be at Davenport Gap by 3:30. I left at 9:30 which gave me 6 hours to do roughly 15.5mi.

I was booking it for the first little bit so when I got to Cosby Knob shelter I paused for a quick lunch/bathroom break. That shelter was closed due to bear activity and they had a tent set up with bear bells on it and a camera strapped to a tree. The shelter area was so beautiful so it was kind of sad that people can’t sleep around there right now.

The last portion of the hike wasn’t too bad. I put that second part of my hiker permit in the box and marched out of the Smokies with no looking back. Don’t get me wrong, the Smokies were great and beautiful and holds lots of awesome memories; however, five days was enough and I am done with that mess.

I got to Davenport gap with 4 minutes to spare and Raymond came strolling up a couple minutes after. He picked up my resupply from my parents, so I added that to my food bag really quick. I was trying to figure out where we were camping for the night so our options was to go 1 mile or 4.5. He opted for 4.5 which officially made today my longest day at just over 20 miles.

The campsite was super nice. We met a couple hikers, Pimento and Savage who were there when I arrived. Coleson was there when we got there too. He was making jokes about how he had been trying to ditch me and I kept showing up.

There ended up being a whole ton of people there tonight. We all just hung out around the fire and tried to make some plans for the next day. We decided we would crank out 18 tomorrow so we could do an easy 10 and 3 into Hot Springs.