Since January of this year, I've been putting together a 5-day backpacking trip in the Great Smoky Mountains intended to intentionally mark a transition in my older son's life as he turns 13. Originally, just he and I were going to go, but we invited and included three others in the trip: my dad (he's nearly 72 and this was his first ever backpacking trip), my brother-in-law, and his 12-year-old son. My BIL lives in NC, and the rest of us live in KY.
In preparation for the trip, I made a lot of gear (and bought some, too). I made three integrated bug net hammocks (and put a bug net on the hammock my son made for himself). Two of the hammocks were for my BIL and his son. I also made silnylon tarps for each of us, rain gear for my son and I (BP covers, rain jackets, and rain chaps -- all sylnylon). I also made several stuff sacks for various items, dehydrated/prepared food for the trip, and made some lightweight and inexpensive trekking poles (fiberglass fence posts with gold club grips -- they worked great). My dad used the Camp Trails external frame pack that I bought when I first backpacked in 1988. I bought a used Kelty Yukon for my son, and I also bought a Jansport D2 (I think) which I used. I considered other packs, but these were what we had or could acquire without a lot of expense, and they were suitable for the job. We worked on keeping our pack weights as light as possible. My son's weight was under 25#, my dad's was about 35#, and mine was 33# (not counting water).
This is a photo of all I packed (things like food, clothes, sleep system, and cookset are in stuff sacks):
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We met up at the Cosby Campground on Sunday, June 22. We spent the night there, then shuttled over to Big Creek Campground to the trailhead for Baxter Creek Trail. We had read and had been told that BCT is a tough one, being 6.2 miles in length and gaining 4,200 feet in elevation before it reached the peak of Mt. Sterling. Yet, we wanted to face the challenge and hike it. It was a good hike. We were on the trail for 7 hours which included stops for filtering water, resting, and eating. BCT is beautiful! It was the favorite trail of our trip for all of us. It is well-graded and not too steep, although it goes upwards the whole 6.2 miles. It rained for about 20 minutes while we were on the trail. I didn't need anything more than my pack cover on my pack, although others donned their rain jackets.
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One of the highlights along the trail was a small timber rattlesnake coiled up next to the trail. It was unconcerned with us, and we left it alone except to take a couple of photos of it.
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There is a 60' firetower on Mt. Sterling which we enjoyed some nice views from.
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We had a good night at the Mt. Sterling campsite (#38). The temperature got down to 56° during the night and didn't get above 60° before we set off the next morning. The boys both used CCF pads in their hammocks, my BIL used a PLUQ, and I used a DIY fleece blanket & nylon UQ. My dad opted to stay on the ground during the trip. Although we didn't need tarps the night before at the Cosby Campground, we used them every other night while in the backcountry. This first night, we didn't get any rain, but the wind picked up and kept us in the clouds. It was damp, to say the least, but we all faired well.
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In the morning, the clouds were still blowing through after I got up, but I decided to climb the firetower with the hopes of seeing the sunrise anyway. I was rewarded with some awesome views when there were breaks in the clouds and as they began to burn off after sunrise.
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We set out the second morning at 10:00am, headed for the Mt. Sterling Trail. We followed that to Long Bunk Trail. It was during this first leg that some of us began to notice some joint and muscle pain which was unexpected. We continued on, of course. Long Bunk Trail was very pretty, and we came upon another Timber Rattlesnake lying in the middle of the trail and rattling a warning for us. This one was full-sized and didn't want to be bothered. After taking some photos, I gently removed him from the trail with a long stick so that we could continue on our way.
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We stopped for lunch at the Hannah Cabin which is on Little Cataloochie Trail near the junction with Long Bunk. We filtered water at Little Cataloochi Stream after lunch, and as we were getting ready to leave, it began to rain.
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This second day was to be our longest in terms of distance, 11 miles from Mt. Sterling campsite to Pretty Hollow campsite. It was harder for us than we had expected, partly because it seemed to take longer than we thought it would and because some of us were experiencing muscle/joint pain. We were on the trail for 8.5 hours, finally arriving at campsite #39 around 6:30pm. We did the necessary camp chores, including setting up camp, filtering water, preparing food and eating, and cleaning up.
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The next morning, we all felt better and were ready for our third day's hike. We had almost 8 miles to get to Walnut Bottom campsite (#37). Our route was up Pretty Hollow Gap Trail and then down Swallow Fork Trail. PHGT was rocky and muddy, but it is a pretty hollow to hike through. The muscle/joint pain of the day before was gone, but my BIL was developing blisters because his boots had gotten wet on the first day, and nothing was able to dry out in the wet conditions of the GSMNP backcountry -- even though it wasn't raining, there was so much moisture in the air that things would not dry. We left camp at 10:00am after getting packed up, and headed for the gap. We followed bear tracks in the trail for about a mile along the way.
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Continued.... (too many photos)
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