Laughing at the Pale Guy
Today is April 7, and I’m at the Derrick Knob shelter. It’s my second day in the Smokies, and today was a 12.1 mile day, which brings me to mile marker 190. I woke up this morning at Mollies Ridge, and the general consensus around the campsite was that last night was probably the coldest one on the trail so far. Everyone was just freezing all night.
There's a common phrase on the AT that says, “Be bold, start cold,” meaning you should start your hike colder than you think — start out wearing fewer layers than you really want to have on — because by the time you really get going, you're going to be taking them off. I was trying to be bold, but I was so cold that I was wearing literally everything I had. So for me this morning, “Being bold and starting cold” was actually me starting out with all my clothes on. But as predicted, throughout the day, I ended up stopping a bunch of times to gradually strip down. You know, first take off my wind pants, then take off my fleece, and so on until I was down to my standard t-shirt and shorts. But all that stopping to disrobe added significant time to the day.
But the real story of the hike from Mollies Ridge to Derrick Knob was the drastic change in difficulty from my first day in the Smokies to my second day. If there’s some kind of hiking committee out there, I think they got together and said, “Look, people are nervous about the Smokies. So let's make the trail on day one nice and smooth. There's still going to be a lot of elevation gain, but we're going to make the trail super manageable. We'll give them a lot of switchbacks and just ease them into things. And then, on day two, we’ll show them what it's really like to hike in the Smokies.”
Unlike the first day, it was either straight up or straight down, with tons of roots and lots of rocks. You hear all these stories about how the segment of trail right after you leave the NOC is supposed to be the toughest climb in the first 200 miles of the AT, but actually, the second day after I left the NOC was the toughest I’d had thus far, and the pattern seems to be the same for the Smokies. I expected the first day to be difficult because you gain a lot of elevation, but the trail wasn’t all that bad, and then today was just brutal. Maybe it's just because you’re tired from the first day. I don't know.
Exhausted after climbing Thunderhead Mountain
But eventually, obviously, I got to Derrick Knob. And every time you reach a campsite, you've got a certain sequence of chores to do. Set up tent. Inflate air mattress. Go get water. Air out anything that needs airing out. Cook. All of that. And by the time I pulled into Derek Knob, it was quite warm, so I took off my boots and socks and put my Tevas on to walk down to the water source and fill up.
A thru-hiker named Praying Mantis was already there, and as I’m approaching, he gives me the once over and says, “Hey, Rob. It looks like you still have your socks on.”
I look down at my knees, and they’re pretty red from being exposed to the sun, but I’ve had my socks pulled up for the past three weeks. So, as you can imagine, from my knees down, I’ve got quite the farmer’s tan. And everyone starts laughing at the pale guy. I immediately think, “Oh no, this isn’t going to be another trail name, is it?” Everybody got a good chuckle, and someone yelled out, “Hey, we can call him White Socks.” But I think I successfully avoided having that stick.
As for Praying Mantis, he's got an interesting story. He’s in recovery, and he's been sober for a long time now. I thought maybe his trail name just came from the insect, but apparently, he begins every morning with a prayer, just trying to stay strong with respect to his addictions and such. He’s a really cool, really interesting guy.
Tomorrow, I’ll be climbing Clingman's Dome, which is the highest point on the whole AT, so I’m hoping to get a good night’s rest. If I’m lucky and time things right, I might just get there in time for the eclipse. We'll see how that goes.
