Mar 10, 2025 : KazaNOBO Appalachian Trail

The Adventures of Destination Boy and Journey Girl

Author’s note: This post describes a section of trail completed in early August 2024. Translation: Use trusted sources for current trail updates 🙂

One of the greatest joys is sharing the trail with someone you love.

Before I stepped foot on Springer, my wife Teddi and I planned on doing a section or two together. I figured we would do so closer to home, so I was thrilled she wanted to head down south!

Teddi and I have plenty of experience hiking together. She joined me on my final two summits of the Adirondack 46ers soon after we met, we headed up Mount Washington as part of our honeymoon, and we’re jointly working on the Fire Tower Challenge throughout New York. Yet this would be our first real backpacking trip together, and Teddi’s first ever. We talked about training backpacking trips, but my wife wanted this to be her first backpacking experience. Besides, carrying our daughter in a kid carrier for several years certainly approximates a full pack (but with more kicking).

So we locked in a week over the summer, made all necessary arrangements, and packed up our bags. We headed for Fontana, with our sights on traversing all 72 miles of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Day 10: An Abrupt Welcome Back

Destination Boy and Journey Girl heading over Fontana Dam

Destination Boy (aka KazaNOBO) and Journey Girl heading over Fontana Dam

Deciding to hit the trail the same day we flew down, we planned on a relatively short six miles from Fontana Dam to the Birch Spring Gap campsite. But six miles can feel like quite a bit more when it’s our first six backpacking miles back on trail, we’re fighting the nausea of the gut-wrenching drive down the Tail of the Dragon, and, well, we’re hiking a notoriously damp section of the A.T. during the hottest time of year.

Hiking the Smokys in the summer comes with a few certainties. You will encounter fewer thru-hikers, more tourists, and humidity that defies logic. We found the latter out the hard way as we trudged up the 2,000ish foot climb toward our campsite. Drenched in sweat, we made it to the site in late afternoon, set up our tent, and began drying out as best we could.

The site itself is quite nice and expansive, with several individual tent sites dispersed under a couple acres of rainforest canopy. We had it all to ourselves this night, and fell asleep to the increasing pitter-patter of rain drops.

Camping in one of several clearings at Birch Spring Gap

Day 11: Destination Boy and Journey Girl

Relatively well-rested, we started back on trail shortly after daybreak. Throughout the morning, we realized our hiking styles on a backpacking trip are a bit different. For instance, my sights are always set on my next target for the day, be it a viewpoint or a campsite. Teddi, on the other hand, stopped every short while to admire the bold scents of a particular flower, the bright colors of a fungi, the ever-smaller salamanders we encountered, and the animal prints confirming bears and boars share the trail. It was only natural that Teddi quickly earned her trail name “Journey Girl” and, for the remainder of the section, I would go by “Destination Boy.” We even made a theme song, and belted it aloud any time Journey Girl thought a bear was watching 🙂

One of Journey Girl’s finds

We continued along on the cloudy, slightly less-humid day, pausing at Mollie’s Ridge for lunch and Russell Field for one last break before we headed for Spence Field. Water sources were limited due to a recent drought, so we were glad to see a strong flow at the piped spring a short but steep way down from our shelter. Yet again, we had the shelter all to ourselves. We watched the sunset through breaks in the trees, then curled into our sleeping bags for the night.

Journey Girl meets the green tunnel

This is the night we realized another stark difference between a seasoned backpacker and a new one: the ability to sleep, at ease, through the noises of the night. Those noises kept Journey Girl up nearly all night, partly in fear that a curious bear was nearby. While I assured her the likely culprits were white-tailed deer frolicking through the tall grass surrounding the shelter, I dared not tell her at the time that her instincts may have been right.

Days 12-14: Biting Off More Than We Could Chew

The difficult mileage, endless clouds, and sleeplessness compounded on our third day on trail together. We started our day with a steep climb up Rocky Top, greeted with fogged-over views into the abyss. Our long day of ups and downs continued largely in silence as reality set in. It became clear I planned too long of days that could accommodate both our hiking habits and abilities. Davenport Gap would be a stretch at our current pace. While we didn’t make any firm decisions that day, we settled in at Double Spring Gap with contingencies in mind.

Another shelter all to ourselves at Double Spring

We slept much better that evening and awoke in higher spirits and boosted energy. The hike up Clingman’s wasn’t too bad, with breaks in the clouds greeting us on the summit platform. We took an extended break there to contemplate our next steps. While our hearts were set on Davenport, we decided to end our hike at Newfound Gap the following day. So we rebooked our flights, arranged for a shuttle, and poked around the gift shop for a bit. Just as we headed back on trail, the skies opened. We embraced the rain with kiddish grins, and happily marched to Mount Collins shelter for one last night on trail.

So weird walking up a ramp to the highest point on the AT

Our last morning was certainly bittersweet. Countless “what ifs” ran through our minds as we hiked the gentle section of trail toward Newfound Gap. Nonetheless, we embraced those last moments of our shared hike, soaking in the experience of having accomplished it together.

Picturesque hike to Newfound Gap

We agreed: Destination Boy and Journey Girl will certainly be on trail again.

Saying farewell to the trail…for now.

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