Earlier this weekend, Frank and I wrapped up an unbelievable 3 day/3 night backpacking/backcountry camping trip in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We hiked a total of 18.2 miles up and down the sloping mountains. We gained an elevation of 3665 ft from the start of our hike and reached a total elevation of a little over 5000 ft.
Naturally, Frank and I got a late start to our first day in the park and had to hike nearly 2 of our 4 mile trek in the dark with 50lb backpacks. It was a lot of fun setting up camp using our headlamps having seen all the “Bear Habitat” signs posted throughout the park and trailheads.
Day 2 in the park started off great for us. We did some bathing in the creek that ran parallel to our campsite and we mastered our new water filter. Although we likely didn’t need to filter the water, it was better to be safe than have explosive diarrhea. It was a neat feeling to be drinking spring water right out the side of a mountain seconds after a quick filtering.
Following our spa session, we packed up camp and hiked another 2 miles to our next campsite that would be home for the remaining two nights. The majority of day 2 was spent hanging around camp and enjoying the beautiful weather in our hammocks. This was also around the time we realized we had left behind some of our rationed meals in the car. Our food consisted mostly of freeze dried meals, EPIC Provisions Protein Bars, and Peanut Butter. Unbeknownst to me, Frank had purchased and stashed an extra 5 packs of beef jerky in his backpack to fuel his addiction. Beef Jerky and Peanut Butter made for an interesting dinner combination for our last night on the mountain. I guess it could have been a lot worse.
Our final full day on the mountain was discussed briefly in our previous post. Frank and I spent an entire morning and afternoon hiking nearly 12 miles round trip with a 3-mile stretch along the legendary Appalachian Trail. The A.T. stretches a total of 2200 miles between Maine and Georgia cutting through 14 states in total. We took the A.T. to reach a mountain top called Rocky Top. Rocky Top has some stunning mountain views of both North Carolina and Tennessee.
Our last morning was spent packing up and hiking a couple of miles back to the car. It felt great that a nice shower was only 6.5 hours away in Raleigh, NC. Once we hit the road, we made one pitstop for some mouth watering Tennessee BBQ before kicking off the weekend. Stay tuned to hear about our epic weekend in Raleigh.
Vanjoelina Jolie 