Climbing Charlie’s Bunion

May 19, 2025

During the night, my sleeping pad kept leaking and going flat. I had to keep blowing it up all throughout the night and kept getting occasional shivers. I awoke in the morning pretty abruptly when I heard the words “bear” and “bags.” I tore out of my tent to see if I was the unlucky person whose bag the bear decided to tear into. All of our food bags were on the ground, still attached to the bear hang cables. However, the “bear” only ran off with one bag and took the stove out of it. Therefore, we concluded that someone likely stole someone’s stove because a bear would have tore through all the bags on the ground.

I had a pretty laid-back morning and stayed close to “Atlas,” “Thirsty Boy,” and “Alpha.”” I went up to Charlie’s Bunion and was met with a breathtaking view of the clouds rolling in. I have yet to see any bears while in the Smokies. I passed Atlas taking lunch, and then I took lunch at Eagles Rock. It was very mossy and there was lots of downed wood. I walked up Laurel Top after the bunion.

The shelter was packed when I arrived. I met Don’s wife at the shelter (who gave me a hitch into Gaitlynburg). Alpha, 6-String, Poptart, Atlas, and Thirsty Boy showed up. We all got some bad vibes from some people at the shelter, so we opted to camp further up the trail in a little meadow away from the shelter. Two guys in their 30s hanging around a 19 year old girl is a bit strange, and apparently, some people have had issues with one of the people before.

I moved my tent from the shelter area and went to the meadow with the group. I had to go back down to make food and hang my food bag. I had ramen and tuna and hot cocoa with a candy bar. Atlas had a cockroach on her shoulder at dinner, and everyone stared at her with horror until she figured out what was on her shoulder before flicking it off onto a nearby tent. We could hear thunderstorms in the distance. The weather patterns are interesting. Sometimes, the thunder can be right on top of you, but the storm just slides past.