Post 900 Hike #67: AT (13.2 mi. +Shuckstack), Russel Field & Anthony Creek (3.5 & 1.6)

Dick Ledyard planned today’s hike; it would be a key-swap with some of us going (1) South from Cades Cove campground to Fontana Dam road, (2) North from Fontana Dam road to Cades Cove campground, (3) AT to Twentymile Ranger Station, (4) Twentymile Ranger Station to AT & on to Cades Cove. I had planned to do #2; however, a pinched plantar nerve (i.e., a 50-year plus Navy football injury) came back to haunt me two days before this hike, making me wonder if my hike would be very short (e.g., a little AT from Fontana Dam road , a quick turn around, & an ultra-long wait for S-bound hikers).

We met at Food Lion at 07:30; I then went in one of the two vehicles going to Fontana Dam (ours had an intermediate stop at Twentymile Ranger where we dropped off Joan Tomlinson & Steve Edwards and picked up Ellie Doughty and Amy Howe). At the AT off Fontana Dam road Ellie and Amy would embark with the rest of us (i.e., Frank & Christian March, Jerry Roddy, Scott Elder, Richard Ryburn, & John Hutsenpiller).

At 09:23 we were on the AT; in the first 3+ miles we had ~2,000 ft. gain. In the first part of our venture Scott (who had never been in this part of the park) asked me if that was Shuckstack Tower (see pic #1, looks kind of far from here but only ~3 mi., double-click to enlarge it--it's neat).
In our AT climb Christian (Frank’s son & an Alaskan mountain tour guide/adventurer) passed us (not sure if he was running there but he ran quite a bit our 18.3 mi. hike). At 11:08 Scott and I reached the tower trail (this added an additional 0.4 mi. up & back to the tower). My 2nd picture is looking N just below the tower’s cabin (glass inside the cabin precluded taking pictures from within it).

Scott went ahead (he was getting cold from tower climb) and I then hiked with Ellie and Amy who were just going to Doe Knob (then they would go back to Twentymile Ranger Station); just after Shuckstack we met Steve and Joan, after visiting the tower they would reverse and end up with us at Cades Cove. Because of the sojourn to the tower I quit recording trail times.

I believe that I caught up with Scott at Doe Knob; he’s a fast hiker and he and I stayed together for most the remaining 11.5 miles of our trip. Somewhere South of Russell Field we met our compatriots who had started at Cades Cove; Dick took this picture of me (it in essence provides a good representation of the AT on a ridge). From a logistic perspective, this hike required complicated arrangements; Dick did one excellent job planning it.
We passed a few AT hikers and talked with some at Mollies Ridge and Russell Field campgrounds; at the latter one was astounded by how Christian had run by them on the trail.

Scott and I arrived at our two vehicles in Cades Cove campground at 18:00. (My Ibuprofen every 4-hrs. almost totally masked my plantar nerve problem.) I iced my knee and we both talked with Christian. Not sure when John, Steve and Joan arrived; they thought that they were about one hour ahead of our other cohorts. We then left Christian. (This was a great hike for John for all miles were new for him; I have a bit of interest in his progress since it was I who got him started hiking.) John dropped Scott and Steve off in Townsend and Joan and me at the Food Lion. I picked up a salmon dinner at Captain D’s and arrived home ~20:00.