Day 51: Photos and Videos – Asheville Zero 3

This morning, I re-packed everything in preparation for the day’s move. M & Z are staying at the Econo Lodge down the street, so I called there to make reservations. The person on duty couldn’t even tell me if they had anything available and to try back at 1pm! Instead of doing that, I called their next door neighbor, The Super 8. They did have rooms available, so I snagged one of those.

I then called a cab for the short drive. If I’d only had my backpack, I would’ve just walked. However, I still had two boxes and three grocery bags to carry. Carrying those a mile down the street didn’t seem like fun. The cabbie wasn’t too impressed with coming way out here for just a 1 mile transport, but he was at least understanding about it. A nice fat tip made him forget all about it!

I’ve just learned this afternoon that M & Z have had a situation arise which is forcing them off the trail for good. I have very much enjoyed their company both in town and on trail – I will dearly miss them. My sincerest wishes go out to both of them.

On that note, I remain committed to returning to the trail tomorrow as discussed in the last post. But before that, I know everyone just can’t wait for the next set of photos and videos. So here they are:

Day 41

This was Wednesday, April 22nd – the day I returned to Newfound Gap from my second Gatlinburg stay and hiked on to Peck’s Corner Shelter – a 10.4 mile day.

Here’s a photo taken at the start of the day showing a mileage sign. I think it’s the first (or the first in a while) showing the distance remaining to Katahdin in Maine! At least it’s now under 2000 miles!

This was the nicest weather I’d seen in the Smokies so far, which afforded views such as this, looking far to the North.

Here’s a video taken pretty close to the above shot, describing the view. Rather, attempting to describe it!

Here’s a couple more photos trying to show the lakes I was describing above. From maps, I now know that I was seeing Douglas Lake which is the dammed French Broad River.

A bit further and I’d arrived at Charlies Bunion – a rock outcrop on the side of the mountain with quite the view!

Video along the side trail to Charlies Bunion.

More photos from Charlies Bunion:

Another view into the valley from further along the trail.

And then a video that initially shows the same view above, but morphs into a trail walk video.

Still further in the day, here’s another video. This time, the view to the south is shown. Video does a good job of picking up the wind gusts coming over the ridge on which I was standing.

Finally at 3:00pm in the afternoon, here are 4 shots looking in the same direction as the video above – but from further down the trail. First is an overview shot.

Then, three zoomed in shots which attempt to show more detail. I am so envious of the folks out here that brought real cameras. Their photos are probably much better than these. But I’m not carrying the extra weight so these will have to do!

And that’s it for the day. Shortly after those photos, I arrived at Pecks Corner Shelter which was 5 miles short of my planned destination. But the weather looked like it was rapidly deteriorating, so I stopped short and stayed in the shelter. It would be my final shelter stay in the Smokies!

Day 42

This was Thursday, April 23rd – the day I hiked from Peck’s Corner Shelter to Cosby Knob Shelter – a 12.9 mile day.

First, some pictures taken inside and outside the shelter after most everyone had left but before I had!

A mile or so into the hike, here we have more views to the North. I tried both a landscape and a portrait view of the same scene.

Just a couple minutes later, the view opened up where I shot another video. These views to the North were common while hiking the remainder of the Smokies. In the far distance, the view was nearly the same. But in the mid-foreground, the specific ridges were ever-changing as I hiked along.

A still from the above video – look closely and compare to the other two photos above and you can see the perspective shift in the mid-ground I’m talking about.

To see how fast the character of the trail changes, watch the following video. I shot this only 3 minutes after the previous video and look how different the trail looks. This constant variation is one thing that’s satisfying about the trail. Ya never know what might lie around the next corner!

At some point in the afternoon, I’d hooked up with Wizard and hiked with him for a while. I met him at Tri-Corner Knob Shelter where I stopped for a meal break and to top off my water. Here below are some great views, again, towards the North.

Just minutes later from nearly the same spot, “3 more like before!” (The quote is a reference to a newspaper headline from December 1969 at the conclusion of the Apollo 12 mission – the second mission to land men on the moon. I guess the title sounded catchier than “astronauts achieve pinpoint accuracy!” or any other headline that provided factual information. But this isn’t a blog about Apollo, so I digress… For now.)

And a video from the same vantage point.

Not long after the above views, I arrived at an unnamed bald where the following photos were taken at 3:00pm. The first three are looking towards the South, a welcome differing view to all the Northern vistas.

