Day 40
Start: Sam’s Gap, US 23, I-26
End: Spivey Gap
Miles Hiked: 13.4
Miles on AT: 333.3
Follow my journey on Instagram (@jenbrownhikes) for more updates!
Slackpack day! Waking up was a bit rough this morning. I could’ve had at least two more hours of shut eye, but we had miles to make. Today made our third day of slackpacking on the trail. I’m embracing the full AT experience and to me that means there are few rules about how to hike. I just want to do all of my miles NOBO and in order, full pack or not.
That being said, our shoulders were less burdened for our hike today. The skies were a bit cloudy, but the air was nice and cool. The trail felt so much easier without all of our weight. Eventually, we climbed to an open meadow area that had the most enchanting views of the cloud-capped mountains in front of us.
Mountain houses dotted the ridgeline, their brown blending perfectly with the trees. Hiking on, we entered the trees and were once again in the lush, late spring Forest. Wildflowers were everywhere; the forest floor was completely coated in green. On one of the steps in the trail, I spotted a reddish orange newt. My first newt of the trail!
I had just said a few days ago how I wanted to see one and here one was! This Red-spotted newt (according to Google) was in the eft or juvenile form and was just crawling along the trail. I took a picture and left him to his business.
As we climbed, we began to reach the cloud above us. I love hiking in the cloud because it’s a cool misty environment that is also a bit mysterious. The whole forest is cloaked in an opaque white and you can’t quite tell where you’re going, only where you are.
Suddenly, out of the mist, a slight noise on the side of the trail caught my attention. Looking quickly to my right, I spotted them, three of them. Deer! The first deer I’d seen on trail. They were quietly making their way in the direction we were coming from and, like us, froze mid step. We stood watching each other for a minute or two before all of us continued in our respective directions.
We were now even further into the cloud and nearing the top of our climb. I spotted some people on trail up ahead but couldn’t quite make out their faces. As we got closer, I saw that it was Billy Bob and Lost & Found. I’d last seen them in the Smokies and wasn’t sure when I would next run into them. It was good to catch up, say hi, and know they were still on trail. They were slackpacking like we were, so it seems a lot of hikers had the same idea in preparation for Trail Days.
We continued on and soon we were at the top of Big Bald. White – that’s all we could see in every direction. We were fully enclosed in the cloud, so cool! To top it off, we were also half way done with our day. All we had to do now was descend.
And despite our sore knees (I forgot my knee braces today), the descent wasn’t all that bad. It rained a little bit, but not hard enough to soak us. There were nice, smooth, cruisey sections, but the dreaded steps were also present. The last mile was the longest (as it usually is.)
I did spot a broken Robin’s egg, it’s bright blue hue jumping out at me from the leaf-littered ground. Hopefully it was broken for good reasons instead of bad.
Eventually we made it and were back to our temporary abode, warm, showered, and ready to eat. All of our knees survived and we can hike another day.
And that’s day 40.
A version of this post originally appeared on TheTrek.co.