Day 19, Deep Creek to Smokemont Campground

We left camp at 7:30 p.m. and started walking on the Deep Creek Trail. Hiking Trails of the Smokies says this was one of the first trails constructed when the park service took possession of the land in the 1930s.

The section of the park we were hiking was said to still hold some virgin timber, though large yellow poplars had been harvested in the 1920s.

We passed two more campsites in the first eight-tenths of a mile. The second of these was called Bryson Place. It was the location of a campsite used by Horace Kephart.

Kephart spent years in the Smokies immersing himself in the mountains and the culture of its people. He was the author of two respected books, Our Southern Highlanders and Camping and Woodcraft, which remain in print.

Much of the latter part of his life was spent advocating for the creation of a national park in the Smokies. Two months before he was killed in an automobile accident in 1931, the National Park Service recognized his efforts by naming a mountain for him.

After Bryson Place, the BMT turned onto a short connector trail called the Martin's Gap Trail. We followed it for half of its three-mile distance until we turned to the Sunkota Ridge Trail.

We were now in a long climb, going up 2,600 feet in the next 7.3 miles. This was a sweaty climb despite the cloudiness of the sky.

I discovered there was cell service available on the way up, so I checked the weather forecast. The rain that had been predicted was now expected for tonight and tomorrow.

I also received a text from Polecat about our scheduled pickup time on Friday, then sent a message to Kim just to confirm I was still alive.

The last 4.8 miles of the trail went steadily down, dropping nearly 3,000 feet.

I hadn't seen Tengo or JA in a few hours and hoped to see them when they stopped for lunch. By 1:45 p.m., however, I was getting too hungry to wait any longer and began looking for a place to stop.

A mossy stump along the trail provided a perfect cushioned seat for that. This could have been the remnants of an American chestnut tree. Many grew in this part of the Smokies before they were felled by logging and disease.

The American chestnut was thought to be the most valuable tree in the forest. It provided food for animals and humans. Its strong, rot-resistant wood was valued for building materials, telephone poles, and railroad ties.

A pathogen introduced in the U.S. from Asia at the turn of the 20th century all but wiped out the species. Because the deadly blight still exists, new trees die soon after sprouting.

The trail descended to Newfound Gap Road, a highway that cuts north to south through the middle of the park. It runs from Gatlinburg, Tenn. to Cherokee, N.C.

I began to hear cars on the highway before I saw it. When I reached the road, I couldn't cross. There were too many cars. Most were heading south, and nearly all of those were Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Porsches going too fast.

The sight of expensive sports cars crossing my footpath was incongruous and irritating.

After waiting several minutes before all of the cars passed by, I crossed the road. A short distance after that, a bridge took me across the Oconaluftee River. Smokemont Campground was on the other side of the river.

JA was already there, and he introduced me to his parents, Mary and Joe.

Tengo arrived about 30 minutes later. He said he only got lost once.