Transcription of journal page photos can be found below. A more traditional blogpost of this hike can be found HERE along with lots of pictures.
- Trail Map Says: 11.4 miles
- Laura’s Watch Says: 11.95 miles
- Elevation Gain: 2,262 feet (2,274?)
- Elevation Loss: 2,070
- Start Time: 8:39 am
- End Time: 4:05pm
- Active Hiking Time: 5:39
- Average Pace: 27:32!
- Average Heart Rate: 118bpm (high 150)!
- Calories Burned: 3,035
The water situation continues to be dire. Between Switchback Creek (or rather, the TN91 trailhead where we started hiking) and our shelter here, not a single reliable water source was indicated on Hobz’s ap, so we planned to leave the campground fully loaded in order to hike the full eleven miles without refilling.
Except I forgot to fill my bottles before we left. Just completely spaced it out. Not good timing, Wenk.
“No worries!” Hobz said, doing an excellent job pretending not to be annoyed. “The last notes on the spring at 2 miles said it was flowing at least a little.”
It was not flowing a little. Or at all, really. But since we’re in the business of doom-prepping, we decided to refill our bottles anyway. This involved using cooking pot to gently (gently!) scoop water out of a puddle without disturbing any mud and pouring it into Hobz’s filter bag (because it turns out our filter is missing a part). His filter bag had been pre-loaded with fresh water, so we used that to top me up and kept the dodgy puddle water in reserve for the dire possibility that the water source at our camp site turned out to be no good.
The rest of the hiking day passed as easily as many miles of going up and down hill can. My fungal fascination of the day turned to chanterelle mushrooms, which a dude of extremely questionable credibility (DEQC) had pointed out to us on the first day of our TN trail time (and to demonstrate his confidence, he then promptly tossed the uncooked mushroom into his mouth). However, my chicken-of-the-woods research yesterday suggested the DEQC might at least have been correct about the mushroom’s ID, and that chanterelles are especially prized wild mushrooms because they are delicious and not upsetting to anyone’s tums. I saw a patch that looked right within the last two miles of the day’s hike, so I plucked them up for further examination.
The internet says BINGO! I am the proud owner of a handfull of chanterelles. We won’t be them eating tonight – not because I have any doubts (this is another mushroom that has no dangerous look-alikes) – but because we’re too short on water to properly clean them and (more importantly) I have no butter.
[Jamie! I swear I haven’t and won’t poison your husband! (I don’t like to poison myself, you see, so my motivations are mainly selfish.) In fact, I’m an excellent person to have along on a hike because I can find tasty forest treats in case of caloric emergencies AND I can identify poison ivy, which I just today discovered Hobz cannot do.]
While I was busy positively identifying my mushrooms, Dustin was doing a nasty bonus hike down from the shelter to the water source (which-yay!! – was flowing well), which required bushwhacking down 200 feet and then back up with a loaded bag of water. He is relieved of all additional chores for the evening.
Meanwhile, I was eyeballing the fire ring thinking that it would be nice to have one fire on this trip, even though I left my s’mores supplies at home. I made a feeble start at a stick tepee. Hobz saw what I was doing and subtly edged me out to make a log-cabin starting setup instead (TIL!). He then went into the trees and came out with a week’s worth of logs. And since it was my idea, I think I’ll go sit by it and enjoy it now.
[THE NEXT DAY…] It was a perfect fire. I shall not leave the s’mores supplies behind again.
There’s a mouse living in the rafters of this shelter. Someone in the logbook said she was well-behaved and would go to bed at hiker-midnight (9pm). She did not. I spent a long time listening to her scuttling around. I think I’d have to spend a lot more nights on the trail before falling asleep in a shelter would come easily, especially if we were sharing with strange people.
Thither & Yon 