Day 1 - To Cosby Knob Shelter
Trip Start
Oct 22, 2007
1
2
7
Trip End
Oct 28, 2007
On day 1 Mark arrived early - around 7:20 am - and it was still dark out. I had only spoken with Mark on the phone before, and it was good to put a face with the name. He was tall with long white hair in a pony tail. We all piled in to his subaru wagon (with an enormous sunroof) and headed out after promises of stopping for coffee along the way.
The Trailhead
The ride to the trailhead was about 1 hour. Along the way we chatted with Mark about where we were all from, hiking and camping, the Smokies, things we should see, and Doug and he talked a good bit about mountainbiking. We soon arrived at the trailhead and began our week-long hike.Mt. Cammerer Firetower
That first day we hiked from about 2,200 feet to about 4,740 feet. It was warm and a little wet - threatening to rain most of the day but never getting much worse than a steady misting. Along the way, per Mark's suggesting, we stopped at the Mt. Cammerer Firetower for lunch, which was nice because we could get inside from the wet and wind. Cosby Knob Shelter
Aside from the Firetower and the obligatory huffing and puffing from lack of exercise, the first day was fairly uneventful. We met a couple heading north who warned us about college students keeping them up all night at Mt. Collins shelter the previous weekend (a shelter we were planning to stay at on a Friday night). We also passed a volunteer trail crew working on the trail and we thanked them several times for all that they do. The day ended at Cosby Shelter after about 7.5 miles; we were the only inhabitants that evening. 
