Bliss & Trooper's Rugged Adventures: FLIP and FLOP

We have finished our flip, and will be heading to our flop after my friend's wedding next weekend!! We have had 27 days on the trail (plus one zero day in Bryson City) and 274.4 miles hiked (so, a lot more to go, but we won't talk about that). I am actually at MY computer so we have a little treat for you all.... PICTURES!

Us in Hot Springs, enjoying clean clothes & showers!

Rafter on a course at NOC

My last blog entry included news of a very painful leg that had put us off the trail in Bryson City, NC. I (Carolyn) had cried & stumbled my way into Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) just outside of Bryson City before catching a ride into town. During the two days we spent at the Sleep Inn, we ate anything we could find, iced all that we could, and thoroughly enjoyed the television and internet access. It was all very enjoyable, but after two days in civilization, we were both restless and ready to get back on the trail with all fingers crossed. My leg didn't feel 100%; but it felt better enough and I was ready to test my limits. We hitch-hiked back to the trail (and NOC) with a wonderful young gentleman who was studying Massage Therapy in Asheville. NOC is an outdoor center right on the Nantahala River, both my parents and my sister have taken whitewater canoeing, kayaking, and rafting courses there and loved it! They have a large outfitters with everything you could need for water sports and backpacking....we couldn't help ourselves - we had to take a look around while we were there. And we were glad that we did! We were checking out sleeping pads when one of the workers came up to us and asked how our thru-hike was going thus far. We responded that it was going great, but explained the injury to my leg/ankle. Turns out, he used to be a pediatrist and offered to take a look at my boot and orthotic. He found an issue with how my orthotic was fitting inside my boot and offered a solution free of charge. Since then my leg has had ZERO pain. It was a huge miracle and has improved our trip tremendously! We are forever thankful. After the great help, we did purchase a new sleeping pad from them and sent our old, very uncomfortable sleeping pad home.

First view of Fontana Lake (top right corner).
Photo taken before entering the park.

From NOC, we made our way to Great Smokey Mountains National Park (GSMNP). 72 miles of the trail runs through the park from Fontana Dam, NC to Davenport Gap right on the border of North Carolina & Tennessee. In fact, starting about 5 miles into the park we hit our third state (out of 13) - Tennessee. From that point until the end of the month we were walking on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. The terrain through the park is rough, but the sights are worth all the work. The southern half (from Fontana Dam to Newfound Gap) was very mountainous, with lots of up and downs and steep terrain. We had some amazing views from places like Shuckshack Fire Tower (although soon after we got there the view disappeared into the fog), Rocky Top, and Clingman's Dome (the highest point on the AT). The northern section of the trail through the park was still tough, but every step offered a different view. Once we got out of Newfound Gap, we stayed right along the ridge line. We stopped to enjoy sunrise at Icewater Shelter, an early snack at Charlie's Bunion (our favorite place in the park), multiple views along the ridge line, and Mt. Cammerer (supposedly the best view in the park).

Fog rolling in while viewing the Smokies from
Shuckshank Fire Tower

Foggy walk for our first day in GSMNP

We hit the 200 mile mark at Clingman's Dome -
the highest point on the AT. In the distance we could see the
mountain where we hit our 100 mile mark.

State line at Newfound Gap - Although we had been hiking the
state line for about 3 days, this was the first time we saw a sign.

Evan sitting out on Charlie's Bunion enjoying the view

Lunch is my favorite time of day, I get to hang out with my
boots off, and it is even better when I get to enjoy a ridge line
view in the process.

