A Night in the Fire Tower: Day 23

We woke up on the later side this morning and planned to do 18. The day was gorgeous and we set out for another beautiful day in the Smokey’s. Even though the Smokey’s are known for their covered pine forests, there were also many uncovered ridge lines to walk across. The sun beat down and I stopped to apply sunscreen. It was amazing how fast the sun can zap the energy out of you. 5 miles in, we stopped for a snack break. When thru hiking, your body was constantly burning calories and you needed to replenish it with lots of protein, carbs, and fats. My favorite snacks were the Think lemon protein bars and cosmic brownies. The epitome of health am I right? We wolfed down our snacks and continued on. Danny and I walked down the trail casually chatting when I heard a thud behind me. I looked back to see Danny sprawled across a log wincing in pain. I then noticed the blood running down his shin. My brain went into full first aid mode as I ripped bags out of my pack to find the bandaids and alcohol wipes. Thankfully, his wounds were shallow and we patched him up easily. Danny went to grab his poles when he saw that one was completely bent. In an attempt to bend it back the other way, he snapped the pole in half. Time to find a walking stick. We walked a little slower after that scouring the trail for a suitable walking stick. After finding one, Danny then began to brag about how much better a waking stick was instead of pole. He soon stopped after his first stick broke. Ah well, the woods are full of sticks. We’ll find him another one. The air around us smelled of pine and Kory kept saying it smelled like Christmas. Pine wafted through the air all day along with our body odor. There was no getting around the fact that it was hot and we were sweaty. I could not wait to smell like body odor constantly. Yay. There was a shelter 3 miles away from our destination for the night and we stopped for a snack there. We were tempted to just stop for the day. “It’s only 4pm we have to keep going” Kory said. “But the shelter floor looks so nice can’t we just stay here??” Kyle groaned as he laid across the whole shelter with his shoes off. “No, it’s too early we can do more miles” Kory replied. I really couldn’t decide who I sided with more. They both made such good points. In in the end, we put it to a vote and decided to keep going. There was only one more hill and if we climbed it we could sleep inside a pavilion esque fire tower on top of Mount Cammerer. Pulling ourselves up the mountain, we tried to conserve water because there was no water at the tower. This was our first mistake. The sun was still beating down on us relentlessly and the last climb was a bit harder than we anticipated. Kory, not feeling tired at all, basically sprinted up the mountain while the rest of us took several breaks all feeling the effects of heat exhaustion. I think we took about 8 breaks climbing the 1.5 mile climb. All worth it in the end though. The view from the top of Mt. Cammerer was the best view yet in the Smokey’s. On top of this we had company. Three past thruhikers, Sonic Supernova, Griffin, and Breezy, were reliving a section of their thruhike. Their kind words of encouragement and knowledge of the trail was a welcomed gift. What a kind and caring community I thought to myself. Then, a man with a camera and tripod arrived. His name was Nasary More and he was a freelancing photographer. He asked us if we would pose for some photos. “Do you really want our grimy disheveled bodies on display?” I jokingly asked. “Yes! It adds to the experience” He replied. One by one we all got our own personal photo shoot on top of Mt. Cammerer. At first it was a bit awkward, but by the end we were all laughing and hanging off of the railings trying to get the best looking shots. Nasary took photos long into the night and slept in the fire tower with us. That poor man was freezing. I don’t think he originally planned on staying up there. As the wind whipped around, I felt bad for him as he laid against the wall with a little blanket over his legs. All in the name of art I guess.