Curt and John's TR from last weekend

“John Cook and I completed a hike of the east half of the Appalachian Trail
in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park this past weekend.

We began Friday night with supper at the Front Porch restaurant in Cosby and
enjoyed some live Blue Grass music. At least I did. John spent his time
there oggling the hot women. Anyway, the food was great.

We overnighted at Standing Bear Farm Hostel, off I-40 at exit 451. My first
visit, John's second. Very nice place with rustic cabins and bunkhouses to
cater to through hikers. Even though I only met Curtis the owner that
night, he treated me like a long time friend.

Saturday morning Curtis and Oddie (a friend) shuttled us up to Newfound Gap
for us to begin the hiking journey. The first 4 miles to Charlie's Bunion
went fast, with a brief stop at Ice Water for a look at the shelter and a
refill on water. At the Bunion, we paused to reflect on a past journey up
the Porter's Creek Manway and enjoyed some limited views. The haze and
ozone alert hampered far viewing there and at other locations. Robbed of
aesthetics, we were not down trodden.

The next 6 miles to Peck's Corner shelter seemed to take awhile. The odd
placement of this shelter a half a mile off the AT and downhill is only one
negative aspect. The other is the location of the spring water source below
the shelter, the horse hitching rack, and the impromptu crapping area. The
plastic outhouse was located above at a small saddle and many must have not
wanted to walk the extra steps up the hill, so they had just side hilled
away from the shelter and did like the bears in the woods. Nice runoff down
hill to the "spring". Our companions for the evening will be covered later.

On Sunday we began our journey early towards Cosby Knob Shelter. We stopped
over at Tri-Corner Shelter for a coffee break and ended up staying longer to
wait out a brief rain shower. This day was cloudy, which took away some
great opportunities for scenic views along numerous places on the trail.
What a bummer.

John did encounter a mysterious beast along the way. As the animal made
vicious threatening sounds, John went for his trusty side arm. The animal
must have felt threatened by the can of pepper spray, or thought John too
smelly an adversary to vanquish, as he turned tail and skedaddled.

Upon arrival at Cosby Knob shelter we met a whole new crew of nightly
companions. There was much enjoyable talk of where each had hiked and where
they were headed. Later in the evening, we were joined by four more to make
a full house of 11 in the shelter. This bunch came in very forlorn and
seemed to question our invitation to join us. They could not understand
that there was room on the top bunk, because John had placed a small nylon
food sack in one of the bed location. One would have thought a whole truck
load of gear covered the sleeping platform. Finally, John retrieved his
sack and the clouds were lifted from their brains and they saw that there
was indeed room at the INN.

Later two more came in, but they set up a tent nearby. We all enjoyed a
roaring fire in the fire place which last until morning. This helped to
lift our spirits from the frequent heavy down pours during the evening and
night.

I got in a tussle with a mouse during the night. I was awakened by a
knocking noise, then a thud. A quick look with a flashlight revealed an
Oreo cookie had fallen near my head. I quickly pitched it outside and lay
back down. Moments later, a sound in the same location got my attention.
The light revealed a mouse looking for the cookie he had heisted from the
fellow sleeping above me. I explained to him that the cookie was gone and
to leave so I could return to sleep. Okay, really I smacked him hard with
my hand hoping to end his life. He left quickly as he saw my intentions
were not in his favor.

Minutes later the mouse returned to the cookie jar and successfully got a
night time snack. I think he was either rolling the cookie to his hideout
or flopping it over end to end trying to move it. At least that's what is
sounded like. No more trouble with the mouse. Another occupier did cause
trouble, and it lasted all night long. More on that later as well.

We resumed movement on the trail early Monday morning. For the most,
weather during the hike was very pleasant, never really hot except when we
got to lower elevations near Davenport Gap. We did have to don rain gear
briefly on Sunday afternoon. Otherwise it was nice and cool.

We were not totally robbed of scenic viewing. The side trip to Mount
Cammerer Fire Lookout was a highlight of the trip. The previous evening's
rain had cleared the skies for Monday. I stayed at the lookout for an hour
enjoying the 360 degree panoramic views. Awesome is an understatement.

We completed the AT trek near noon on Monday and headed to Mountain Mommas
for the customary cheeseburger and fries post hike feast. It was very good
and a nice way to end an enjoyable trip.

For the most, John was a good hiking companion.