 

 

At 4:30, more views towards the South…

And just a couple minutes further…

Then here’s an attempt to capture a view of trees in bloom.

Three nice views of the trail taken at 5:20pm:

Finally a couple photos from Cosby Knob Shelter area. This was the first time I’d used my tent in over a week. It was super nice to be back in it.

And plus, I had one helluva view through those trees!

So, that’s all for Day 42. Hope you enjoyed!

Day 43

This was Friday, April 24th – the day I hiked from Cosby Knob Shelter to Standing Bear Farm – a 10.7 mile day.

Here’s some photos taken around the shelter area in the morning before hiking.

Not sure what these photos show but they’re pretty! Taken around 11:40am after hiking for an hour or so.

A few minutes later, here is some video that I took at an overlook where Interstate 40 was visible way off in the distance!

And here are three photos taken at the same spot. Two of them show I-40 which would be my interstate crossing of the trip.

At noon time, I saw fit to shoot this video which attempted to show a trail transition from a “tree tunnel” to an open view. It didn’t quite turn out as planned, and the video was interrupted by another hiker passing by.

And at noon thirty, here is another video… of horses!!! The A.T. in the Smokies is multi-use, and one of the other uses is horse riding. I’d been passed earlier in the day by a convoy of four horses but missed out on the video opportunity. So here is a video of two horses passing by.

Only 10 minutes later, at 12:40, I arrived at a cool rock cut or outcrop – I couldn’t tell which.

Here’s a video at the same spot.

After the rock feature, the trail ran along the mountainside and was fortified by a rock wall. I’m guessing this is an original feature from when the trail was originally built.

After a grueling descent of over 2000 feet, I’d arrived at Davenport Gap where the trail officially exits (or enters) the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Here are pictures of that location.

After leaving Davenport Gap, there was still nearly 3 miles to cover to get to Standing Bear Farm. Here’s a video shortly after leaving the Smokies – here I’m showing the greenery, since I am now at much lower elevations than earlier in the day.

At 3:20 I arrived at a power line crossing. These usually offer pretty good views since there are no trees in the way. Here are some photos.

Back in the woods, the trail started to parallel a creek. Here’s a video of the creek and it morphed into a trail walk video. It’s nice, you can hear the creek flowing beside. In the video, I misidentify the creek as the Little Pigeon River. It’s actually called “Stateline Branch” which dumps into the Pigeon River. (A future video shows this) Also, I make note of the highest and lowest points on the A.T. I also make the observation that my legs have now taken me to a greater altitude than my plane did back when I was taking flying lessons. My flights topped off at 6000 feet, while Clingman’s Dome was at 6600+ feet. Pretty cool!

After crossing Stateline Branch multiple times, I came across a beautiful waterfall. It is pictured here.

And here’s a video of the waterfall which is impressive… Most impressive.

But the area was so pretty, I had to take more photos before moving on.

Here’s I’ve arrived at the place where the trail comes out of the woods and runs along an actual roadway for a half mile or so.

And here, the road crosses the Pigeon River where I took a video, but no stills! Also, some factual corrections. At this point, I’ve come 240 miles and not the state 250 or 260 in the video. Also, I’m referring to this as the Little Pigeon River where it’s actually the Pigeon River. Still, it’s a great video!

After the bridge crossing, the road winds up-river a short distance then dives under Interstate 40.

Then I crossed the interstate and took a selfie from the other side.

…and took a video. There’s an inside joke in the video which may not be apparent. On a cycling trip many years ago, friends and I boarded a ferry with our bikes. When we observed cars being loaded on the ferry, one of us proclaimed, “Well, I guess that’s one way to get here.” It was a remark made in pride towards our accomplishment of getting there on our bikes. So, the sentiment is repeated here!

After crossing under the interstate, the trail follows a gravel road for a couple hundred feet before turning back into the woods – by way of a stair climb!

The stairs were a horrible climb, as was the additional 300 feet before arriving at Standing Bear Farm. Once at Standing Bear, I got checked in and setup my tent in the tenting area. Just before dark, there was enough time to take some photos.

Here is the common area, in front of the kitchen, where hikers hang out. The beer shed is the building in the back.

Away from the common area, there is a general store. They have an impressive stock for such a small space.

Below are photos of the bunk house and the cabin house.

