Diary - Appalachian Hiking

On Sunday, Dec 6th, I hiked a small part of the Appalachian Trail near the hostel I stayed the night before. The six mile hike went up a long snaking peak over looking the town of Hot Springs and back the way I came.

After lunch, I drove two hours to the Smokey Mountains aiming for an observation tower called Clingman's Dome. It was already 4 in the afternoon by the time I got there. I got in about an 8 mile hike. The road to the parking lot for the tower was closed for the season, so I couldn't get to the trail without hiking an additional two or three miles. I parked at the far end of a large lot nearby and walked on the closed road to the Clingman's Dome Trail. I knew the daylight would be gone before I could reach the tower, but eh fuck it. Some of the hikers at the hostel talked about night hiking being interesting, so I felt comfortable that I could hike at night without being shot by hunters or stopped by park rangers.


It's funny, despite being in nature, the only fear I had were of people. Of being found out doing something I was not supposed to and being punished or fined or imprisoned or some other unlikely man-made consequence. I knew the path was safe, because it was close to the road and no bears would hang around to maul people for no reason. I was constantly afraid of being stopped by a person though.

Night hiking is just as boring as day hiking, except I had to hold my phone out in front of me. I'm surprised how well the battery lasted with the flashlight on. I thought it'd be out of juice in half an hour, but it only went down about 11%. Good thing to know that flashlight on uses battery less than keeping random apps open. Hiking at dusk is interesting though. When there is enough dim light to hike without a flashlight, the wood logs stand out lighter against the dark soil and assessing the path offers a challenge.

After the sun went down, if I held my light too high and looked at the darkness far away, it was kind of scary. I didn't picture bears, but for some reason again people. Freddy Kreuger, ashen-faced Japanese ghosts with bleeding black eyes, and Evil. Animals don't scare me. They are just animals. They hunt to eat, they fight when threatened. They behave the way they are and are understandable. People and Evil scare me.

I was about halfway into the path to Clingman's when I encountered a large fallen tree. The roots completely blocked off my path, and in the darkness, I couldn't make out any way to get around. So I turned back. It was kind of a relief not to go any further. I was still paranoid about my car being ticketed or towed. I revised several drafts of what I would say to a park ranger if I got in trouble. Luckily, none of that was necessary.

On my way back I walked right past a ranger car, its interior completely dark, without attracting attention. My car was so far in the parking lot that it was all but invisible from the main road. I got back around 8 pm and sky had been dark for at least an hour. There were still cars in the lot with lights on. I was paranoid and avoided them. Later I found out they were civilians stopping and having fun, chatting or looking at stars, or smoking or whatever inexplicable pastimes normal people like to do.

I tried to sleep in my car, but all these civilian cars kept driving by to park that I felt uneasy about staying. The park ranger's car had been stationed just outside the lot, so I felt at any time an authority figure could knock on my window and ask me what I was doing. I was also hungry. Very hungry. It seemed like the more I ate that day, the hungrier I got. Cans of beans, spinach, tuna... they all went down without lifting a notch in my belt. They seemed only to encourage my appetite shortly after I finished a mouthful. Around 10:30 pm, I set down the mountain toward the opposite town.

Gatlinburg on the West side of the Smokeys was just as touristy as the Chrokee town on the East side. It looked like Vegas. Chains of motels, hotels, and lodges advertised low rates, vacancy! Gas cost $2.20 a gallon, where a mile further out it was $1.80. Everything had bright lights and either something spinning, flashing, or scrolling.

I pulled in a McDonald's and the service was incompetent, the hours displayed on the door were wrong, and the drive-through had a second lane that claimed to be open but did not function and I scraped the bottom of my car when I tried to switch lanes. The dollar menu cheeseburger and salad I bought lost the fight against my hunger, so I pulled into a Wendy's down the road for a 4 for $4 deal.

A young woman took my payment had an attitude like she haaaated tourists, and hated having to serve them in a town that was all tourists. She handed me my meal without as much a smile or thank you, but she kept looking at me with this disgust when I turned my head away. After I got my food and got ready to drive away, she still was standing there looking, so turn at her and let her have a good look. She gives me this big fake ass smile and I drive away without smiling back.

Fuck this loathsome Gomorrah town. Nowhere to stay in this tourist trap, and not worth the drive back to the hike Smokeys for another day.