Great Smoky Mountains National Park
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Our trip to Great Smoky Mountain National Park was intended to involve four people, but due to a death in the family, two people could not attend.
The trip started at Clingman’s Dome (now Kuwohi Tower). We hiked west on the Appalachian Trail and stopped at Double Spring Gap shelter. The depth of the forest in July was amazing. So dense, with amazingly high trees. The shelter had a chain link fence in front of it. We were told that was to keep the bears out. The shelter had a steel cable system to hang your food. Obviously, black bears are a problem. A backcountry forest ranger stayed the night in the shelter with an AR-15. His job was to eliminate invasive wild boars that were imported into the region.
The next day, we head west on the Appalachian Trail and then south on first the Ridge Trail for 2.5 miles, then the Jonas Creek Trail for 4.2 miles. While near the bottom of the Jonas Creek Trail, we partner indicated he had a knee problem. In order to move forward, I carried both packs to campsite #70 northeast of the junction of the Jonas Creek and Forney Creek Trails. It was dark when we arrived in camp and having carried both packs for a few miles, I was pretty exhausted. In spite of this, I setup the tent and made dinner for us.
The third day, we redistributed the load so I would have most of the weight, but only carry one pack. Unfortunately, the day was all upward back toward Clingman’s Dome (now Kuwohi Tower), with countless creek crossings. At first, we tried to take our shoes off, but eventually that became unrealistic. If I wasn’t so exhausted, I would have enjoyed the day. Once again, we pulled into camp at sunset. We camped at campsite #68 at Forney Creek Cascade. This location was so beautiful, we didn’t have the time or energy to enjoy it. Fortunately, I made numerous pepperoni pizzas, and that made us very happy. With the water falling outside the tent, we had a pleasant experience falling asleep.
The final day, we hiked upward the remaining 1.5-2.0 miles to return to our vehicle. We rented an inexpensive hotel room in Gatlinburg so we could shower. Then we raced back on the interstate to Nashville to depart back home.