At the end of the evening, several hikers were hanging out with “Lumpy” on the evening of his birthday. I attempted to take a couple videos around the fire pit. Unfortunately, they didn’t capture the mood I was looking for. Lumpy had some Irish folk music playing which would set a mood. Whenever I went to shoot a video, the song would change. So these videos are kind of duds. Actually, they are duds. I wouldn’t bother with them.

And that’s all for Day 43!

Day 44-45

This was the weekend of April 25th and 26th where I stayed at Standing Bear Farm. Here’s some photos during my stay.

In the afternoon, some of us got an unofficial behind-the-scenes tour of the farm.

Below is the only photo I’ve gotten of Maynard so far. This guy is a trip. He’s funny as hell, and has adopted a “trail meme” of hiking with ridiculous items that no hiker would ever dream of bringing with them. Here, he is sporting his yellow hard hat that he got in Gatlinburg. He’s been having other hikers sign the helmet with magic marker. He actually hikes with this thing on his head.

And that’s the only footage I took over the weekend.

Day 46

This was Monday, April 27th – the day I left Standing Bear Farm and hiked on to Groundhog Creek Shelter – a 6.9 mile day.

So this day started with a delayed start. I’d been hoping to hike with Woodstock, Giggles and Maynard – but they were having fun continuing to hang out. I finally decided that if I didn’t leave soon, that I’d end up staying here another day – so I headed out on my own.

Here’s a video as I walked out down the gravel road.

When I arrived at the trail junction, I crossed over the creek – in the wrong direction – so I could start my hike from where I left the A.T. Photo:

Some 2 miles into the hike, I took a short break at this campsite. Unknown to me at the time, a little further on, two hikers were already camped for the night. It turns out that Woodstock, Giggles, Maynard and a whole bunch of others would end up joining them for the night.

Hiking on,  I arrived at Snowbird mountain. Being another bald, there was an excellent view from here. There was also an FAA Air Traffic Control radar installation.

A short walk on a side trail took me to the FAA radar installation.

Several views…

Another shot of the facility itself.

After returning from the side trail, a video of continuing on the A.T. A nice trail walk video it is.

A little further deserved a break today. Not at McDonalds, but at this spot.

Just as I was about to hike on, I noticed something cool. I was able to see Interstate 40, just barely peeking out from behind a mountain – way down below. Here’s a video.

After arriving and setting up camp at Groundhog Creek Shelter, I took this photo. My tent is way in the background on the left. Other hikers here were Chef Oden, Tonka, and Tonka’s wife.

And that’s all the footage from today!

Day 47

This was Tuesday, April 28th – the day I hiked from Groundhog Creek Shelter to Walnut Mountain Shelter – a 13.1 mile day.

Today had no footage until I reached Max Patch. I guess I was driven to complete this 13 mile day – given that I’d started so late. Here’s a video taken from about halfway up Max Patch

And here are some stills from that vantage point.

My technology is really pissing me off. I had three more photos from the above and I’ve uploaded them multiple times and they are simply not showing up here on my site so I can add them. GRRRRR!!!!!

So here’s a few more photos taken further up Max Patch.

And here’s a video taken from the top of Max Patch – beautiful!

Another video near the top of Max Patch.

And yet another video taken shortly after the one above as I started the climb off Max Patch.

Here’s a random shot while hiking off Max Patch.

And a video of the transition from the bald back into the woods.

Once off the bald, I took a break at a campsite. Here are some photos.

Here’s a video taken shortly before arriving at Walnut Spring Shelter. I was so tired at this point that I could not even remember the name of the bald I’d hiked over earlier in the day (hint: Max Patch). But the view in this video was awesome. And much to my surprise, the shelter site was not half a mile away, it was only about 100 yards away. But I didn’t know that until after shooting this video.

And photos from the same spot.

And that’s all the footage from Day 47.

Day 48

This was Wednesday April 29th – the day I hiked from Walnut Spring Shelter into Hot Springs, NC.

Well, this day was completely devoid of any footage until I neared the end of the day in Hot Springs. Here’s a photo taken at Garenflo Gap.

And here’s a photo of the trail transitioning onto the road.

And a video taken from the same spot.

Heading out of the woods, here are some cool photos of some stuff.

Here was a cute letter written to A.T. hikers from a school child.

Hiking further, the trail wandered alongside someone’s backyard!

And that’s it for this leg of the trip!