More Ridge Line views

Icewater Shelter Site

Throughout the park we were warned of bears. Every night a bear cable was provided for us to hang a food bag, but we never saw a bear. That does not mean however, that we didn't know they were around. Our night at Icewater Shelter was full of critters, including bear. The shelter is very close to Newfound Gap, and is thus very popular for section hikers and thru-hikers alike. As thru-hikers we were allowed to sleep in our tent to allow space in the shelter for section hikers that reserved the space, so we did. About 10 minutes after we had crawled into our bed a couple of folks hanging out at the shelter started clashing pans together and hollering, because a bear had apparently walked up to within 10 feet of our tent. We heard the racket, but chose to ignore it - neither one of us had realized how close it came. Later that night we saw flashing lights coming from the shelter, we assumed someone had gotten up to go to the bathroom, so once again we ignored it. Turns out a bear (presumably the same bear) decided to walk directly through the shelter to see what kind of food was laying around. Luckily everyone did hang bags and nobody or equipment was damaged. Inside of our tent, we had our own critter excitement that night. For those of you that do not know, Evan is diabetic. Because of this, we always keep a small amount of sugar in the tent (and we have needed it on occasion). That night we had a small baggy of M&Ms in a tent pocket near our feet. Evan woke up around 11 p.m. asking me if I was moving the ziplock bag. I decided that it was indeed possible that I was, so he rolled over and went back to sleep (immediately, as he always does). I still wasn't completely convinced it was me, so I faced the ceiling and was contemplating just how probable it was when a shadow started scaling the tent. Unknown if it was inside our outside I jumped back and grabbed a flashlight.... turns out it was INSIDE our tent and that shadow was a MOUSE! I am not particularly afraid of mice nor do I dislike them, but when I wake up to one inside my tent I am NOT a fan! By this time Evan was up with all of my movement and light, so we went to work trying to shoo him out. It took a few minutes (it felt like forever), but he finally went out the door. It took a little searching, but we found that he had chewed his way into the tent making a nice little mouse sized hole on the side of our tent. We didn't have the mental capacity at that time of night to find a way to fix the hole, but the next morning we did patch it with some sports tape. It held for the rest of the month.

At Davenport Gap we also intersect I-40.
Don't worry, we only took the exit ramp as far as the underpass

Evan pulling out his lunch at Max Patch.
We spent over an hour at the summit enjoying the view.

Everyone always talks about how the Smoky Mountains are some of the roughest part of the trail, so when we got to Davenport Gap on the north side of the park, we celebrated! We made it through, we were still having fun, and our joints didn't hate us anymore than they already had going in. We were expecting that our average miles would start going up fairly quickly - we had done some long days in the park with the "must stay at shelters" rule, and decided that we could start expecting longer days. The longer/easier days after GSMNP....biggest lie ever or biggest misconception ever. Snowbird Mountain directly outside the park KICKED OUR BUTTS. Our expected 15 mile day became barely 10. It did mean that we got to spend some time with some awesome people in the three days between Davenport Gap and Hot Springs, NC though. Day two north of GSMNP was our exciting day - we saw our first bear along the trail. It was about 40-50 yards in front of us and it came wandering out of the woods, stopped at the trail, looked at us and then scurried off in the other direction. We stopped when we saw it, smiled, enjoyed, made sure it had it's space, and continued on. It was a memorable experience but was made suddenly less memorable by our arrival to Max Patch. Max Patch is a mountain summit that had been clear cut for grazing cattle & sheep before it became an airstrip for small planes. In the 80's the U.S. Forest Service bought the land for the AT. It is now kept clear and offers 360º views including magnificent views of the Smokies and Mt. Mitchell (the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi).

Arriving at Laughing Heart Hostel

On May 28, we arrived at Laughing Heart Hostel in Hot Springs, NC. We arrived at 3:00 p.m. having already hiked over 13 miles that day. It was our fastest record yet (we were pretty excited). Arriving in Hot Springs meant that our boots would officially be on a 2 week vacation and our bodies would have a little bit of time off as well. We met the management: Tye & Tom, who immediately helped make the hostel feel more welcoming. We got the grand tour, picked our bedroom, and then took a shower. We fell in love with the people and the place and have officially made it our "final destination." Most people hiking the AT end their 2,200 miles at Mt. Katadhin - a beautiful mountain with a very challenging climb in Baxter State Park, Maine. It is a very dramatic finish with great photo ops. We, on the other hand, will be there in 10 days getting ready for our hike south. One of our biggest concerns was not having some sort of dramatic finish (I-40, our original estimated destination, for instance is very anti-climatic.) Laughing Heart, with all its love and spirit, is a fantastic finish and one that we can honestly say we are looking forward to!

Our new ride!

The adventure did not stop there! From Hot Springs though, we still needed to make it to Iowa City, IA. The original plan was that my dad (a pilot) was going to fly down and pick us up from Asheville and drop us off in Iowa - very simple plan. But (there is always a but), there was some nasty storms going through the midwest (for those of you in them, I hope you and your property are doing well). He couldn't easily make it down to Asheville, so we rented a car last minute (actually my parents did - THANK YOU!). Our trip went very smoothly, and we learned that we could still read maps, even ones that didn't automatically tell you where to go. We also learned that rental car companies don't actually carry maps anymore (but AAA does!). Our old fashioned trip, with no google, no gps, and no Facebook did go well and we had a great time! We are now in Iowa City helping my friend Betsy with her last minute wedding details. We are all counting down until wedding day and enjoying the fantastic company.

So, I didn't get pictures of the Bear or the Mouse, but since I am sharing pictures this time around I thought I would at least show you some animals we did manage to take pictures of: