Wildflowers and Thunder Storms on the Appalachian Trail

As we follow Shawn McCarton (Pace) and Karl Weiss (Hungus) along their Appalachian Trail journey, we find they’ve had both highs and lows. They hit some pretty several thunder storms during this leg of the trip. But they’ve also had some beautiful views and stunning examples of wildlife and wildflowers. View their complete blog here.

April 5

We woke up this morning Mollies Ridge shelter. While Hungus typed last night we were narrowly missed by a thunderstorm. Around 3am we got dumped on. No storm just rain. I woke up at 6:40 and stirred Hungus. We wanted to take our hammocks down in case a ranger came by the shelter. We packed up, ate and were walking by 9. 

The first half of the day was glorious! Parts of the trail were covered in trout Lillie's and white phlox like flowers. The entire forest floor was wild flowers. In other areas there were thousands of crickets in the leaves. As we walked past it sounded like a delicate applause cheering us onward. We ran into Ranger Marc. He asked to see our permits and we chatted with him for a bit. We moved on and before we knew it 2 hrs 30 min had passed and we had walked an effortless 5.7 miles!! 

We realized we needed a snack and water. We knew we would be on rocky in 1 mile and were getting excited!!! We walked into grassy fields and gazed up at rocky top. Now this isn't the tallest or burliest mountain on the trail but it is a song that Hungus loves. There were patches of fields to pass throught to get there. Beautiful fields 3,000 ft in elevation with views of the smokies in all directions. Our group then caught up. We started the accent together. Just then there was thunder and it started to rain. We all scrambled for our rain gear. The thunder rolled past us but the clouds obscured any and all views. Bummer. So we climbed to the top disappointed we wouldn't see anything. 

At the top of rocky top, the rain let and a wind came and blew the clouds away. It was such a sight to see not only the clouds blowing over the mountain and clearing out but the view that lay beyond. Breathtaking!! We all drank it in. Hungus played rocky top on his phone and we all sang along. We made lunch and smiled. That didn't last long. As quick as the clouds moved out, they rolled back in. 

We were on a peak so to the north and south of us were gaps. The clouds blew up the gap and spilled down the other side of the hill. We starred east as the clouds slowly closed in our panormaic view. In minutes we were surrounded once again. With thunder in the distance and rain coming down, we boogied off the ridge. It hailed m&m size for a few seconds. We reached the next peak, thunderhead mt, and the rain subsided. We moved onto the next water area for a break. 

We had 3.8 miles remaining for the day and PUDs ahead. We flirted with thunderstorms with each step. It would rain a few seconds, a flash of lightning and then thunder 10sec later. We did get a great view of clingmans dome, the brightest peak on the trail, were we would be tomorrow. 

Upon our arrival at the shelter, it began to pour. The shelter was FULL. People inside sleeping, people outside cooking. We had no choice. It to set up our hammocks. The rain let up a little so we made a dash for it. I'm getting pretty good at tying taught line hitch knots ;) 

The rain stopped. Hungus went for water and I changed into dry clothes. We cooked in our hammocks. After dinner we went down to the shelter to socialize. Hashbrown was there as well as Jesse and Rose and of course our crew. We met a cool couple named Spicy and Rocky. They had been thinking of getting hammocks and came to check ours out. We retired for the night shortly after. 

As I lay here typing, the thunder is in the close distance and the wind has picked up. We have a lofty day of 13.5 tomorrow and want to get up early. Let's hope the weather is on our side.

April 6

That thunderstorm Pace was writing about last night bared down on us hard. We probably had about three inches of rain and lightning was hitting very close. I was counting seconds between bolts and thunder and one was near simultaneous. We stayed dry from the rain but what got us was the thick fog in the morning. Our hammocks were soaked as were our under quilts. The dwr finish on them allowed us to shake off most of the water before packing them up. Temps significantly dropped overnight as well. Once we ate our breakfast it was a "pack up and run" kind of morning. Putting the tarps away with numb fingers is never fun. We left camp at 8:45 with rain jackets, two layers of shirts, hat, and gloves on. We finally warmed up after about 30 min of walking and started peeling layers. 

We walked through the fog for about 2.5 hrs then reached silers bald shelter. By that point we were down to just our long sleeve shirts. Pace and I each had our peanut butter and nutella wraps for lunch. We got some more water from the spring there and continued on. The clouds seemed to be lifting and we got brief views of the valley below before getting fogged in again. We could tell that it would clear up though. 

The trail was so wet we were pretty much walking in mud all day long. Our feet were soaked and every step had me sliding around. There were some parts where my hiking poles definetly saved me from falling. For a while we tried dodging the puddles but that became too tough so it was ended with a "sploosh" as we just walked right through them. 

Nevertheless the trail was amazing today. We climbed up over 5500ft elevation and the forest changed over to the spruce/fir style common in the north. It had this amazing feel to it and smelled like Christmas at a garden center. The higher we climbed the denser the evergreens got, the thicker the moss, and the deeper the mud. The trail was so well graded that we barely noticed we were climbing. As we went up Mt. Buckly the trees opened up into a bald type field offering expansive views down into the valley. It felt like we were walking on top of the world. Once on top of Buckly we could see the tower on Clingmans Dome. We could also see the hoards of people. 

We contined on and took the side trail onto the paved walkway to the top. We immediately ran into herds of people who had only parked .5 away. We were quite the tourist attraction. Once we got to the summit, a park voulenteer hooked us up with some Oreos. We took a break and spread our hammocks out in the sun to dry. After only 10 min they were dry and we packed them away in our packs. Then we headed up the spiral walkway to the observation point. The views were so clear that we could see all the way to standing Indian and Mt Mitchell, the tallest mtn on he east coast. Clingmans is the second tallest and the highest on the AT at 6643 ft. It was cold and windy but Pace and I stayed up there as long as possible soaking it all in. On the way back down we stopped halway and waited for a break in the crowds. I cast some of Ken's ashes so they we're carried off by the wind onto the peak. 

Back at the bottom pace and I had another yard sale and spread our sleeping bags, under quilts, and down jackets out in the sun to dry. As we were hanging out we got the 10,000 questions. Stryder, Hashbrown, Rocky, Spice, and Cheese water had all joined us up there. After an hour and a half break we contined the 3.4 to the shelter. 

The trail climbed down Clingmans then back up Mt Collins all the while going through the dense red spruce and frasier fur stands. It was magical. Pace and I were in such a good mood we singing half the time. We arrived at the shelter around 6 and went downhill to get water for the night. We set up our hammocks and hung our tarps on the side to dry. Then we changed our of our clothes and muddy boots. We put all the layers we had on as it was probably in the low 40's before the sun even went down. We cooked our dinner and were done eating when the rest of La Familia showed up. The other thru hikers were Jessie, Rose, spice, rocky, hop a long (not my friend from 07), and Hashbrown. Pace and I could have crawled into the hammocks at 8 but we managed to be social until 9. The stars are shining, the moon is full, and our hammocks are hung on Firs. Life is good

April 7

Re Paces Birthday: I wasn't paying close enough attention to the miles. We will not be in Erwin for her birthday. The current plan is to be out of the smokies on Monday at standing bear hostel. Tues night we will be on max pax ad wed we will pull up short of hot springs. Thursday we will Nero there and Friday we will zero. This way we can celebrate paces birthday fri night and sat morning before heading out. Sorry if anyone sent birthday stuff to Erwin already :( we will still get it though. 

Reception has been non existant the last two nights ad we will prob experience the same the next two nights. We are currently at newfound gap.