Episode #140 - Appalachian Trail (Days 24 to 28)

Mighty Blue On The Appalachian Trail: The Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis

Steve Adams

Sports, Wilderness

4.8 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2019

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the Smokies Part II episode. With five days the cover the mileage may seem unimpressive. However, within those five days, there are two "nearos" and a "zero."

This has been a pretty brutal few days with snow, bone-jarring cold, warmth, slush, and a seemingly endless climb down out of these iconic mountains.

In retrospect, I think that, while I'm glad they are over, the Smokies will stay in my mind long after the snow has melted and I'm pushing my way through Virginia.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the Hiking Radio Network where we talk the walk with shows by hikers
0:06.5	about hikers for everybody.
0:18.9	Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate midlife crisis, joined Stephen his guests every week as he staggers from Georgia to Maine.
0:35.0	Hi, and thanks for coming back again to Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail, the ultimate
0:39.0	midlife crisis. We are on today's 24, 25, 26, 27, I think it is. And it's the second part of the
0:49.6	smoke is this week. And I'm sitting here in the last shelter in the smoke is the Davenport Gap shelter, just a mile and a half a week. And I'm sitting here in the last shelter in the Smokies, the Devonport Gap
0:57.0	shelter, just a mile and a half from the bottom. And I am, as I normally am, the last person
1:03.4	to leave the shelter. And it's an unusual shelter for the Smokies. This has got a fence in
1:09.4	front of it, which I presume speaks to the bear activity
1:12.9	that's around. We haven't seen any bears in the night, which is a good thing.
1:16.6	But I've locked myself in the shelter just in case. So I can record. And the silence of the woods
1:23.6	around me is so complete. It really is beautiful out here. And I just wanted to share a
1:30.3	quick reflection on the smokies themselves. We've really encountered, we've had beautiful weather.
1:37.4	We've had cold, cold, cold weather, really freezing, chilling weather. Because at elevations of 6,000 feet, you're going to get that, I guess.
1:48.6	And speaking to a bunch of other people about the smoke is, I think we're all glad they're part of the Appalachian Trail, but I think we're all glad it's over.
1:58.2	It's been, I've found it tough and nobody I've spoken to says it's,
2:02.8	and it's been anything other than tough. And part of that has been the freezing nights.
2:06.7	The nights have been just extraordinarily cold. I'm sitting here now though.
2:12.9	We're now at much lower elevation. I think we're 2,000 feet, maybe even less. I'm not sure,
2:17.4	actually. But we've come down yesterday and elevation. I think we're 2,000 feet, maybe even less, I'm not sure actually.
2:18.3	But we've come down yesterday and we came through the snow.
2:22.2	So the snow was over.
	...

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