Day 20: Farewell Smokies

Hiked 20.5 miles, tenting at Painter Branch camp area.

Wow did it get cold last night, I wore everything I had to bed.  When I woke up this morning though it was chilly but much better.  We did also find out that the top floor of the shelter was slanted.  We all woke up having slid down to the back wall of the shelter.  We didn't set an alarm today, just got up with everyone else.
The rain had stopped but it was still musing this morning.  We hopped in and out of clouds a lot this morning.  At some point in the first couple miles we passed an old plane wreck.  Apparently we were all lost in our own thoughts or oblivious because none of us saw it.  I wanted to see it but by the time another hiker told me I was 2 miles away and just couldn't see it being worth 4 bonus miles.

Fog rolling down the mountains

Light beams filtering through the trees

I'm hiking towards the light!

The fog is lifting

Around lunch time we arrived at the side trail for Cammerrer Mountain.  We spent some time debating if the observation tower on top would be worth the 1.2 mile round trip.  Especially given the fact we wanted to accomplish some larger miles today.  Finally we decided to go for it.  The trail was a lot better than we thought, mostly following the ridge with a small uphill at the end.  It was definitely  worth it though.  The tower was octagon shaped and made of stone and had an amazing view of Tennessee.  We are at the edge of the mountains here and looking out from the top the land just flattens out.  Really cool to see.  If it had been later in the day we might have stealth camped there, but we wanted more miles so we moved on.  Unfortunately looking back on it we didn't get any photos looking towards Tennessee which was the really awesome view, womp womp.

View from Cammerer Mountain

View from Cammerer Mountain

View from Cammerer Mountain

View from Cammerer Mountain

Cammerer observation tower.  Hello Slim Jim

Before that trail it was similar to yesterday, following the ridge line with a few taller peaks than yesterday.  After that trail it was a whole lot of down.  We descended from 5000 feet to 1400 feet over 7 miles.  About three quarters of the way down we officially left the Smokies behind.  The mountains there were beautiful but it will be nice to not have to deal with all of the restrictions anymore.

On the descent I climbed up a big rock for an awesome view of the valley

Stone wall on the trail to prevent erosion, amazing the amount of work the trail crews do

 We crossed our first interstate highway today!   We specifically passed underneath I-40 today at the bottom of the descent.  This meant a short road walk.  Like any descent it also means a similar ascent on the other side and immediately afterwards we were back in the woods and ascending.

We broke up our ascent by stopping off at the Standing Bear Hostel about a mile into the climb.  We also did our first truly PUD (pointless ups and downs) today.  After crossing I-40 we started down a gravel road, left the road, climbed a few hundred feet of elevation before descending back to the same road. 

The hostel was pretty cool though.  It was broken up into a number of small outbuildings.  Any food you bought at the store there you could cook up at the kitchen.  We didn't stay long, but we did take the time to have a snack and beer.  I had a Yuengling, two freeze pops and a microwaveable chimichanga.  This stuff totally helped us power through the rest of the 2 mile climb to the campsite.  I also made some good discoveries in the hiker box there.  I picked up some duck jerky and some brie cheese.  Yum.  Oh have I not mentioned hiker boxes?  Most places along the trail have them.  It's a place where hikers can ditch stuff they don't want and anything in the hiker box is free for grabs by fellow hikers.

Courtyard at Standing Bear hostel

Dining area at Standing Bear (Red Specs in the corner, Jacob and Emily on the left)

The ascent up to the campsite was tough but great.  We left the hostel late and it was almost sunset.  Because it was a very sharp ascent, we were ascending at a similar rate to the rate of descent of the sun.  So the sun started in close to the same place above the mountains but just got redder as it went on.  It was fun to watch.
The campsite is not very flat so I will be sliding around in my tent tonight.  Another thru hiker was here though and had a fire roaring and it was great.  We found out later that we might have met the peanut butter guy that I mentioned in an earlier post.  He had ten lbs of peanut butter with him and said he originally had two packs.  Apparently he skipped the Smokies because he has a dog.

Sunset view from camp

Someone in camp was using their phone and we heard about the bombings at the Boston marathon.  I hope everyone is alright.