Mollies Ridge Shelter to Derrick Knob Shelter (and my first bear sighting!)

Appalachian Trail, 11. 7 miles

You know how that one woman at Standing Bear Farm called the Smoky Mountain portion of the AT "very, very rugged"? Well, she was right. It is tough. Really tough. Today was even tougher than yesterday, which I didn't expect. And not just because the distance was greater. It's that we were constantly climbing or descending, and the grade was never gentle. In fact, I learned that the second half of our hike today (from Spence Field to Derrick Knob) is closed to horses, because they can't handle the terrain. Which begs the question: if a horse can't handle it, can I handle it?

There were a lot of really huge snails on the trail in the morning. I kept worrying I was going to step on them.

The big thrill today (and a great distraction from the difficulty of the trail) was that we actually saw a bear! It was the coolest thing... we started hiking early, when the ground was still wet and the sun wasn't fully streaming through the trees, and for whatever reason we both felt a little skittish and jumpy. We actually joked about having "bear vibes" -- feeling like there was constantly something around the next tree, watching us. And then, after hiking about half an hour, I noticed some pretty unmistakable paw prints in the mud on the trail. A little later, we passed another hiker coming from the opposite direction, who told us he had actually seen a bear about half a mile earlier! So we were really scoping out the woods as we hiked, and sure enough, before long we saw the real deal. He was a little guy, probably about 150 or 200 pounds. Not a baby, but probably not an adult, which made us think: is his mother nearby? We didn't stick around to find out, or even to take pictures. He was too far away to get a good shot anyway -- probably 100 yards off, through the trees. So as he bumbled along, looking for something to eat, we cranked it up a notch and hiked briskly away, pretty pleased about catching a glimpse of him.

We summitted Rockytop, Thunderhead Mountain, and then Briars Knob, and the view from each of these peaks was pretty amazing. Even though none of these summits are called "balds," it seems to me that they could qualify. Here's a shot from near the top of Thunderhead -- doesn't it look rather bucolic? Park-like almost? Hard to believe from this picture that we had just ascended to over 5,500 feet! Other than the fact that my heart was about to leap out of my chest because of the intensity of the climb, it almost felt like we were taking in an afternoon at County Farm Park in Ann Arbor. It wouldn't have seemed at all out of place to see an elderly gentleman in a cardigan walking a miniature poodle.

In the afternoon, it seemed like we went forever without seeing any milestones, and as we came upon a sign that we thought was going to say "Derrick Knob Shelter" (which was the end of our hike for the day) we were quite chagrined to see that it said "Sugartree Gap." Translation: another 1.2 miles to go! Uphill!

We made it. We're fatigued, but done.

Same guys at the shelter tonight as last night. Two of them had an encounter with wild pigs today, so between that story and our bear sighting, there was some pretty good conversation over dinner tonight.