Total trail mileage: 252.0
Starting location: Green Corner Road (Standing Bear Hostel)
Ending location: Max Patch Summit
Weather: Clear and sunny all day, 65 degrees
I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=35.796864,+-82.957154
Today was a great day. I was lazy for most of the day and yet still
made decent progress. I got up, made breakfast, and left the hostel
at around 10:15. The weather was great, there were only a few patches
of snow remaining, and the trail was fairly dry.
As soon as I reached the first major summit (or close to it), there
was an open grassy section with views and I stopped for a 20 minute
break. After I started again, I went ten minutes and ran into Flying
Turtle, Cameron, Moon Pie, and Doozy having lunch at a place with even
better views. So, I stopped again for another 20 minutes.
I hiked most of the rest of the day with Flying Turtle. We got to the
summit of Max Patch, which had absolutely incredible views. It is an
open bald with mountains upon mountains in 360 degrees. We were only
1.8 miles from the shelter we were heading to and the weather should
be good, so I decided I was going to cowboy camp (stay out under the
stars without a tent) on top of the summit. Flying Turtle quickly
followed suit and Cameron came up the trail and eventually decided to
also do the same. While we were wrapping up dinner Dethmarch and
Sugarbush (along with their dog Cole) came up to watch the sunset.
Apparently they are camping just down the hill.
We noticed a guy walking around with skis so Sugarbush went to find
out what was going on. He was doing a little skiing on the short
slope still with snow. After he finished, he came up to us and
brought a bottle of Jameson with him for us.
The sunset was pretty amazing and we are hoping the sunrise is as
well. The stars are out right above me. Our only concerns were that
we are leaving no trace, there are no trees for bear bagging, and we
will probably covered by dew in the morning.
I was also realizing today that just as I finished Into Thin Air (a
book about the 1996 Everest expedition where people died due to
altitude and frigid temperatures), I dropped in elevation and the
temperature rose considerably. Not that the Smokys are anything
compared to Everest, but the timing of when I finished the book was
interesting.
My plan right now is to get to the shelter just before Hot Springs
tomorrow, Nero into town on Friday, and get a late start on Saturday.
That would be instead of zeroing in town like I had originally planned.
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