9 May 2016, Monday
We are up at 6:45 am waking to a warm cloudy morning. Today we will hike to
a lookout on Mount Cammerer, a route described as “strenuous due to
elevation gain.” We are on the trail at 9:45. We each carry our 750 ml
water bottles in addition to an extra 1 liter bottle to be shared. It
is a beautiful, but sweaty 2.9 miles as we climb up to the
Appalachian Trail. We have a box of Trader Joe’s chocolate chip
cookies in the car that are not chocolaty enough for us so we pack up
half of the box in zip lock baggies, planning to offer them to any
thru-hiker we meet. As we finally reach the ridgeline and the AT we
are both thinking of our friend, J, who hiked thru here last year
under the trail name, Rue.
Again we photograph wild flowers and hear lots of bird song. We spy several
medium sized trees with huge blossoms. Later we discover they are
Fraser magnolias, named for John Fraser (1750-1811), a Scottish
botanist who introduced many American plants to Europe.
We are passed on the AT by a smattering of thru hikers. They are generally
very grateful for the cookies. We reach the Cammerer Lookout, another
CCC project, around 1:45 and have lunch on the deck with a beautiful
view of the Smoky Mountains.
We start back down to camp shortly after 2 pm and soon give away the last of
our cookies. We spy a bird in the trailside brush with a dark head, possibly a faint eye ring, a yellow chin and a distinct black bib. I’m not sure what it
is… likely some kind of warbler.
As we are walking south on the AT we see a very weary looking hiker coming
towards us. He is not seeking cookies. He asks if we have any water.
He completely missed the last water source and is out of water
entirely. The next source of water is several miles ahead. As O and I
are headed back down the mountain, I empty my water bottle into his, providing almost 750 ml. He is very grateful. Good thing O and I brought along
that extra liter because we are almost out of water ourselves by the
time we reach camp. As we head down the last bit of road to our
campsite, we see a baby ring neck snake and stop to take a photo. The snake appears a bit blurry (the little critter wouldn’t hold still,) but the
ring is visible.
We have finished our dinner of peanut butter spaghetti. O is busy looking up
trees while I journal. I think it will be an early night again as we
want to drive over to Sugarlands Visitor Center and then up Newfound
Gap Road to the trailhead for Charlies Bunion (yes, you read that
correctly). It’s a bit shorter hike (to a rock formation shaped like – you guessed it – a bunion) than today’s, with less elevation gain. (Today’s total gain was 1100 meters, about 3300 feet.)