He does, though, have a tendency to complain about the two young children of
the very "nice" couple from Pennsylvania that we shared Peck's Corner
shelter with on Saturday night. Both boys, ages 7 and 9 (guessing). Even
though I could hear them hollering and screaming from a quarter of a mile
away as I approached the shelter, I thought, how nice, we get to spend an
evening with some children.

John, though complained when they ran around the shelter swinging a rope and
chanting non-stop. Or when they played by our packs or cook stove, or
jumped around the water filter. They were only having "fun". The youngest
one whined at bed time about having to go to bed and in the morning when he
didn't want to get up. The older one set in a trance for about ten minutes
as his mother repeated told him to tie his boot laces. I once enjoyed small
children.

John did get two scares. First, after he lit up a cigar, the father charged
John like a bull on a rampage hollering (like sons, like father) something
about the wife being allergic to smoke. How rude of him to complain when
John was over 30 feet away. John got up and moved leaving me wondering what
was going on. Later the father came at him again. I don't think John ever
got a chance to finish his smoke.

John continued to complain about the husband-wife snoring duo. First one,
then the other, as they took turns. It must not have been a lullaby to
John!

We made tracks the next morning to put distance between us and them, as they
were traveling the same direction as us.

Unfortunately for John, they caught up with us during our stopover at
Tri-corner. I preferred to hike in the light rain rather than enjoy their
company some more, so left soon. John must have felt the same as he too
followed.

It seems that we were not the only hikers to enjoy such pleasurable
companions on the trail. Others we met at Cosby Knob heard John and I
talking about the couple, and said they had shared an evening with the
"family" at Ice-Water and gave the same description of activity.

John's luck continued to be sour at Cosby Knob. The couple's night noise
was only an introduction to the performance of Sunday night. The lullaby
continued that night coming from a large man who sounded like a sick rhino
being cut up by a dull chain saw. Early in the night, I nudged John
thinking he too had started snoring. I found out the sounds were all coming
from the one man. I never knew it possible that one man could make multiple
snoring sounds at the same time making me think more than one was snoring.
He was quite talented. John said he did not think he had gotten six hours
sleep in the past two nights.

Sightings of wildlife were few. I saw one snake and a squirrel, while John
saw the butt end of a bear on Monday. He must have heard how mean John was
from his friend the beast from the day before. He quickly vacated the area
upon seeing John.

In truth, I am not afraid of John and would like to join him again on the
trail. In the future, I hope we can complete the west half of the AT in
GSMNP

Well wishes to all,
Skidder

========================================

Curt's email is: "Curtis Horn" chorn12@hotmail.com

John's email is: cookj@garobi.ang.af.mil”

“Lol! Sounds like some of my trips. Heck, sounds like the trip I just got back from. I had to accompany (do all the driving) my mom to the Smokies and back to pick up my niece and nephew. Dear God, she can snore. I had to take a double dose of benadryl to even attempt to sleep in the same hotel room (God I wish I had my tent) with her. There was some national dance competition going on in PF/Gatlinburg, too, so there's all these young girls doing running and back flips up and down the hallways until nearly midnight.”

“What stupid #&%!$ would take cookies to bed in the shelter?”

“Great report.”

“NIce report. Think I met Skidder at Ice Water Springs Shelter at lunch time, when you people did Porter's Creek to Mt leConte.”

“
Nowslimmer, Skidder, Smokygirl, TownDawg, John
last edited: 6/28/05 2:29:31 PM”

“I'd cry if bratty kids showed up in a shelter where I am. I simply can't stand brats. But I do like BRATS on a bun, LOL!”

“

Nowslimmer, John, SmokyGirl, TownDawg, Skidder (Curt)
last edited: 6/28/05 5:43:12 PM”

“Thanks.”

“Nice TR, TownDawg.
That's a lovely hike; I've done it many times, but prefer starting at Davenport.

I'm not a big fan of shelters and have posted my opinion several times on another site. Many like 'em, but I can find twice as many reasons not to stay in one than to stay in one.

As for your rude visitors, John has the patience of Job and seems like a nice guy. There's no way I would have tolerated that sort of behavior. That's just rude, stupid behavior, not only to the humans, but more importantly to the non-humans. Afterall, it's their home!”

“I thought the deal with the cigar was pretty ridiculous. John likes a good cigar, and usually brings some pretty pricey ones.

For this idiot to come charging over and demand that he put it out -- lol.. I'm not sure what I would have done.. but I don't think I would have been as nice.”