The rest of the hike notes are written by Rod:
Taking advantage of Thanksgiving long weekend, we got up early on Friday morning and drove to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center. There has been no rain and the south has been under a severe drought and fires have broken out in many ares of SE Tennessee and North Carolina. (Heidi breaking in here: This was just before the devastating fires in Gatlinburg). The visibility on the drive in was poor due to smoke.
Before we got there we knew we were in for a smoky day in the Smoky's. The ranger at the visitor center said there were eighteen active fires in Cherokee county alone.
We opted to hike Mingus Creek Trail first.
The trail started out as a fairly level crushed stone path, soon we pass the archery range at Mingus Mill.
After the archery range, the lower part of the trail became rocky and wet.
There were several creek crossings and a host of interesting fungi on trees begging to be photographed.
As the trail steadily rose we kept hearing voices. We were soon overtaken by Melissa and Kelly. We have quickly learned that folks we meet on the trail are typically very pleasant and eager to chat. These two were particularly fun to visit with.
In about 60 seconds we realized they are a cloned copy of our buddies Heidi and Chuck. Melissa is driven and has dragged her very patient, but a little more reluctant husband, Kelly, on over 1100 miles of the AT (so far). They were hiking the same section of trail we were, but much faster, so we said our goodbyes and they took off.
On the higher half of the trail, it was noticeably drier. There were no puddles of water trapped in leaves. The trail gets steeper and leads to a series of switchbacks. At the top, we were delighted to find our new friends bundled up with coats eating cheese and crackers. That's when we realized that the hot, sweaty climb was rewarded with a stiff, cool wind and little sun. A bit too cool, so out came our coats. We LOVE our new Eddie Bauer light-weight packable coats.
The trail sign for Mingus Creek trail and Deeplow Gap trail was laying on the ground. Nearby we found the rest of the trail post burnt off. Heidi and Chuck had taken a picture of this very spot with an intact sign in May.
We took advantage of one of the switch backs and enjoyed a great lunch.
We soon heard another voice. Hiking alone and talking to herself, we met Jeanette. All her hiking parters were all off visiting family so she came alone and is knocking out some miles toward her 900 Mile Challenge. She has two trails left to hike and hopes to be finished in the near future.
On the way back, there is a cemetery a ways off the trail. Not part of the mileage we needed, so we stopped and took a pic of the sign and kept on hiking. Near the parking lot we could see Mingus Mill hiding in the vegetation to the right. We paused to snap some pics in passing, but we were just 3 miles short of the 100 mile goal, so kept on.
We made our first bear sighting in the Smoky's. Pam was not impressed.
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