Day 5 - Double Spring Gap to Russell Field

  Great Smokey Mountains National Park, United States
Saturday, October 27, 2007

Doug loves Moleskin

Day 5 was tough.  16.4 miles, part of which was over some of the steepest inclines of the trip.  To warm up, we first climbed the steep trail up Silers Bald (5,607 feet).  We passed a few people along the way, two of which were a couple of day hikers who had started at Clingman's Dome and were planning on hiking all the way to Fontana Dam that day - over 30 miles!  They had small day packs, no cold weather gear, and we all thought they were crazy.  We made sure that they had headlamps, cause they were going to need them.  As we saw them time after time throughout the day I think it started to dawn on them that they had made a terrible mistake.  We assume that they made it okay...

Silers Bald elevation marker

When we came to Derrick Knob shelter we saw Sweet Tea and 3 of his friends that had joined him.  They had stayed at Silers Bald shelter the night before, which had turned out to be very crowded.  They talked about all the snoring and said that a couple of them actually got up in the middle of the night, left the shelter, and pitched tents to get away from the noise.  The  reunion was pleasant, and we ate lunch together before setting off on the trail again.  It was  around this time that we decided to finish up our trip a day earlier than we had originally planned.  The Red Sox were in the midst of sweeping the Rockies and we were determined to see at least one of the games.  Our schedule had officially become accellerated.

Next came Thunderhead Mountain.

Chad and Becky on Rocky Top

Thunderhead mountain is actually three peaks, the first of which is the steepest.  Wow, was it steep.  I really can't reiterate enough - for 3 novice hikers, this was some steep hiking.   Of course Sweet Tea and one of his friends blew by us at about this point like it was just a small hill, however I think I heard Doug mention that Sweet Tea's friend was just about killing himself trying to keep up with his thru-hiking pal.  At the peak of Thunderhead itself we took a brief rest.   The lunatic day hikers passed us, but not before telling us about how they had been caught at that very peak some time before when a thunderstorm opened up on them - I guess it's not called Thunderhead Mountain for nothing.  The last of Thunderhead's peaks was Rocky Top  (as in "Good ole' Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee").  It was a much easier climb and there were some nice, sweeping views.

Chad on the trail

After the "triple threat" of Thunderhead we contemplated whether or not to stay at Spence Field shelter or to push on 3 more miles to Russell Field.  Spence Field was the last place to get water for the rest of our trip, so we decided to go there, eat dinner, fill up with as much  water as we could, and go to Russell Field for the night.  We met a nice group of people at  Spence Field and shared a meal with them.  It was a father-daughter and the father's friend out for a couple days' hiking.

To put it in perspective - the little guy is Doug

It was quickly getting dark when we arrived at Russell Field.  Much to our chagrin, it was  crowded...  And to our further dismay, it was crowded with people who wanted to drink and smoke cigars in the shelter for a little while before going to bed.  Oh well - we'd had great company for the entire trip so far, so we bit our tongues and tried to ride out the last evening as best we could.  There was no way Doug was going to go the whole trip without using his new tent, so after sharing a few swigs of whiskey with our new roomates in front of the fire, he set it up and slept a distance away from the snoring (of which I, admittedly, was a contributor - or so Becky tells me).  At one point in the middle of the night someone must have been having a bad dream and let out a very strange moan/yell.  After finally getting to sleep, we slept well.  I  think Doug had the best night's sleep of the trip in his tent.