I tried something new for this past Thanksgiving break. I had a whole week off, and decided that a week off was better spent being active outside than it would be at home. So, I took a little bit of a leap and planned a 5 day backpacking trip for myself down in the Great Smokey Mountains. The trip did not go as planned, instead it ended up being a 2 day adventure and a lesson in decision making. Above is my original itinerary. This would be my first time in the Smokeys, so I did not want to be overly ambitious with the mileage each day. Additionally, I was excited to hike up to the Appalachian Trail and camp along it for two nights. The beginning of the trip went as planned. I found the campground that I would park my car at just fine, and the trail head was right in the back of the park. It was a quick 1.2 to my first campsite, and it was a pleasant evening. I was up naturally early on Tuesday, ready to start crushing my bigger mile days. The morning was a bit chilly but once I started uphill with weight on my back I was soon dripping sweat. While hiking up I realized that I had really misjudged how difficult the terrain would be. In my expectations, these trails would be rocky and straight up the mountain, as they are in the Whites. Fortunately, the trails in the Smokeys were basically paths, with nothing technical on them. There were switchbacks up the steep stuff (imagine that!) and a nice soft bed of leaves for me to walk up. Unfortunately, however, I also misjudged how much colder it would get as I climbed in elevation. Past a certain point the area I was in became socked in a cloud, and even while hiking I found myself getting colder and colder. Packs-off breaks became very rushed as I would get cold immediately after stopping. As I got closer to camp I made a list of priorities in my head. It was clear to me based on how cold and sweaty I was that this was a situation when the environment needed to be the priority. I needed to get into dry and warm clothes. I hoped that once I got into dry clothes and all of my layers I would be warm enough to go about my night in camp. I did just that, then began to make mac n cheese, hoping that warm food would also help me out. At this point it was only 1pm. I estimated that the temperatures were in the low 30s, because the threads of my nalgene were developing some ice. I knew that if it was this cold, and only 1pm, I was in for a long night. The easy terrain put me at my second campsite way ahead of schedule, and I suddenly realized that, ya know, I *may* survive the night, but honestly I could book it back down right now and be at my car by sun down. So that is exactly what I did. I forced down as much of that mac n cheese as I could, but really had no appetite, then I packed up as quick as I could and started to motor down. I made it up to this campsite (9.1mi) in 5 hours, and back down (10.3mi) in 3 hours. The gradual downhill switchbacked paths made it easy for me to get back to my car well before sun down. It all worked out nicely, I got to go home for Thanksgiving after all. I drove back to Penn State on Friday to be back in time for my last home football game on Saturday. This put my total driving hours for the week at 36. Definitely felt a real sense of freedom being able to drive all over the east coast, but it was tiring for sure.
Back at school, someone said to me "wouldn't it have been bad ass if you just stuck it out in the freezing cold?". I was fully prepared to answer this question. The answer to that is, no, it would not have been bad ass of me to stick it out. When leading trips I often teach Expedition Behavior to my participants. Expedition Behavior refers mainly to doing more than your fair share, carrying more than your weight, and generally just paying it forward to your group. One of the finer points of EB according to Howard Tombs is "do not get killed". Putting or keeping yourself in higher risk situations is foolish, even if you are alone. If I were to have needed search and rescue to extract my popsicle of a body (dead or alive) then I am putting others into the same high risk situation that I was dumb enough to get myself into in the first place. In conclusion, it was bad ass of me to make the smart decision, and bail on a hike that I had been planning for well over a month. There were no feelings of disappointment or embarrassment. I saw the Smokeys, got my backpacking fix, and even got to be with my dog on Thanksgiving after all. Amazing trip. Comments are closed.
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