On the Eve of Hiking the Smokies

Well, so begins our spring trip to the Smokies. Cindy and I had an uneventful drive down here... till the end. We got within about a mile of Standing Bear Farm (the hiker hostel where we'll spend the night tonight) and couldn't figure out where to turn next. We found ourselves on the side of a mountain, driving past a few shacks that I'm pretty sure were used in the filming of Deliverance. We thought about asking for directions but honestly feared for our safety. It was starting to get dark, and I pictured us knocking on the door of one of the shacks and being threatened and chased by a crazy mountain man, rifle in one hand and jug of moonshine in the other, trailed by a mangey rabid dog. So we switched the Trailblazer into four-wheel drive and sprayed gravel all the way back down to the interstate, where we could get a cell signal and call Curtis, the proprietor of Standing Bear. He got us pointed in the right direction and we arrived around 7:30 p.m.

Standing Bear Farm is about one notch above the Deliverance houses. But at least there are some clean bunks and a privy, and a dry place to lay our heads. And Curtis, who's sort of an ageing hippy, seems safe and friendly enough. Here's a picture of the bunkhouse where we're sleeping tonight. We're going to leave Cindy's truck here for the duration of our trip. Tomorrow morning Curtis is going to shuttle us over to Fontana Dam to start our hike.

For the last week I've felt a vague sense of unease about whether I can actually do this trip. I've had frequent thoughts that I have no business taking on this kind of challenge, and that I'm nowhere near sturdy enough to pull this off! My unease graduated into full-blown trepidation this evening as we chatted with a few other hikers staying at Standing Bear. One of them, named Bill, had just finished hiking Great Smoky Mountain National Park and moaned quite a bit about how hard it had been. His thirty-pound spare tire made me wonder if this was the first exercise he's gotten in a long time. That and his dinner of creme-filled sugar wafers, Snickers, and a large bottle of Coke helped me to (at first) discount pretty much everything he had to stay. But to my horror, another hiker who had also just finished the park -- a lithe, fit, middle-aged woman named Wendy -- backed up the cookie eater 100%. She called the park "very, very rugged." Crap.

I called Jay tonight to let him know we arrived here safely. I was really upset to find out that Joe is sick with a fever and a headache -- some sort of virus. I was even more upset that I lost the call before we could finish talking. The cell signal here is terribly patchy and I really wish I could have just five more minutes on the phone with him. But I keep trying to re-connect and nothing's working.

Things I'm pondering tonight (when I'm not fretting about Joe):

• Is my right knee going to make it? Like an idiot, I chose this week to double the length of my usual run. Instead of running three miles, I ran six. Twice. And my knee has been aching over it since Thursday. I am seriously worried that what happened to Monika on our last trip will happen to me.
• Should I wear my Merrell hiking shoes (which are short, cute, and light)? Or my Salomon hiking boots (which are huge, heavy, and burly)? I'm thinking the boots.
• Should we bring tents? Doing so adds two more pounds to my pack weight. We are confirmed to stay at hiking shelters throughout the trip, so we shouldn't need tents. But if there's an emergency that prevents us from keeping to our itinerary...
• Is 64 ounces of water enough to carry at one time? Other hikers have told us that water sources between shelters are sparse (even though the AT data book indicates otherwise). Wondering if I should bring along my extra 1-liter bottle.