Benton MacKaye Trail

I left the House at 1 am to make the drive to Reliance, Tennessee. Hikerboy had been on the trail around 10 days at that point and was taking a zero at Reliance waiting on me. We planned to hike a short day on Monday and I was glad we did. With 3 hours of sleep and 9 hours of driving anything more than the 10 miles we did would have killed me. Day one always sucks when you don’t train on hills. The first couple of miles were flat with great views of the Hiwassee River then the trail goes up with some really nice river views. We made camp at Coker creek. Hikerboy managed to find the one marshmallow to step in within 10 miles. He’s such a good manager he managed to step in it twice.Didn’t take many pictures on day two. The views were good but mostly with trees blocking the way.Short 14 mile day plus a two mile road walk to the Green Cove Motel. Hikerboy had a resupply at the Motel. Nice motel on the Tellico River. Good Shower, comfortable beds and very nice people. The hike was really nice, day three is always when I’m starting to feel like my trail legs are developing. No phone service at the Motel but we did manage to find free Wi-Fi from one of the houses.A great 8 miles of continuous uphill trail. We got a late start because we only planned to walk to Whigg Meadows. We walked along creeks most of the day on a old forest service road until we reached to final mile which was a dirt road going up to Whigg Meadow. We had lunch at the Waterfall at mile 155.9.We got passed by a truck towing a tractor which was spraying for Poa Annua grass. The bald is really nice but we camped in a smaller clearing because the weather was looking squirrelly. That night the rain came along with some serious wind with gusts in the 40 to 50 mph range. My Tarptent Double Rainbow performed perfectly as usual. Hikerboy’s tent needs better stakes then the Titanium Shepard’s hooks, he had to get out twice during the night to secure his tent.Mostly a rainy day, walked through beautiful scenery all day.Entered the Citco wilderness and camped at the Crowder Branch campsite where we encountered the worst fireside rock in the history of the human race. Why would this rock exist? It taunted us with its flat surfaces but odd angles. I know we could have placed another rock under it to level said rock, but it looked like too much work. Got our gear dried out in the afternoon sun, had a good meal and a nice campfire.The Citco Creek ford was a piece of cake. I can see where it could be dangerous with higher water. The stiffknee trail lived up to its name, I managed to fall on my butt going down.We reached Highway 129 and had lunch at the bridge below the dam. The brand new Fontana bypass awaited. We started walking uphill in the afternoon sun. The Meadow Branch road is a brutal uphill road walk until the Old Field Gap Road intersection where it levels off. We didn’t really know if we were going the right way until we found forest road 251. We followed the forest road for about 2 miles and were getting really low on water. Finally we find a tiny roadside spring and fill up. The exact moment we finish filling our bottles Sgt. Rock pulls up with his son and another trail maintainer. Sgt. Rock shows us a great campsite with sunset and sunrise views. It was nice to meet Sgt. Rock.Hot Dogs and Beer!Just the hardest five miles Hikerboy and I had seen on the BMT. The BMT makes you work for every mile. We road walked for about 0.3 miles until we reached the trail. The trail had just been cleared and goes straight up and down the humps along the Yellow Creek Mountain Ridge. What should have been a 2 ½ hour walk took almost 4 hours. The views are worth every ounce of energy this section takes. The Fontana Bypass when 100% complete may be one of the best pieces of the BMT. We arrived at the village and confirmed that I would have to wait to pick-up my food drop until Monday at 11:45 am. We had some hot dogs and I had a beer at the Pit Stop. Got picked up by Jeff Hoch from the Hike Inn and check in, took showers and got our laundry done. Went to Huddle House for dinner and bought some food for the trail.Got my food package at the Fontana Post office at 11:45 am, sorted through the food and gave away two days of unneeded food. The 10.4 miles into Hazel Creek is about as easy as it gets on the BMT. Eagle creek is beautiful and Hazel creek is like something out of the Waltons.We got to the Calhoun house in the Proctor village site and sat on the front porch and watched the river go by for about three hours. We ate dinner on the front porch in two very comfortable chairs and then finally went to campsite 86 for the night. The rain started around midnight then a really big lightning storm hung around for a few hours. I would really like to come back to this area for a third time and explore the area of Hazel Creek more. Notice the mileage discrepancy, the Fontana bypass shortens the BMT by 3.5 miles.Woke up in the rain and packed up and had breakfast on the porch. A rainy day on the Lakeshore trail on fairly easy terrain. Only one significant hill this day right at the start then a whole bunch of 200’ up and 200’ down for 21 miles.Scenery along the lake was fantastic. We arrived at Forney creek and made camp.Started the day with the Tunnel to Nowhere, then up the Noland Creek trail which follows and crosses the Noland Creek a bunch of time.We forded the Noland creek two of three times. The scenery along the Noland Creek is really nice. Camped at site 57 which was OK. Site 56 probably was a better site in hindsight. It was raining so we made dinner underneath a Hemlock tree during a break in the rain. Hikerboy and I went to our tents early due to the rain and my plan to get up a 4 am to hike the last 12.5 miles to Smokemont campground to meet my shuttle back to Reliance, Tennessee.Woke up at 3:45 am and started hiking by 4 am. There is a 2690’ elevation gain over 7.3 miles and then a 2880’ elevation drop during the next 4.8 miles. I like night hiking sometimes and enjoy seeing the sun slowly rising. The 12 miles went too fast. I tried to slow myself down as much as possible when up top to enjoy the views. At 12 noon I meet my shuttle for the 3 hour shuttle south.It was a great trip. Great trail. Great Scenery. Great Weather. Great company.