2006 Spring Backpacking to Smoky Mountains

 

 

Summary: 

 

            Our group consisted of Katie Collins, Chris Whonsetler, and Tracy Fouts.  We drove down to Gatlinburg, Tennessee on Friday, parked our car in the parking lot, and immediately started our hike around 4:30 pm.  We stayed at the first shelter we came across which just happened to be completely full.  So, instead of sleeping inside the shelter, we slept outside the shelter on Chris’ handy tarp.  We woke up the next day to hike to the next shelter and found out that we didn’t have a permit.  So, we talked to the trail guide and he made a reservation for us for that night.  We continued our hike to the next shelter and when we arrived, we ate and read next to deer walking around us in the field.  The next morning we woke up and started hiking to our next shelter when we came across two of our “friends” Dwight and Lee we had met the day before at our shelter.  They told us they were quitting and were going to drive in our direction.  They offered to give us a ride.  We determined that we had already hiked the minimum 25 miles and saw that we were all worrying about what we still needed to do for school for the next week.  So, we decided to cut our trip short and enjoy the rest of the hike with our two new buddies.  We got to their car around 4:40 on Sunday, where they proceeded to drive us back to our car.  We then stopped in town at Texas Roadhouse and enjoyed a nice warm meal.  Chris then continued to drive the entire way back to Indiana where we arrived safely at 4:00 in the morning.

 

 

Our Trail:

 

            Our trail was easy to follow with the white rectangles painted on the trees and rocks and the ground flattened by so many people walking on it before us.  We started at New Found Gap planning on going all the way to Fontana Dam which would result in being 40 miles.  Instead, we hiked all the way to Spence Shelter which was about 20 miles.  We then turned and continued on a different trail called Bote Mountain Trail and took it about 5 miles to our “friend’s” car.  We know we did at least 25 miles.

 

Links:

 

http://www.nps.gov/grsm/pphtml/maps.html

 

Our Group’s Advice:

 

1)        Get a trail permit

2)        Make sure your backpack fits

3)        Make reservations for the shelters you will be staying at

4)        Bring a filter instead of using iodine

5)        Don’t wear jeans

6)        Bring a jacket

7)        It is not as mental as people make it out to be if you are physically prepared

8)        Don’t forget to look up as you are walking.  Sometimes you get too busy looking down  at where you are going, you forget to look around and enjoy God’s creation.

9)        Pack your own fun food.  Like Tracy’s cookies J

10)    Go with a bigger group than three people

Tracy Fouts

 

 

Previous Hiking Experience: 

 

            I have day hiked and camped a lot with my family and friends in the past.  The hardest hike I have ever done was the Half Dome Hike in Yosemite which my family did within a day.  However, I have never backpacked until now.

 

What I learned: 

 

1)      The choosing of the food is totally up to you.  Take kind suggestions, however, don’t let your friends pack your food for you.  Pack your own food.  Thank you Chris for encouraging me to take what I wanted.

2)      Thank God it did not rain on us, because I completely forgot to pack a jacket.  That was ridiculously stupid of me.  Something could have happened that I wasn’t prepared for, and then where would I have been?  Frozen and dead somewhere along the trail J

3)      Buying my own personal backpack was the way to go.  I am so small and petite, that any of the normal size packs would have not fit me very well.  Poor Katie is the same size as me and had to carry a most uncomfortable large pack.

4)      I learned that if I were to ever go on another trip, a bigger size group would be the best way to go.  I love to talk, and I literally went crazy at some points when I had to respect the fact that Chris and Katie weren’t there to talk to me.

5)      You know, we say it is mostly mental.  However, I was the weakest mentally I have ever been in my life this past weekend, and the only thing that kept me going, was number one, my Savior, and number two, my physical health.  You don’t have to be a mentally strong person to necessarily make a backpacking trip.

 

Memories:

 

            I will never forget going down the hill to go to the bathroom, and there was a man finishing his dump.  GROSS!!!  J  I will never forget waking up the first night thinking it was going to rain, and we didn’t have a tarp over us.  Well, it didn’t end up raining J  Thank God.  I will never forget truly going crazy needing to talk to someone.  J  The silence got to me!  I will never forget the beautiful Easter flowers.  I will never forget spending Easter with my two friends in God’s beautiful creation.  I will never forget Chris coming up behind the two of us girls and scaring us.right as I was saying “I am so happy!  I finally need to go poop!”  J  Those beautiful deer walking around us as we were reading the Easter story made the trip for me.  The trail ranger guy freaked me out.  I thought we were going to have to pay money J  I will never forget crying one moment and then laughing the next; I literally was having a mental break down on the drive down there J  I will never never never forget Chris’ humor and Katie’s huge smile.  I will also never forget Katie’s honesty and sweet heart when she said, “Well, I can’t breath, so I can’t talk, but if you want to talk I am more than willing to listen to you.”  Thank you so much Katie I needed it so badly.

