locust cove gap to unofficial campsite

i woke a bit before the sun came up and layed in my tent until i heard the sounds of nico packing up. breakfast was a couple packets of grits that i found in a hiker box back in franklin. not bad, bit too salty.

we were on trail just before the family trio. the hiking was warm and dry. we came to a gap with a picnic area and trash cans, so took a moment to drop ours. we crossed the road and then had a brutal climb to the top of some no-name mountain. there were no switchbacks until the last 300 feet.

after the climb we made good time, and stopped briefly at brown fork gap shelter to get some water before continuing on to cody gap for lunch.

there weren’t really any views today that weren’t obscured by trees, so i took mostly photos of the signs of impending spring.

after lunch we descended into yellow creek gap where we saw an orange scooter. we have seen this same scooter at dick’s creek gap and at winding stair gap. i’m very curious whose it is and how it’s helping their hike.

at yellow creek gap we also had some trail magic. we came across a minivan that had a 6 pack of beer and a tupperware of brownies by the rear wheel. we asked the two women that were there if it was theirs. it wasn’t. we each took a beer and a brownie. one of the women asked us if we wanted any water, bjt we were all set. she then offered us doughnuts. they were so good. we talked with them over doughnut stuffed faces, and they were the mom and third twin (a girl) of the family trio that had stayed at locust cove gap with us!

powered by doughnut sugar, i literally ran up the steep stairs 2 stairs at a time across the gap road. we motored on for a while, eventually getting to cable gap shelter, which the commenters of farout are rating the worst shelter on the AT. apparently it leaks, and for some reason the whole floor is bowed up in the middle. (those hikers may want to reconsider their “worst” title, i know for a fact a much worse shelter on the LT (long trail) which i think is on the section the AT overlaps).

another 2 miles brought us to a little stream just past walker gap where far out says there are some tent sites. there were only 2 that were flat, of the other 2, both were heavily slanted, and one was lumpy to boot. luckily we were the first ones there, so we set up, hung our bear lines, and bathed. i was able to hike up the hill and had a nice chat with magz.

dinner was interesting. i had my normal freeze dried meal, but a little back story first . . .

this morning when i woke up at locust cove gap, i noticed that someone had put a bunch of trash in the fire pit. lame. i pulled it all out, and one of the things i pulled out was a bag of bästisar.

it was full, and unopened. i have this thing about throwing away food. i literally can’t do it. i blame my parents. so being a good little me, i put the bästisar in my food bag, and not in my trash bag.

fast forward to dinner. i had forgotten all about the bästisar, but it was heavy, and i’d never heard of it before. so after my normal meal, i fired up the stove again and fixed it up.

i’m pretty sure bästisar means “bird food” in some language. it was boring and kinda hard, like bird seed. thankfully nico gave me his bottle of texas pete hot sauce. i dumped in about half the bottle before it wasn’t a fight to eat. nico, being the awesome trail buddy that he is helped.

also, while we were eating and drinking our trail magic beers, a hiker, ‘white wing’ appeared. we had run into her back at cable gap shelter. a few minutes later, toby crested the hill after an 18 mile day trying to find a place oit of the wind.

it’s going to rain tonight, and i got a pile of alert emails from the GSMNP (great smokey mountain national park) that there is a wind advisory for up to 80mph gusts in the park today and tonight. yikes. thankfully our little tent site is in the bottom of a valley largely protected from the wind.

the plan for tomorrow is to hike the couple miles to fontana marina, take our time doing a resupply, and then enter GSMNP, hike 2 more miles to the “fontana hilton”, apparently the largest shelter on the trail, complete with showers and toilets. we’ll cross fontana dam, early the next morning.

a couple othet photos from today: