Mile 275 - Totally Completely Chill and Uneventful

Updates from the Mountains

Episode #5: Trail Names, Ice, Mud, Downpours, and Brekky

Would you rather: hike through thick, slippery mud OR hike on slick, partially melted ice?

If you said “um, neither that sounds awful”, then the Smokies are NOT for you. Those are your only two options.

Fortunately, I survived the Smokies! And a LOT has happened since my last post, so here are some highlights:

First off, I officially have a trail name: DK (Dichotomous Key)! It was given to me by some trail buddies, Sopita and Avalanche (aka The Doctors because, well, they’re both doctors). They’ve been amused by how I like to identify plants and such and that I have a dichotomous key on my phone and a jeweler’s loupe in my pack to help me use the key. I might not know everything, but I have the means to find out. They suggested the name after meeting up with Eitan and I again for the first time in a week and said they had been thinking about that name for me the entire week. Since I adore the doctors and the name seemed unique and fitting, I took it :)

The same day as the dubbing of my trail name (actually it was Easter Sunday), we had climbed a steep mountain (Wayah Bald) where some amazing trail magic awaited us on top- including breakfast burritos! EGGIES!!

What else happened? Oh yeah, Fontana Dam, the Great Smoky Mountains, 200 miles, and now Hot Springs!

Fontana Dam has the nicest shelter on the Trail (the “Fontana Hilton”), where we ran into a bunch of our trail buddies. And then we got to walk across the dam itself as part of the trail.

The Smokies were in fact great, but like all great things, they are to be feared. To summarize: walking through snow and ice, trees dropping ice crystals on us, nights in the low 20s, days in the mid-60s, almost crying from exhaustion, beautiful views, Clingman’s Dome, the “sunrise” (aka the sky getting brighter behind the clouds), lots of moss, lots of eating, walking past tourists, and rain showers.

Clingman’s Dome is the 200 mile marker of the trail and the highest point! So it’s all down hill from here, right??? jk. But it’s still an awesome milestone. The funny part about the Smokies is that there are a lot of tourists at Clingman’s and Newfound Gap. That means it was the first time we were walking past a bunch of day hikers and people in casual clothes. I kept getting whiffs of perfume and floral scents… or maybe we just smell THAT bad that other people being fresh smells extra good. Nothing makes you feel like a dirtbag more than being on mile 11 of 15, 8 days since your last shower, carrying 30 pounds, while you walk past a family in their jeans and canvas shoes on a 1 mile walk up to an overlook. But the Smokies are [allegedly] one of the hardest parts of the trail, and we survived it!! It was awesome and mossy and biodiverse and subalpine and kinda reminded me of the PNW :)

But of course we couldn’t leave the Smokies without getting poured on. (It’s a rite of passage) Our last day in the park, the weather called for ¼ to ½ an inch of rain, so Eitan and I decided 15 miles would be perfectly fine. After all, we’re fine getting rained on a bit. NOPE. It POURED for 12 of those 15 miles. We were soaked to the bone. My pants and underwear were soaked. My shoes were bath tubs. Nothing was safe. Luckily, we stayed in a shelter that night, but we had to put wet clothes on the next day.

We stayed dry that next day, but we’re wearing wet clothes and still stomping though mud puddles. We DID however get some of the best trail magic so far at an intersection of I-40. Then we stopped by Standing Bear Hostel for a quick resupply (long story short, we didn’t stay there and the place seemed like a time warp commune).

Side note: we also contributed to a dumbbell relay where there’s a 15lb dumbbell that’s being carried across the trail… we each carried it about a mile lol

The NEXT day, we got rained on. Again. Even more. This time, I was smart enough to wear rain pants, so at least my underwear was dry. To make yet another (very) long story short, we ended up doing 23 miles that day. And it POURED. And then we would dry out a bit. And then it POURED HARDER. And then we dried out a bit. And then it DELUGED AND THUNDERED for the last 3 miles and we BOOKED IT to the shelter (tbh I was kinda panicking bc I was convinced I’d get struck by lightning for some reason…). It rained so hard even the mud was washed off the trail, so by the time we got to the shelter we were walking on straight rock. By 7:30, we made it to a shelter where we ate and went to bed. I think we laughed the whole day bc everything was so ridiculous and there was nothing we could do about it. The following morning, we had 3.5 miles to get to town, where there was the promise of hot breakfast at a diner.

AND BOY DID I DEVOUR THAT BREAKFAST. Man, do I love a veggie omelette, buttermilk biscuit, hash browns, and diner coffee (and only for $12!! Thanks Smoky Mountain Diner!).

That afternoon, Eitan and I joined our friends Will, Molly, BIBO, and Ziggy at the Hot Springs in Hot Springs, NC (fitting, ik). Ah yes, after my fantastic breakfast I sat in a hot tub with a Bold Rock. AND AND I got to download and listen to new Lizzy McAlpine and Maggie Rogers music!!

We’re taking a “true zero” today to recover from our rough, long, soggy past week. We went to the diner again this morning where they serve giant cinnamon rolls on Saturdays. Amazing. AND I went to a coffeeshop and got the hazelnut latte with oat milk I’ve been talking about for the last 5 days. And Rusty showed up! Things are going swell.

So there you have it, folks. Every day is an adventure. I love eggs. My trail buddies and funny and lovely. No rain, no pain, no Maine. Pet some moss and keep going.

‘Till next time,

DK out!

P.S. i don’t want to sound like a beggar. Thank you sm to everyone who’s venmoed me or supported me in any way so far :)) if you really want my Venmo, it’s in my past emails