Smoky Mountain Hiking

In October of 2001 my wife and i traveled to the Smokys with our friends Rachel and Justin. This was the second trip we had made up there together. Rachel’s grandmother lives in Cosby, which is only about a half-our drive from Gatlinburg near the northeastern end of the park. She is really great, and it is nice to have a bed to sleep in that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg per night. She also makes possibly the greatest spaghetti and meatballs i have ever had!

Justin at the time was in Seminary in New Orleans, and was on fall break. The year before, we travelled with them as well, and Justin and I went hiking for day, and the girls went shopping. This seemed to suit all of us fine, so now it is almost like a yearly tradition.

We had hiked Rainbow Falls the previous fall, but were looking for something a little higher, to get some great views. We decided on hiking some of the AT, starting at Newfound Gap and hiking out to Charlie’s Bunion and back.

We arrived at the Newfound Gap parking lot around 8:45 a.m. It was already getting busy. I snapped a quick pic of the view as i was getting out of the truck. The temperature was somewhere in the upper 50s or low 60s.

The first stretch of the trail was suprisingly hard, gaining almost a 1000 feet in one mile. But after the first mile and a half, your legs are so numb that it doesn;t really bother you.

Along the way I decided to take pictures of the trail signs. The view to the east of the park was very clear. I would say a visual range of maybe 40-50 miles or more. We arrived at the Boulevard Trail junction and considered for a moment hiking to LeConte, but decided that it would probably not be a good idea to deviate from our preset plans. That would be saved for another day.

We stopped at Icewater Springs Shelter to rest a few minutes and eat a snack. The view from the shelter was also nice. While we were sitting there, a large group of people from Chicago came in to the shelter to rest as well. I think there were about 4 couples all hiking together. We commented to the men on how impressed we were that they were able to get their wives to come hiking with them, and they told us they were jealous of us that our wives were shopping. I snapped some photos for them, although didn’t take any with my camera, and we were off, leaving the loudness behind.

As we started back on the trail, we were hiking through a dried up creek bed, and it was mostly downhill, which made me happy until i realized that we were gonna have to hike back up it at some point.

When we finally arrived at the “Bunion”, it was pretty crowded. I would guess there were probably 10-15 people there already. We decided to use this opportunity to munch on some lunch and relax.

The views were spectacular and very clear. I had justin take a picture of me sitting on the rock with the view in the background.

We then hiked back the way we came, stopping again at Icewater Springs for just a few moments. After getting back to the trail head at Newfound Gap, we headed back to Cosby.

It was a great hike. You forget how awesome nature can be. When you’re a kid, you go camping and fishing and all that stuff, but as you get older, get out of school, get a job, and get settled in, you start to forget about nature. The hike was great, and i can’t wait to get back out on the trail.