The sun is bright and the morning clear and cool. Now the orange glow of dawn shines through the rows of trees and outlines the ridge above us. Before, the forest would keep the house in shadow until mid morning. The sky has opened up and so too the forest. Along the road we find homes and other structures that were previously invisible.

I have fed the dogs, cats and horses. With the pasture now at rest, I must provide oats and hay daily. The lawn growth has slowed too, but I will have to mow a time or two more. As glorious as is this homestead, I itch to get back on the road. Enough of these daily chores.

I will miss the lovely garden plot. Even now we harvest greens; spinach, Swiss chard, Brussels sprouts, or collards daily. We have lettuce in abundance, bok choy, and a few beets. Leeks and onions are coming.

We are short-timers now. Our departure is a definitive January 8th. We plan a week of walking if the weather is not too harsh and will then be headed north. Meanwhile we continue to enjoy this wonderful area.

We completed our last missing link in the AT in North Carolina this Saturday through Monday. This walk took us from the rugged Davenport Gap at the equally rugged I-40 highway at the east end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the Newfound Gap in the middle of the range. We had previously hiked from Fontana Dam at the west end of the park to Newfound Gap.

Although we wanted to continue our walk this time down out of the range, the shelter was booked solid when I called at the beginning of the month. So we had to reverse our route and once again climbed the range. This meant a vertical ascent from about 1,400 feet at the Pigeon River to 6,400 feet at Mount Chapman. We gave ourselves three days for this 33 mile walk in the park. It was tough. The trail was well graded and relatively smooth, but there were lots of ups and downs even after reaching the ridge top.

The weather turned out well for this walk, unlike our last one with its three days of rain. A cyclone arrived on Friday and was departing on Saturday morning. It was raining when we started. Then the rain stopped but the fog condensed on the trees, which continued to drip until noon. By then the gusty northwest wind whipped the trees dry and blue streaks extended across the sky. At ridge top vistas other ridges appeared through the clouds and gave a thrill. The high ridges were green and gray. The valleys were still pumpkin orange with autumn color.

The two shelters were new and framed in stone. Fireplaces provided heat after the chore of gathering firewood. The Smoky Mountains Hiking Club had hung a tarp across the fronts of the shelters. We thank them. Saturday night was cold and very windy. The temperature fell only into the 20s, but the wind gusts rattled the tarps severely at times. With short days, we awoke before dawn to breakfast and break camp. Both nights we were alone in the shelter. A young couple tented nearby the second night. We encountered no bears, but saw lots of bear scat full of mountain ash berries.

The trail through the park is nicely graded, wide, and mostly clear, unlike other sections of trail in this region. Along the ridge crest, the CCC even built walled ramps across some of the dips, forming an elegant causeway of sorts across the sky. There is no timberline here, above 5,000 feet we were in dense spruce-fir forest. At times it looked like we were in Maine woods. Vistas came only at ridge crests and outcrops. These provided views of the great Balsam Range that intersects the Smoky Mountains Range at Tri-Corner Knob, spur ranges, the Smoky range itself, high valleys between the ridges, and the Great Valley of Tennessee to the northwest.

The bird life is limited this time of year. Northern species: black-capped chickadees, golden-crowned kinglets, and pine siskins were a treat along the high ridges. We saw evidence of peregrine falcons, piles of feathers on the ridge top, but didn’t see any flying hawks during this walk. American robins were abundant, feasting with the bears on the abundant mountain ash fruit.

The last big vista was at a curious rock designated as Charlie’s Bunion. Even on a Monday, dozens of day-hikers coursed from Newfound Gap for the view from “Charlie’s.”

At Newfound Gap, the main park road - US 441, crosses the top of the ridge. The Rockefeller Memorial is at this popular spot. We were a curiosity when we emerged among the hundreds of motorists who stopped to snap pictures and walk about. “Where did you sleep?” “Weren’t you cold?” “What did you eat?” We could have set up an exhibit and answered questions all afternoon, but finally broke away to drive back to our other car and return home for the marvelous pleasures of a hot shower and a cold beer.

With this section completed we have now hiked all of the trail from U.S. route 19E in Tennessee to Springer Mountain in Georgia, a total of 385 miles. We hiked 285 miles of the trail, from Allen Gap south this year, most of it on our big May walk. We have completed all of the trail in North Carolina and Georgia. If we complete our planned hike in January, we will have completed the entire trail in Tennessee and south of Virginia. Next August/September we will be hiking in Vermont and possibly in Massachusetts. More details on that as plans develop. Perhaps some of our kin will join us on parts of that walk?

So, we had a good hiking year. We have now completed some 1,123 miles or 52% of the 2,200 mile long A.T. But who’s keeping track? Lots of more good hiking ahead.