“Donald Trump Disney Land”

AT Day 10

Miles: 4.69

Total Miles: 221.25

(Gatlenburg, TN)

This place is just weird. I don’t know how else to begin. Not the Appalachain Trail… although there’s plenty of weirdness to talk about on the trail. But I’m talking about Gatlenburg, TN.

I knew this place was going to be weird before even arriving. Its reputation precedes it. And I really didn’t want to come into Gatlenburg, but the last few resupply options have been extremely minimal, and ya’ boy is getting a little low on nutritional support. All I had left this morning was a snickers, some Jolly Ranchers, unflavored grits, and some “Cajun” trail mix. It would have been enough to get me a bit further down trail, but it was going to be about 42 miles to my next resupply option. And at 100-150 calories per mile being burned (conservatively), that wasn’t going to make it. I would have been starving by the end of Smokey Mountains National Park. And I’ve been starving on trails before. I didn’t want it to happen to me again right now.

Therefore… I’m in Gatlenburg.

I wasn’t planning on staying here long, but alas, here I am.

The plan was to drop down as quickly as I could, get to a food store, resupply, hopefully find a place to shower and do laundry, then get back to trail. Sounds simple, but after being on trail for almost two weeks, you get “hiker brain” in town, and it’s hard to not get distracted by all of the attractions… especially in a place like Gatlenburg.

This place is like Disney Land + Donald Trump + Guns + Bibles + Diabetes. It’s weird as fuck. Like a a more conservative version of Sedona, AZ with significantly less scenery. Don’t get me wrong–these mountains are beautiful around here, and the forest too, but it’s nothing like Sedona in terms of the scenery. So they make up for it with Dick’s Last Resort, a bunch of Riply’s Believe It Or Not stuff, arcades, bars, wine tastings, a bunch of pancake houses, and… shit… a lot of bible stuff. I walked into one of the Bible stores, which was also a Donald Trump store, and I could only get through around 45 seconds.

This place is just too much. Too overstimulating.

I had toyed with the idea last week, that maybe Gatlenburg would be the place to do what my friend and I did yesterday on trail, but when we were in the trip yesterday, rolling in the flowers, and pumping out miles, we both agreed that the mountains were the right place for it. Not down here in Donald Trump Disney Land.

—

Oh–so the plan WAS to go back to trail after food resupply, but right away when I got to town and opened my phone, Specs had texted me. He’s the guy I hiked with yesterday, and we’ve gotten along better than anyone else I’ve met on trail. He told me he’d hitched in from a place around 7 miles before where I came into town, and that he was mowing down on pancakes at the pancake house (one of at least three on this one strip).

Specs found a room for $50, but it didn’t open for us until 2pm, so we weren’t able to get showered and laundry done until around 4, then lunch/dinner at the burrito place… you get the picture.

It’s going to start raining tomorrow and it’s likely going to be very wet on trail for the next 10 days. It’s been a nice run of good weather up until now, but for a bit it’s going to be soggy. As such, getting our gear all cleaned and organized before going out into it seemed like a good idea. And Specs really wanted me to stay for the evening and not go back to trail. We’ve gotten along well.

So we’re back here at the hotel now. Specs had another round at the burrito place and also hit the Cici’s pizza all you can eat buffet. I’m pretty sure he’s put on around 30lbs in Gatlenburg so far, but who can blame him–he’s an ECT hiker and has walked almost 1,700 miles to get here. He’s also lost a lot of weight on trail–mostly muscle, but he’s trying to build it back.

On that note, I’m still in the pushup game every day. 10x per mile, and I’m extremely pleased with the results so far. My upper body is staying strong, and although there are places like my biceps that are clearly losing mass, the overall upper body muscle is remaining. So that feels validating, considering how much of a pain in the ass it has been to get 100-300 pushups every day out there.

So back to trail after breakfast tomorrow. There are several hikers I’ve talked to who are going to wait out at least some of the storm here in Gatlenburg, but it doesn’t feel right to me. I don’t need to stay in this weird place. I want to get back to trail.

It’ll be another two days in Great Smokey Mountains National Park, then around 150 miles dancing between the Tennessee/North Carolina border. My next resupply town will be Hot Springs, NC in around 3 days.

Wormwood Out.