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Eastern TN // May 2023

SUMMARY 🔴

WHAT: A 2 night advanced backpacking trip in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern TN.

RSVP: closed

Open to Scouts who have been on at least 2 backpacking trips with Troop 13 and are prepared for the physical challenge of a multi-day hike.

DEPART: 6:30AM on May 27 from Publix on S Royal Oaks

RETURN: Afternoon of May 29 to Publix on S Royal Oaks

DISTANCE/ELEVATION: 22.4 miles, 6800 ft elevation

MEALS:

Sat May 27: money for breakfast on the road, lunch, dinner

Sun May 28: breakfast, lunch, dinner

Mon May 29: lunch, money for lunch on the road

COST: $68 for Scouts, $35 for adults ($33 discount for Scouts using OWNFOOD-GSMNP if bring your own food)

PACKING LIST:

Backpacking Packing List⁠

⁠

ITINERARY

This is an advanced backpacking trip to some of Tennessee’s best and most beautiful hiking trails over Memorial Day weekend. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) is the most visited national park in the entire country. Among other things this means that registration is a bit more restricted than many other places we go.

Our confirmed trek will start at the

Twenty Mile Trailhead⁠

, and hike about 22.5 miles over the next 2 days, including a mile or two along the famed Appalachian Trail. We’ll spend our first night at site 13, and our second night at site 113, returning back to the Twenty Mile Trailhead on Monday.

Tentative Notes (for future reference)

Registration for any backcountry site with GSMNP opens 30 days out, and with Memorial day being a popular weekend for people to be out we want to be ready to make a reservation on Apr 26. Our RSVP will be open through the month of April so that we know how many spots we need to reserve. Group sizes are limited to 8, so we need to know how many people are going before we register with the park. If we have 8 people register, we’ll have one crew of 8. If we have 12 people register we’ll probably do 2 crews of 6. If we have 16 people register we’ll do 2 crews of 8. And so on. The nice thing about this is that there’s not a strict limit on how many people can sign up. The challenging thing about this is we won’t know who’s in what crew until everyone registers and then we see what sites we’re able to get at GSMNP.

Several possible routes are mapped out below. Each trek will include a portion of the Appalachian Trail. When you register please note your preferred trek - actual trek assignments will be dependent on availability at registration time.

MEALS

See

🍽️Menu Ideas⁠

for inspiration.

Saturday

Lunch

Dinner

Sunday

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Monday

Breakfast

💰 Cooking Budget:

$32 per person

ℹ️ Cooking Note

We have 3 Scouts who need to cook for various rank/positions. Since we have 2 full sets of meals, we’ll split up the cooking duties a bit so that everyone who needs to cook will be able to.

MAPS & ELEVATION

GaiaGPS Route Overview

⁠

Troop 13 // GSMNP 2023 Folder from cpenner461 www.gaiagps.com⁠

⁠

Summary: 22.4 miles, 6800’ of elevation

Sat: Twenty Mile Trailhead → Site 13

Sun: Site 13 → Site 113

Mon: Site 113 → Twenty Mile Trailhead

1: Saturday

6.7 miles

3589’ ↑, 319’ ↓

⁠

2: Sunday

8.4 miles

2230’ ↑, 3106’ ↓

⁠

⁠

3: Monday

7.3 miles

992’ ↑, 3385’ ↓

⁠

⁠

Other Possible Treks (for future reference only)

Trek 2: 24.8 miles, ~5700’ of elevation

Sat AM: Elkmont Campground

Sat PM: ~6.7 miles to site 23

Sun PM: ~12.3 miles to site 26

Mon AM: ~5.8 miles to Elkmont Campground

Trek 3: 20.9 miles, 7200’ of elevation

Sat AM: Cosby Campground

Sat PM: ~5 miles to site 36 or 37

Sun PM: ~10 miles to site 29

Mon AM: ~10.9 miles to Cosby Campground

Trek 4: 15.1 miles, 3500’ of elevation

Sat AM: Abrams Creek

Sat PM: ~2.3 miles to site 13

Sun PM: ~10 miles to site 15 (possible visit into Cade Cove on the way)

Mon AM: ~3.1 miles to Abrams Creek

Trek 5: 19.5 miles, 5600’ of elevation

Sat AM: Twenty Mile Trailhead

Sat PM: ~8 miles to site 90

Sun PM: ~6 miles to site 92

Mon AM: ~5.5 miles to Twenty Mile Trailhead

WHO IS COMING

RSVP list final as of 8PM Apr 26.

Scouts (6)

Adults (2)

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