NC Appalachian Trail - Section 1 - Peck's Corner Shelter to Newfound Gap, including Charlie's Bunion

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/29/2022	10.9 miles	7 hours 12 minutes	2,677'		449.4

Parking: 

• One car at Newfound Gap, one car at Standing Bear Farm hostel

Maps:

• FarOut app
• National Geographic, Great Smoky Mountains National Park East

Directions:

• Hike on the AT northbound from Newfound Gap to Peck's Corner Shelter

Carolina Mountain Club Challenges:

• 100 Favorite Trails Hike #27, Charlie's Bunion from Newfound Gap

My friend Dian drove down from Virginia to hike the AT with me. She and I both are section hiking the AT and planned to backpack the northern half of the Smokies together. Glen drove me to Newfound Gap, so he could do the hike up to Charlie's Bunion with us.

I'm constantly tweaking my pack, and today's pack weight was around 21.5 lbs, including 3 days of food and 2 liters of water. Nighttime temps were supposed to be around 54 degrees and 58 degrees. This is getting warmer than my latest trips. For warmth, I used my xtherm sleeping pad, 20-degree sleeping bag, and had a puffy jacket and puffy pants. I didn't really need the puffy pants, but I did wear them the first night. I decided not to use a hot water bottle this trip.

When we started out, the trail was full of day hikers. Charlie's Bunion is a popular hike, so many people were hiking to this viewpoint. The out and back to Charlie's Bunion is around 8 miles with 2,000 feet of elevation gain. I loved the hike there, and would definitely do it again, though preferably on a weekday. Everyone had to wait their turn to hike up onto the rock. 

The terrain on today's hike, and for most of our trip was loose rocks. I found myself drinking a lot of water, and not seeing a lot of water sources for a stretch. I had better pay attention to water sources! Luckily we had a lot of rain last week, so some of the less reliable streams were still running. We walked along a ridge line, and had great views all day. The only wildlife we saw were brown squirrels and snails. No bears. We had many, many bluebeard lilies. I thoroughly enjoyed today's hike.

Peck's Corner shelter was .4 miles off trail. The water source was .2 miles from the shelter, so we filled up on the way down. My Be Free filter was not working....apparently I should be pre-wetting the filter before heading out on a trip. This is the second time I've had this issue. After the first night it worked fine. The tent sites around the shelter were either not particularly level or had a lot of roots. Luckily we found a spot for both of us to set up, on the way to the privy. So we got a lot of foot traffic next to our spot ;) But we had a quiet night. I barely slept, which is pretty typical on the first night of a trip. There were a lot of people at the shelter, most arriving later than us.

Bluebeard Lily (clintonia)