We hiked 8.5 hours, about 10-11 miles, on Sept 27 in the Great Smoky Mountains, partially on the Appalachian Trail.
And the group raised $600,000 in all for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Hike On!
This hike and the whole month of Sept was brought to you by these donors, who donated between Sept 8 and Oct 4:
(to fill in...)
This picture is me posing with the "view" from the Mt. Cammerer Fire Tower, at the midpoint (the top!) of our hike. That's after about 2900 feet of elevation gain, so I do look quite sweaty and more than a little spacey!
Here's one of many pages about the Mt. Cammerer hike. And Wikipedia too.
Mt Cammerer is 4,928 ft in elevation, we had about a 3000 ft elevation gain getting up to the tower, partially on the Appalachian Trail. Most of this elevation was in the first two miles of the hike!
On Friday night, we had an Inspiration Dinner at the hotel in Gatlinburg where the team (and Dave, Dave's brother James, his mom Joyce and Aunt Jean were all staying)!
James, Jean and Joyce all live in TN and it was really nice to see them there and during the weekend.
The staff and leaders did a "Archway of Hiking Poles" for us to walk under into the dining room: (Joyce took the below picture after we'd gone through the archway, and I bumped into the woman behind me!):
After the dinner, we gathered for a Silicon Valley Team picture. This was taken by James, who came down to the lobby and took many many pictures with everyone's cameras:
Friday night we had what is apparently a tradition for HFD - the "PB&J sandwich making party". Kathie and her husband hosted in their room, and Kathie was also selling bottled water downstairs from their rental car. One stop shopping!
Back in our room, I tried on the poncho that Joyce had loaned me. It was raining on Friday, and a good chance to rain on Saturday. Luckily I never had to use the poncho!
We were supposed to meet our bus at 7:30 am. Here's the "Mt Cammerer #2" group. This included 4 people from Michigan, 2 from New Mexico, and our guide, John. (Jean introduced me to John the night before at the dinner - they go to the same Unitarian church!)
This was the first trail sign we came to - leaving the bus we walked along a gravel road for a while and then turned left at this sign. This marked the beginning of the "Low Gap" trail, which we would climb for almost 2000 ft in about 2.5 miles.
Lots of switchbacks, and not as bad as I thought it would be, but it was a steady climb and the trail was rockier than most trails have been in CA.
We had very good training!
Here is a very cool topographic map with points marked. This hiker didn't make it to the Tower, although they marked it on the map (near the top). Not even on their 2nd day of hiking. Wow. He says " A 10 year dream of mine still not actualized."
Here I am posing on a log bridge that I was very happy to see. No stepping across the stream on the slippery rocks today!
Jen said, "I thought of you when I saw that!" Reggie took the photo.
I bought a new hat for this trip at our send-off party at Trailsloggers. I really love it. Here's a picture of Yvonne and I - we both had this similar hat:
Here are Reggie and Deb with the sign for the Appalachian Trail, although you can't see it very well in the picture.
I think this area where we turned onto the AT is what's called "Low Gap" - this was the top of the first 2000 ft of elevation.
Here is the actual "entry to the Appalachian Trail" - the trail that we turned onto to get there. I took this picture from the "low gap" where we stopped for a break, but this is also how the trail looked for me for a lot of the hike. Often I would find myself seemingly "alone" (but usually with someone either just behind or just in front).
At those times I usually took the opportunity to think about my mom, and why I was here doing this in the first place. There were also a few times going up the hills where I imagined her hiking with me, which really helped me keep on.
It was so misty all day - this is Bowman and Yvonne, I think on the AT. You can see how jungle-like it was. It felt like we were absorbing water through our skins like an amphibian.Also how small they look.
Reggie must have been up higher than they were when he took the picture.
Finally we arrived at the Fire Tower!
It was very misty still, so we didn't get the famous 360 degree views. So relaxing to sit and relax and have lunch, though.
The "rocky exposed ridge" part that we hiked up to get to the tower wasn't as scary as it sounded to me in the beginning. Probably partly because of the mist - we couldn't see how high up we were or what was below the ridge we were clambering on!
Here's Jen and I inside the Tower. People were sitting with their backs against the wall, eating, talking, and just hanging out in there.
I read that people do stay overnight there, even though they're not supposed to.
Here's Jen and Dana, one of our honorees, eating lunch on the rocks outside the Tower.
Here you can see what the rocks were like a little better. There were a few other hikers here, but these guys are all from our HFD group:
Nathalie and Reggie hung back a tiny bit when we were leaving and managed to get some of the "view" as the fog rolled back.
Here's a picture I grabbed from the Web that shows the view on a clear day.
On the way down it was not as hard as the way up - but it seemed to go on forever and ever. We posed again at the bridge near the trailhead. Nathalie found a salamander in the stream after this picture was taken!
As we hiked back to the bus, it started raining! Nice! It waited until the end of the day to start!
We jumped on the bus and were tired hikers on the way back to the hotel. I got a chance to talk to Liz from New Mexico who was my seatmate on the bus. In the picture above she is the lady in the top row wearing the blue shirt. I also talked to Marla from Michigan on the trail a little bit, she is fourth from the right in the picture above.
Dave was waiting for me as we walked into the hotel after we got back. Kathie saw him coming down the stairs in the glassed-in stairway, and said, "Solveig, there's your husband!"
It felt really good that he was there to support me.
We went to the Celebration Dinner with Joyce and it was quite fun. I was so hungry!
Afterward, most of the people on the team decided to go "out on the town" in Gatlinburg and we wound up in a bar/restaurant on karaoke night!
Actually there were very talented singers there. Dave and I vividly remember two men singing the medley of Grease songs (playing both parts!), and the older gentleman who flirted with our table and had some very impressive dance moves. (Someone took a picture of this guy, I don't know where it is).
When Deb got up to talk to the karaoke guy, we thought Dave and I would have to sing. But it turned out she was requesting a dance song, and the guy announced who we were and that we'd raised $600,000 to fight blood cancers...
So here we are dancing!
Nathalie, Deb, and it looks like Bob in background:
I love the light in this picture, it really shows what it felt like that night for me at least. Great celebration shot! Jen's hair looks great too.
I think Bowman took this with Reggie's camera. And look, it's Dave too!
Also below is me with Deb and Joy. Eyes open for once! Picture taken with Joy's camera by someone!
Other fire tower experiences from the web:
* a comment on this page says that at high elevations - not including this but including Clingman's Dome - there are flying squirrels!!! Got to go back!
* I was amazed when googling for Mt. Cammerer at work the night before we left for the hike -- an interactive fiction piece about this exact hike!
* Here is a topo map with map pins, of the Albright Grove Hike
