Day 28 - 28th April, 2010 - Standing Bear Hostel to Roaring Fork Shelter - 15 miles

We leave Standing Bear in glorious sunshine and discover a rare orchid the Pink Lady Slipper on our first ridge climb.

The view across to the Smoky Mountains shows the snow on the mountain tops - we are glad that we were a day ahead of the bad weather.

Snow on the Smokies in the distance.

We meet two photographers who are orchid fanciers, hunting for Pink Lady Slippers. They had not been able to find any, so we gave them instructions to find 'ours'.

White blaze on the post marks the trail

Our hike turns out to be much longer than we planned because there is no campsite at the 13 mile mark, and we need to keep walking past our normal stopping time of 5.00pm. At the very end of the day we find ourselves climbing Max Patch, one of the most exhilarating 'balds' on the trail. As the sun is setting we find ourselves on the summit of Max Patch, with spectacular views. It is a bald - this means a big round hill with no trees - that someone probably in the dim dark past has cleared, and now National Parks keeps mowed. I find this amazing - I can't imagine Australian National Park staff mowing a bare hill to stop the trees revegetating.

Alison on Max Patch

We arrive after 5pm and lots of locals are walking their dogs. There is a really biting wind, and nest boxes are placed on posts in very exposed locations near the summit. I laugh - what sort of bird would try and nest here in this howling gale? Lo and behold, an Eastern Bluebird sticks its head out of the hole from inside the nest box. Then we discover that Eastern Bluebirds are rare. We are excited to see it.

Crossing the summit of Max Patch

Descending from the bald to the campsite is a long 2 miles. We start the descent with 'Rawley' -  we later discover his name is actually 'Raleigh' - we just couldn't understand his southern accent. Rawley heads off so quickly and misses the trail turn. Digby goes after him to tell him he has misssed it, but Rawley is travelling so fast that he is only a speck in the distance - we decide that perhaps he knows a shortcut that we don't know.

We arrive at Roaring Fork Shelter - we are the first hikers there - it is nearly 7.30pm. As the evening progresses another 6 hikers straggle in, including Snickers and Samantha, a single girl walking with a beagle called Toaster, and carrying a Macpac the same as mine. It was the only other Macpac I saw on the trail. Rawley arrives having retraced his steps back to the missed turn-off, and there is the couple we met on Day 1 with the American Bulldog, who insist on lighting a fire to cook dinner.