May 1 – 7th Hiking Day – 5.9 AT miles + 1 mile additional

Fontana Dam Shelter to Birch Spring Gap Campsite

Finally back to hiking! 🙂 today went pretty well. I entered the Smokies. I have 7 more days to get another 66.4 miles. If worse comes to worst and my knee gets bad again, I can hitch a ride into Gatlinburg in about 40 miles and fly home. It didnt hurt that badly today, but I also barely had to do any downhills. Tomorrow will be the real test because its about half up and half down.

I’m really hoping that my knees are just weak and all these knee braces, anti inflammatories, and joint vitamins will help. I might even try to find somewhere with a knee brace like one I saw a guy wearing. He said his knees were killing him and a couple weeks ago he got these hardcore braces that stabilize everything and they feel fine now. I also might try to do some slack packing if I can find a shuttle I can pay to do it. Basically someone drives ur bag to another location and u only have to carry a small day pack with water and food. It would be a lot easier on my knees and back. People usually don’t do it much because it gets expensive, but its cheaper than another hospital visit, so we will see.

I enjoyed hiking again but missed out on a chance to see a bear climbing in a tree. 😦 There was this lookout tower .1 miles up a steep walkway from the trail. This guy tried to talk me into taking off my pack and having lunch up there. I didn’t because 1. The 3 annoying obnoxious stoner guys from last night’s shelter were up there 2. I didnt want to add any additional ups and downs to my knees…well they all got to see a small little bear in a tree. I saw some video of it but that’s it. Apparently there was also a rattle snake, but I’m very happy I didnt see that

I got to the camp area that’s 5 miles closer than the shelter I thought everyone from last night was going to. I got here and was all alone and kinda excited for some alone time after there being like 40 people in or camped out close to the shelter last night. Sadly, lots of other people are being lazy and only hiking to here today too, including the idiot guys. At least these campsites are spread out and they are kinda far away. Ill be hiding out in my tent tonight from them and the Mosquitos, ants, and gnats.

I failed in my choosing a campsite. It is on slightly slanted ground, worse than the last time I was on slanted ground when I could barely sleep because I kept sliding to the edge of my tent. I figured out its so bad cuz the material of the ground sheet with the tent slides against eachother. The tent with the air mattress material, and the air mattress with sleeping bag material. We will see how it goes

I’ve been pretty out of it when I’m sleeping. At 4am this morning, I woke up completely off my air mattress laying on my side on the hard floor of the shelter. And my air mattress had slid over and whoever the guy was that was on his mat next to me had moved further over so I may have been hitting him or sliding up against him in my sleep. Oops. I don’t even know who it was cuz it was dark by the time I went to bed, and I wanted to apologize when I woke up this morning, but he was gone

My tent can open on both sides, so after I set it up I always open up the cover on one side during the day and just close up the mesh see- through part so bugs won’t get in. I opened the side facing the woods and not all the other camp sites. I’m thinking about leaving it open when it gets dark so I can see wildlife. I don’t know if I have the guts to do it though. I feel like I’m safer if I can’t see what is out there, and the bears or foxes or whatever can’t see me. I don’t know whether or not that’s true. There is still a screen covering me from them, but they might want to attack if they see me. I always get scared when I have to go pee in the middle of the night

Oh yeah. Another failure on my part. I finally figured out how to use my alcohol stove properly where it burns longer and flames don’t go everywhere. But somehow last night when I was cooking, the whole inside of the pot burned so much and the pasta I was cooking was black and stuck to the pot. I couldn’t get it off last night, so I soaked it over night. This morning I still couldn’t get it off, so I had to throw the pot away. Hopefully in the next few nights I can use someone else’s pot for some pasta. If not, I prolly have enough food without it. Ill buy another pot in the next town if I continue. I’m thinking that may have happened bc I didn’t clean it well enough the night before even tho it looked clean. And I might need a nonstick pot. Or maybe put oil in there first? I don’t know. I don’t really ever cook, so I’ve never had this issue.

Ok. Time to relax and read. I’ve only had time to listen to 1.5 audio books while I’m hiking and haven’t even read half a book during my down time. I guess I’m always distracted by thoughts or people around me and all the little chores I have to do out here every morning and night.

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Edit: an hr later: the anti inflammatories have fun out. It hurts reeeeally bad again. So bad that even tho I need to go pee, I’m waiting for more pills to kick in before going outside to go. So crap! Looks like I’m going home. Hopefully there is a way to fix this fast and maybe I can go Southbound from Maine in the summer

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Morning: well there’s no anti inflammatories in my system now and they don’t hurt that bad. I think I’m gonna keep going