Corridor 9

We awoke shortly after dawn and made our way out of the BD Mesa. I had decided to stake it out the previous night to attain the full amount of usable floor space since both Dad and I were sleeping in it tonight. While it did get a bit chilly, I slept relatively well throughout the night.

For breakfast I was trying out a new recipe. I had always heard how bad things can stick to Evernew pots and pans but never had a bad incident until today. The omelets didn’t work well at all. The stuck to the pan real bad even though I had put oil in the bottom and had a non stick coating. I even tried cooking the eggs in a double boiler configuration, but to no avail. In addition, the English Muffin warming in aluminum foil sucked. The foil burned to the muffin and it was black and charred. I was not pleased with this recipe at all. I’m going to have to do more research before attempting eggs in the field again. I think I may be looking into an aluminum cook set too.

After leaving the campground we headed into Gatlinburg and stopped at the Happy Hiker to browse around. I’m always looking for more deals, but just didn’t find any this time. This is definitely unusual since almost every time I go in I end up walking out with a purchase. We then decided we’d probably better buy some more mosquito spray, but couldn’t find any that we liked so we ran into a grocery store Pigeon Forge. On the way out we simply had to stop at Krispy Kream for one last bit of civilization before heading into the backcountry.

While driving back into the park we just happened upon two bear cubs playing in the road. Upon closer inspection we found that it wasn’t 2 bear cubs in the area but 3 cubs and momma all foraging for food and playing around. We were the first car on the scene so of course we blocked the road to protect the bear cubs from being hit, or maybe it was just the wonderful photo opportunity. Either way we got some awesome pictures. As we were leaving I drove past once of the cubs in the other lane. He was less than 3 feet from my window! Such a magnificent sight.

Arriving at Alum Cave trailhead at about 1:30 pm, we were quite a bit early. We didn’t see Chuck will atound 2:45 and Coy finally dropped by about 3:20. We all piled our gear into Chucks SUV and headed to Newfound Gap to begin our walk in the woods.

As usual NFG was bustling with car tourists, so I was ready to get back into the woods all the more quickly. A final stop at a developed latrine and up the AT we went. While the hiking was almost completely uphill, the fact that it was gradual and short made it easy and pleasurable. We arrived at Icewater Springs around 5:30, but decided that we didn’t want to head out to Charles Bunion till in the morning. Dinner was quick & easy, and we all talked till around 7 pm before hitting the sack. When it gets dark that early you have nothing better to do than to head to bed.

Shortly after 8 pm 2 ladies, both named Lindsey, strolled into the shelter. They had gotten a late start and in turn were late arriving. The two guys who were at the shelter before we showed up were not happy they were arriving so late. However, having hiked at night myself, I understood what it was to be behind schedule. At least they were friendly and courteous; cooking quickly before heading to bed themselves rather than staying up all night with the light flashing in people’s eyes.