 

Kudos:

 

            Katie J  What a sweetheart!  I love you so much!!  Every step you proceeded on that trail with that overly large pack and not being able to breath encouraged me so much!  You endured so much carrying a heavy burden, what a metaphor for life!  And even after all of that, you were still willing to listen to me yak yak yak J

            Chris J  I am so sorry you were outnumbered by females.  Katie and I had many laughs thinking about how immediately when we came across other males on the trail you lit up and immediately started talking a mile a minute with them.  Thank you for taking care of us girls.  I completely trusted you with my life this weekend and would do it again in a heartbeat.  You are an amazingly alert driver!!!  J  Thanks J

 

Final Note:

 

            I will never forget this trip.  I am a very optimistic and charismatic person, however, when I think about this trip I don’t think that it was overly fun.  It just was.  It was also completely needed.  The three of us being art majors, we were all so pooped and exhausted from all the stress laid on us here at the end of the semester.  Being completely immersed in God’s creation with two other comrades encouraged all of us that we weren’t alone in our troubles.

 

Christopher Whonsetler

 

 

Previous Hiking Experience:

I have made a few weekend hiking trips in the past, I have been to Knobstone a few times, Glacier National Park and the AT once before. 

What I Learned:

This trip has taught me much, about my friends about myself and about the trail.  Several things I will change in the future include

1)      Don’t wear jeans – they don’t breathe and just get miserable on the trail.  A nice pair of thin zip off shorts/pants would have been great.

2)      Bring a filter – yes they are expensive, and yes it does weigh more than bleach or iodine, but it tastes sooo much better.  No particles, crystal clear water that is in many cases more pure than city water.

3)      Bring a pad – useful because they keep the heat in your body when you are on the ground, and they are soft when you are sleeping in a hard wooden shelter.

4)      Use sunscreen – although we were going up and down mountains and in and out of shade the sun still got my arms and neck.  The cool mountain breeze made me think I was fine until it was too late and I got burned.

5)      Watch how much water you have – one stretch of the way I assumed I had plenty of water, neglected the refill, and was miserable for a mile or two.

Memories:

·        A small herd of deer walking into our campsite one night, unafraid of us hikers

·        Forgetting to get a permit, getting caught by a ridge runner (who fortunately did not have the authority to fine us, and radioed in and got a permit for us)

·        Katie asking other hikers for a pocketknife to cut her toenails.

·        Waking up Easter morning upset because we were not going to finish that day, but the next; then running into some friends from a couple shelters back at a random water refill who showed us a shortcut AND took us all the way to our car.  God works in mysterious ways

·        Walking five miles downhill through an elevation change of 4000 feet, and barely being able to walk right afterwards (the feeling you get when you think there is one more stair in the staircase, but there isn’t and you kind of trip…. that feeling)

·        Driving with the windows open and rap music blaring at 2 AM coming home from the trail

Kudos:

            Kudos to both girls for not complaining at all over the entire trip, for keeping a great attitude when things weren’t all perfect, and doing so well for their first hike.  It was a trough trail, but they conquered it

            Tracy – For noticing even the tiniest little details on the trail, like the flowers that have not yet opened from the night before.  For getting so excited over everything; the flowers, the view, the road when we were finished, rap music.  For putting up with Katie and I taking more breaks than you wanted.

            Katie – For asking those guys for a knife which lead to a shortcut and a ride home.  For sticking to it and not giving up.  For putting up with Tracy and I when we were pushing a little hard

 

Katie Collins

 

 

Previous Hiking Experience:  Couple of day hikes, nothing overnight, you could say that I was a backpacking virgin until now.

 

What I Learned:

            1.  Cut your toe nails- This is something that never crossed my mind but after the first day my feet were screaming at me.  I borrowed a knife from a random hiker and whittled my nails down.

            2.  Make sure your backpack fits- I borrowed a pack that was slightly too big.  This was slightly uncomfortable not to mention the strap across my chest tried to choke me a couple of times.

            3.  Keep a positive attitude- If you focus on the bad you will want to give up and might miss out on something good or beautiful like Tracy’s Easter flowers.

            4.  If you wear cotton you’ll be drenched in your own sweat- sweaty shirts get cold at night.

            5.  Actually prepare for the hike- This means work out more than a few days a week before you go.  I did not and my knees killed on the down hills and breathing was difficult on the up hills.

 

Memories:

  • Tracy’s Easter flowers and all the random things she noticed. “Oh this is so beautiful!”
  • Chris’ sneak attack.
  • “I have to poop.”
  • Chris’ humor had me laughing the whole trip.
  • Whittling my toenails with a pocket knife
  • Dwight and Lee!  Awesome brothers that showed us a short cut and gave us a ride back to our car.  These guys were hilarious and so much fun to talk to.
  • The last five miles of the hike.  All downhill!  My knees wanted to pop off when we were done.
  • “just keep breathing just keep breathing”     
  • Reading the Bible out loud together the last night with three deer just hanging out a few feet away
  • Getting stopped by a trail guide for not having a permit.  He gave us an “F” for our class.
  • The sweet smelling air.  The air was so fresh on the trail that I could smell the tar in the road when we got back down
  • Driving home really late with Rap music and Johnny Cash blaring on the stereo

 

Kudos

            You both were so much fun to hike with.  Thanks for not getting frustrated with me for hiking so slow.  I love how laid back you both were, ready for what ever came our way.

            Chris:  Your positive outlook and fun humor encouraged me so much.  You had me laughing when I just wanted to give up.  Thank you for  pushing me to keep going.

            Tracy:  You noticed everything beautiful and made me appreciate God’s creation so much more.  Thank you for listening to me, laughing and crying with me.

 

Final Note

            I can’t wait to go back!!  I love the people you meet on the trail and I was so good to get away from the stress of school.  Be ready for anything God has a way smacking you in the face with blessings.