Smokies 900 Round 2: Big Creek Base Camp - Day 1

Smokies 900 Round 2:  Big Creek Base Camp with Carol

Big Creek/Camel Gap/AT/Low Gap I Trails – 6/25/20 - 15.4 Miles

[This trip occurred in June 2020 and this writing is in May 2021.]

Carol and I are in training for our section hike of the John Muir Trail coming at us in mid-August 2020. We have permits to access the trail via Florence Lake to hike southbound and exit through Whitney Portal after summitting Mount Whitney. COVID-19 is doing its thing and we’re adapting and moving forward with our plans.

We’re testing our gear and ourselves on an ambitious weekend in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We’ll base camp in the Big Creek area at Lower Walnut Bottom Backcountry Campsite #37 and hike a couple of big loops. [Carol is working on completing her Smokies 900 map and I’m working on my second map. We'll both take any opportunity to hike in the Smokies!]

Bear canisters are literally our biggest challenge, filling them with food, fitting them into our backpacks, and learning how to open the darn things. Carol had a BV500 and I’m trying to get by with a BV450 (same diameter but half the height). Bear canisters are required on the JMT and our hike plan requires us to go the first 8 days without resupply.

Hmmmmm…

These canisters wouldn’t fit into my tried-and-true Osprey Aura 50, so I borrowed a slightly larger backpack from Carol for the weekend. [Verdict: not a good fit for me.]

The two of us had been COVID cautious and felt comfortable traveling together from Charlotte to Big Creek on Friday morning. The parking area was bustling with day hikers and backpackers who obviously have reconciled that outdoors is okay with awareness of social distancing.

Ten minutes in the Smokies, of course it's raining!

Funny, I’ve always thought Big Creek Trail was flat, so where did that slight-but-steady uphill come from? My borrowed backpack felt cumbersome but manageable on our first day. Wildflowers were abundant and lush green blanketed everything.

Mossy rock walls

I get excited whenever I see red bee balm – it’s such a dramatic flower 

Swimmers at Midnight Hole

Mouse Creek Falls

Campsite #37 (Lower Walnut Bottom) has several fire rings and sets of bear cables spread out over a large wooded area on both sides of the trail, with tent sites scattered throughout. Because I had checked the backcountry website the day before (imperative because it’s the only way to know for sure the latest status of anything in the park) I knew that bear activity warning signs were up but the site was not closed. (It would be closed by the following weekend).

We put up our tents, ate a quick lunch and emptied as much gear as possible from our backpacks for our 10-mile loop hike up Camel Gap Trail, along the Appalachian Trail for a couple of miles, and then down Low Gap I Trail back to our campsite near Big Creek.

Carol’s bug net 

It is not clear on a paper map, but Big Creek Trail ends and Camel Gap Trail begins at Campsite #36 (Upper Walnut Bottom). There is no indication that there ever was a junction of any kind.

Horse stalls at Campsite #36

White bee balm

Fan clubmoss, also called running cedar

Camel Gap Trail follows an old logging railroad grade upstream alongside Big Creek, crossing several feeder streams. Near the confluence of Big Creek and Yellow Creek the trail makes a significant U-turn away from the water and begins to climb a bit more aggressively (or is it just me?) to meet the AT at Camel Gap.

Although the elevation gain isn’t terribly steep on paper, I had a really difficult hike up. My pack was light and I had eaten some lunch (not enough?) but I just “bonked.” I sipped water constantly and stopped once to eat an energy bar, but still I struggled. We pushed on to the AT, where we took a real sit-down break, and that rest seemed to turn the tide.

There is something about the feel of the AT. While it certainly is not flat as it follows the ridgeline dividing NC and TN, there is psychological relief in knowing that the real climbing is done and now you’re walking in the footsteps of hundreds of hikers who have recently passed this way on their way to Katahdin. How many fewer than in other years? The ATC is discouraging thru-hikers this year so as not to spread COVID to the small trail towns. What a strange time.

Too soon we reached the intersection at Low Gap, leaving that AT buzz behind for a steep descent back down to Walnut Bottom. My toes were feeling tender, beginning to bruise, as I tried to step lightly over rocks and roots. Most times on the last mile of the day I concentrate on simply finishing the hike, but this afternoon we had a special treat: purple fringed orchids everywhere!

Whew! Back at camp after a 15.4-mile day (and a 3-hour early morning drive). We’ve both kind of jumped into the deep end of this training thing and tomorrow’s plan is a doozy too. Camp chores, filtering water, eating, and talking about gear, and then exhaustion took over.

Lying in my tent, chilly enough to get inside my silk liner and cover up with my 32-degree sleeping bag. And can I just say that I LOVE my Big Agnes sleeping pad, 25 inches wide and 3 inches thick! Forget those skinny things, I want to lie on my back and not have my arms and shoulders hyperextending to the ground below the rest of me. It’s worth the extra ounces to have a comfortable night’s sleep.

At 9:00 pm, Big Creek bubbled away in the background, birds sang as the light faded, and I drifted away.

"Going to the mountains is going home." 

~John Muir