Day 12 NOC to Stecoah Gap

Today's miles 13.4.   AT miles 150.7

We had a lot of heavy rain in the night, I'm glad we were in a bunk house for the night and not our tent.  We returned to The Rivers End restaurant for breakfast, again lucky for us it was the first day they had opened early serving breakfasts for the spring season.  We met Honeybun, he was there already and sat together for breakfast.  Really nice food once again. After breakfast we all went to the NOC office where they kindly let us print out our permits for the Smokey Mountains National Park.  We will hit the Smokies in a couple of days and thru hikers are charged $20 for a permit to hike through the park, the only place on the AT where there is a fee.

It was 10:20 by the time we hit the trail.  We set off ahead of Honeybun, what a great guy, we spent a couple of days with him.  Sadly the way the trail pans out and following the motto 'hike your own hike' means sometimes we have to continue on our way and say goodbye to people we have met.  There's always a chance we will meet them again further down the trail, we hope so.

Today was our first wet day on the trail. After the heavy rain in the night luckily, by the morning the rain had eased to a drizzle.  After descending 6 miles yesterday we had 6 miles of ascent back up again today!   I got to use my umbrella for the first time, more to keep me dry from the drips off the trees than the drizzle initially, but then the drizzle occasionally turned to light showers.  A very lightweight carbon fibre umbrella, I expect to get most use out of it in the very  hot months later on as a sun shade as it has a silver reflective outer. 

It took us 4 hours to hike the 6 miles uphill then a short downhill to Sassafras Gap Shelter where stopped for some lunch.  We were treading more carefully along the trail today, the wet leaf litter, tree roots and rocks were all very slippery.  My knees had also been niggling me the last couple of days, especially after the long downhill yesterday.  I'd dosed up on some anti inflammatories over night and they seemed a bit better. I don't normally suffer knee problems when hiking but then I don't normally hike 12 days in a row with 30+ pounds on my back.  The drizzle eventually stopped but it remained misty for the rest of the day.  The sun did keep trying to break through but sadly failed.  We were walking along a ridge and one side would be thick mist and the other gradually clearing views. From the shelter it was up again to Cheoah Bald 5062ft. No views from there today.

We passed signs that Spring is on its way, the rhododendrons and small shrubs have buds forming, were looking forward to seeming everything blossom and come to life.  From Cheoah Bald it was down to Locust Cove Gap where we originally planned on camping for the night.  We decided however to continue another 3 miles to Stecoah Gap instead.  It meant a late finish but also meant tomorrow we would have a similar mileage day and be able to make it to Fontana Village in 2 days rather than 3.

It's another cold day/evening, frost was forming on the trees as we were walking down to the gap. We arrived just after 6pm, our latest finish so far.  There is no camp spot at the Stecoah Gap so we are stealth camping for the first time down a forest track that runs from the gap, hidden out of view.  We walked down the track for a while looking for water before deciding where to pitch our tent but there was no water anywhere.  We turned back towards a flat spot we'd seen.  I put up the tent while Nigel went in search of water.  He'd seen from the map there should be a water source just down the main road. He found a water pipe coming out of a wall opposite a large billboard sponsored by a church saying something along the lines of 'the lord will provide'!
Nigel then struggled trying to hang the bear bag rope in the dark... Not easy to see where you're throwing it, after a few curserey words he got there!