Days 119-122: Big Bald to Bluff Mountain

It had rained on and off for most of the night. We had the shelter cover, so it was easy to get all our things in order for the day.

We talked some more with the SAWS team, as well as a section hiker who also spent the night with us.

We had some cell service and the weather forecast seemed to change every hour. Either more than an inch of rain or nothing at all. We had to move forward in any direction.

We began the short climb towards Big Bald and everything was eerily covered in clouds. There were a few bird trapping stations in the open field area to capture, band, track and release different birds.

As soon as we descended into the trees, the clouds parted and the sky turned blue.

I saw I had better cell service and signed up for the spring classes I want to take. I am taking this time to pursue a degree in Social Work, but I still plan to continue when we are done. I made sure to mark my calendar with an alert when registration opened, as well as the classes I need to sign up for, so it was super easy! I’ve already signed up for two classes that will start just a couple of days after we finish walking, and I’m honestly looking forward to them.

We continue to see evidence of the imminent end of our walk. A sign that indicated specific mileage of places near and far. 320-ish for Springer! Mileages change slightly each year, so I don’t think this is entirely accurate.

Around 11 in the morning it started pouring rain on us. Some hail even fell from the sky. The trail immediately became an active stream for at least an hour. Even when it stops raining, excess water falls from the trees, so there is always at least 15 minutes of prolonged drizzle.

We had another pretty short day, only 18 miles. This took us to another shelter to dry ourselves and our things. Two hikers and a flip-flop man were also staying at the shelter.

This was a huge and super cool mushroom! It was just under two feet in diameter.

The next day passed virtually without incident. Most of our views were cloudy, even the top of Big Butt Peak! Journal.

We finally arrived at Southern Cookie Lady’s house. She had just left for town, but her kind husband brought us each a peanut butter cookie, took our trash, and let us fill our water bottles for the next dry stretch.

From there we walked to Allen Gap. One of the people who stayed the night before, Dorinda, also known as Dorito, said she would leave us a small water tank here. And he did it! The water at the shelter we planned to stay at is unreliable, so she helped us out greatly.

The shelter was quite old and not desirable to stay in, so we pitched our tent just up the hill. The water ended up being good, just a very slow trickle of about 1 liter every two minutes. With a little patience, we were able to maximize our water for the next morning.

The toilet was quite neglected and the cone was approaching dangerous territory.

The next day, we had about 11 miles to Hot Springs, North Carolina. We booked a spot at the resort’s campground and were eager to take a dip in their hot springs.

We took a small side trail to see a fire tower, which was very well maintained. I would even consider staying a night there!

As we entered the city, there was clearly still a lot of construction going on due to the aftermath of the hurricane. The trail took us through an active construction zone, which was a great welcome to the city.

We crossed the bridge and went straight to the restaurant. We both had sweet tea to drink. I ordered the dinner of meatloaf with collard greens, potato cakes, and a homemade dinner roll. Nick had the fried steak, macaroni and cheese, fried squash, and a bagel too. This was a perfect meal to welcome us to this great little city.

We handle our replenishment between the supplier, a convenience store, and Dollar General. With too much food in tow, we only had one more stop to make. We are about to head to Great Smoky Mountain National Park, so we had to purchase and print our permits to enter and camp. We were able to do this at the welcome center with a $2 donation.

We were finally able to check into our camp. We did this and booked a one-hour soak in a mineral tub for 5:30 p.m.

I showered and started doing laundry while Nick took a short nap. I had some free time, so I walked to another convenience store to buy some drinks for us. While I was there talking to the owner, he asked me if I had seen the chicken. He hadn’t, and he pointed out the rooster that walks with him in the store!

I was able to hug the docile boy for a moment. He was very sweet for a rooster.

Nick and I got back together and went to our spa date. The tub was just a regular hot tub, but the water was pumped from a nearby spring where they heated it to 104 degrees. It was quite hot, but it was worth it.

Once we finished and left, we felt completely new. My typical aches and pains from sitting for so long are mostly gone! The hiker’s limp was kept at bay. A miracle.

For dinner we went to Vinyl Pies, a pizzeria. We sat at the bar near the entrance and ordered two pizzas. Halfway through dinner, our friends Sam and Will walked in. We hadn’t seen them since Erwin, and they had just arrived in town. They were also assigned the camp next to us. We caught up for a while before Nick and I headed back to our tent.

The next morning, we packed our bags and went back to the restaurant for breakfast. We ate and headed back out of town.

We stopped by a shelter owned by Jennifer Pharr Davis and staffed by our new acquaintance Big Catt, the guide we met at the old Overmountain Shelter site a few days ago. She came out and talked to us for a moment before heading up the hill.

I stopped around 11am while I had service to sign up for spring classes and Nick kept walking.

The hills were well level and when I reached the top of Bluff Mountain, the rain started again! It would be on and off for the rest of the day.

We arrived at our shelter between 4 and 4:30. We could have continued, but we were a few kilometers from Max Patch, a popular viewpoint, and it was very cloudy. The next morning was supposed to be clearer, so we spent a long afternoon without walking.

Tomorrow would be the start of the Smokies for us! There are some strange camping regulations that I’m not entirely clear on, but I’m sure we’ll clear them up very soon.