Saturday, June 4th

Tri-Corner Knob Shelter (223.4 mi) to Standing Bear Farm Hostel (241.5 mi)

Hiking Miles: 18.1 (Today we hit 800 miles overall)

Total Ascent: 2,445.9 ft

Total Descent: 6,672.2 ft

Total Grade: 505.4 ft/mi

Steps: 41,171. (2 Million Steps overall)

I woke up early and left camp by 6:17 am; Stevie left the site at 7:46 am. Today was a relatively easy hike, mostly downhill and we managed to hike 13 miles by noontime. I stopped several times to take in the scenery and to photograph (as did Stevie) some lovely views, talk to a few hikers including volunteers who were repairing the trail, and calling Teresa.

Today was “National Trail Day” and at one spot, there was a group of 4 people repairing a large hole in the ground that was caused by a fallen tree.

I met a 77 year-old man hiking on trail who was a retired mailman having worked 39 years with the US Postal Service. In 2019, he had hiked from Harpers Ferry to Mount Katahdin in 151 days when he was 74 (just after he retired). Now he was hiking the southern portion which he expected would take another 150 days to complete. Fittingly, his trail name was “Snail Mail” and he was from Connecticut. I mentioned to him that my son would be passing him soon and that he was wearing a unique bear canister so he couldn’t miss him. Snail Mail asked me what my son’s name was and that he would look out for him. It was funny because when Stevie did eventually pass him, Snail Mail didn’t say a word.

I also met a young woman named Laura (Trail name “Croft”), who was resting on the ground because her feet were hurting. She was a section-hiker who also interestingly was also from Connecticut. I also spotted a note that was left on a trail sign warning people there was aggressive bear activity at the Cosby Knob Shelter. Apparently there was a tent that was attacked and a sleeping bag was slashed, but fortunately no one got hurt.

Stevie caught up to me shortly after noontime while I was calling Teresa. We pushed on and we exited the Great Smokies shortly thereafter and dropped our permits in the exit box.

We sat and ate a snack just 0.2 mile from the Standing Bear Farm Hostel. It was about 2:00 pm and we were about 33 miles away from Hot Springs, and so we decided to check out the Standing Bear and from there we could make a call as to what the rest of our day would look like. At the hostel, we talked with Erin the owner, and after checking things out, we decided that we were down for staying there. We were shown a private, cozy bunkhouse (with a lower & upper bunk) that had a view of an over-grown grassy field that once grew tobacco.

We celebrated completing 800 miles today by splitting two pizzas (Supreme and 3-Meat), a bag of mac-and-cheese penne straws (chips) and a few cold beers. The beers were kept in an above-ground cooler shed, only to be opened (the cooler shed) by the hostel keepers. We enjoyed those on the veranda just outside our cabin.

Our pizzas were just a tad undercooked but delicious. And when we suggested to another hiker a longer cooking time for his pizza, it unfortunately came out burnt. He wolfed it nonetheless. 

We subsequently passed on the community dinner served that evening since the pizzas filled us up and made it easy to take a late afternoon nap.

Outside the kitchenette area, one hiker had a smoker with him and he was cooking a rack of ribs. Every few minutes he would take a swig of Elijah Craig bourbon right out of the bottle followed up with a beer chaser. Other hikers were sitting around a fire and engaging in conversation. Later that evening around dinner time, Snail Mail walked onto the site – he originally was going to stop at the Davenport Gap Shelter just before the hostel because he typically only hiked between 5-8 miles per day. But he was motivated to eventually do 11 miles for the day because there was a snake living in the upper corner of the shelter.

Later that evening, a Girl Scout Troop arrived and were also staying for the night. When it was time to call it a night, we showered, filled our water bottles, squared away our bill since we planned on getting an early start and skipping the hostel breakfast, then went to bed. The stay was worth the experience.

Stevie’s PSA statement on people being careless in the Smokies: