We started off the week with a 12(ish) mile slackpack, then a trip to the ER, and ended it by exploring Gatlinburg for three days.
| Miles Since Last Update | Total Miles Hiked | Miles Remaining |
|---|
13
82.4
2115
Sunsets picked us up bright and early from the hotel and shuttled us to Deep Gap to circumvent the fire closure. We were all bummbed about having to miss those 15 miles, mainly because it also meant we missed the GA/NC border, a plane crash site, and an old twisted tree that you see in everyone’s videos. But that’s how it is out here. You just have to roll with the punches. We were planning to stay at their Airbnb for a couple of nights and do some slackpacking, so we emptied our packs to the bare minimum and said goodbye to Sunsets.
We started at Deep Gap and began our ascent up Standing Indian Mountain. It was a two-mile climb, and I was a little leery of it. Sunsets assured me it was a gentle climb, and he was right =). I found some easter eggs along the way, hidden along the trail. I only took one and left the others.
Once we got to the top, we opted to take the side trail to reach the peak. Oh man! What a view!
The trail for the rest of the day was generally mild. As we were hiking up to Mooney Gap, I looked back and saw Jerry limping. He had apparently just kicked a stump and twisted his bad ankle. Thankfully, it happened just steps away from Mooney Gap, and where Sunsets was waiting for us. FYI, if you are in the area and need a shuttle, I highly recommend Sunsets’ Shuttle.
The plan for the next day was to hike to Winding Stair Gap. However, when Jerry woke up, he couldn’t put any weight on his foot/ankle, and it was horribly swollen. There would be no hiking today. We told Tony and Helen to go ahead without us, but they didn’t want to. They opted to take a zero and wait to see what the hospital set. Chica and Sunsets were amazing. Sunsets dropped us off at the ER (amazing service there by the way, they were super quick about everything). Thankfully, no fractures, but he would need to be in an air cast and rest it for the next 3-4 days. We spent the evening with Chica and Sunsets (which was much needed) and said goodbye to them the following morning.
We would again need to roll with the punches. Our original plan was to hike to the NOC, then grab a rental car, as we were going to skip Smoky Mountain National Park for now due to a norovirus outbreak there and return later when the shelters would be less crowded. So, instead, we went ahead and got a rental and a hotel room in town. We told Tony and Helen to go without us, and we would meet them at the NOC with the rental to pick them up in three days, so we could then head into Gatlinburg, where we had planned to spend a couple of days.
They ended up arriving at the NOC a day earlier, so we decided to spend three days in Gatlinburg, which turned out well because it was nothing but rain for four days. We enjoyed everything Gatlinburg had to offer, and did all the touristy things before packing up and heading to Johnson City so we could return the rental car and get back on trail at Sam’s Gap.
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