Shake-Down

My adventures at GSMNP over the years have consisted of camping/dayhiking with husband and kids for as long as the kids would stand it. Probably our longest dayhike was on the AT from Newfound Gap to Charlie's Bunion with the rest of the crowds. I remember our oldest daughter continually trying to get cell phone reception to buy concert tickets for what...Backstreet Boys, I think. Our son liked to run ahead out of sight and then greet us from atop a boulder or something as we came around a bend. Unfortunately, I think we took our youngest child too far too young and consequently she greatly dislikes hiking.

We liked camping at Smokemont and Deep Creek. One of my goals is to use all the front-country campgrounds during my year-long adventure. A few years ago Jim and I camped at Deep Creek and dayhiked from Fontana Dam up to Shuckstack Tower and back. I seriously questioned my hiking abilities at the end of that day! I was not in very good shape.

The concept of hiking all the trails in the Park had already taken hold, but at that point I figured I would chip away at the map for the next gazillion years, the rest of my life. Weekends away from the kids were infrequent since we didn't have any family in the Charlotte area. A couple of times a year my mom would come down and "guard the house" while we took off. Seems we always headed toward the mountains, and more often than not to the Smokies in the Deep Creek area near Bryson City. Sometimes we camped, most times we rented cabins, and dreamed about what it would be like to own a place there. Jim and I were also busy camping and hiking with our kids in their Scout activities, as our son was in Boy Scouts and both girls were in Girl Scouts, so we got in some outdoor adventures that way and our calendar stayed full.

I began looking around for other hiking outlets and in 2006 I found the Carolina Berg Wanderers based in the Charlotte area --a group of experienced and knowledgeable outdoor enthusiasts who like to take new people to new places! I hiked with them a few times, increasingly longer trips, and learned about what equipment is worth having, what pace I like to walk at (medium, not a jackrabbit but not a tortoise), and the fact that I always like to have my own copy of the trail map. I decided that 15-mile hikes were okay.

Now I needed to know if I liked doing this...alone. Surely I would not find camping/hiking companions for every single hiking opportunity in a year's time, so if I was not comfortable going it alone then I should set a different goal.

I found a Wednesday hike in the Smokies listed on the Carolina Mountain Club (Asheville) website, contacted the hike leader, Danny Bernstein, and Danny said, sure, come on with us. I planned a trip that consisted of a night of camping at a Park campground, the 9-10 mile hike with CMC, a second night camping, and a 7-8 mile hike alone before driving back to Charlotte, all in the middle of a week in September. The verdict is in...I can do this alone! I actually enjoyed camping alone, minimal food prep (my goal was not camp cooking), reading my book, sleeping cosily in my little tent. The fact that the weather was cooperative helped, I'm sure. The campground was mostly deserted, but I was at a site directly behind the ranger's station and felt perfectly comfortable.

The hike with CMC was delightful. We went from Newfound Gap on the AT to Dry Sluice Gap to Kephart Prong back down to Newfound Gap Road. I was the youngest hiker (!) and had to concentrate to keep up with the pros and soak up all their information on flora and fauna and history. A great day! Danny is the author of "Hiking the Carolina Mountains" and had a lot to share as I work out the details of my project. My second night camping I slept soundly, and the next morning I woke up, packed up and set off to hike the Bradley Fork to Smokemont Loop. Thanks to Danny's instructions, I found the Smokemont Baptist Church and the Bradley Cemetery on this hike. Hiking alone took a little getting used to, and I didn't dawdle, and I don't think I would do more than 10 miles alone, but I am convinced that it should not stop my plans. I will hike with others whenever possible but in order to maximize my driving from Charlotte I will do some solo hiking.