Last Friday, I went to bed super early, intent on waking up by 4:00 AM to catch the sunrise in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You see, despite promising myself that I wouldn’t overplan this summer and thus be able to enjoy how phenomenal WNC is during the warmer months, I found myself with zero free weekends in July, bouncing between the Jersey Shore and Chicago, and then hosting some friends who aren’t particularly into hiking. I hadn’t gone on one of my beloved sunrise summer hikes since June, so I told myself with zero plans, I’d bag a big one and do a sunrise hike up Mt. LeConte.
The universe, of course, had other plans. I slept through my alarm and woke up sometime around 4:30 AM, which already made getting to Mt. LeConte and hiking up to the aptly named Sunrise Point a bit of a moot point (there’s no way I would’ve made it in time). I got up anyway and went out onto my patio. It was pouring, so maybe I thought this was just the universe’s way of helping me out. Still, I resisted the urge to go back to bed, grabbed myself a yogurt for breakfast, and Googled the forecast for Gatlinburg. According to the internet, it wasn’t raining there, and wouldn’t start till noon, which I calculated would allow me to get to Charlie’s Bunion, a closer and less dramatic hike, but still a solid one.
The rain was pretty brutal through Asheville, but as I turned off of 40 onto the Maggie Valley exit, it stopped, and as I traveled, the road was much less wet. It was still very overcast, but I figured even a slightly overcast morning hike isn’t a terrible use of my time. However, when I got onto the very Western part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the rain started coming down again. I told myself I’d drive as far as the Smoky Mountains visitor center, one has to stop at to get a car tag, and if it were still raining there, I’d turn around.
Lo and behold, when I arrived at the Visitor’s Center, the rain not only evaporated, but the sun was starting to peak through, and I caught a quick glimpse of what looked to be a gorgeous morning sky. I quickly bought my car tag, used the restroom, and started driving the remaining 20 minutes to Newfound Gap, where one joins the part of the Appalachian Trail that leads to Charlie’s Bunion.
And here’s where I messed up.
I Googled the weather. I neglected to Google the park conditions, because if I did, the first thing I would’ve seen when I went onto the official National Park Service website for the Great Smoky Mountains, I would’ve seen that Newfound Gap Road was closed for the foreseeable future due to a mudslide that occurred on August 1, one day prior. I didn’t, however. I was delivered that news by a barrier across the road that simply said “Road closed, ICE DANGER.”
So, instead of a gorgeous, brisk, 8-mile hike to start my Saturday, I started it with a round-trip 3-hour drive to the Tennessee border for no reason, a lox breakfast sandwich from Battlecat, and a pre-noon Crumbl cookie.
This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, either. This is the second time; a real shame-on-me situation.
AshevilleExplorer 