Backpacking Trip- Great Smoky Mountains National Park

OVERVIEW

***UPDATE***
Cancelled from lack of interest-better luck fall break
******

Hey everyone! I wanted to do a somewhat longer backpacking trip before the end of summer and have had my eye on the Hazel Creek/Forney Creek Loop in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, sometime between august 11th and 22th. I was planning on following the 56.7 mile trail described here, but throwing in an extra day to lower the daily mileage:

http://www.backpacker.com/trips/california/yosemite-national-park/great-smoky-mountains-national-park-hike/3/#bp=0/img1

Even with an extra day though, I’m expecting the trail to be rather difficult, so keep that in mind when you sign up. I translated their directions into this map if you want to see visualize where we’ll go. As for where we’re camping out, i’ll have to wait till I can figure out how many people are dedicated to coming and seeing which sites we can still reserve:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1Gpt2XzyBB8ZTdteHczWDJrLVU

Backcountry camping in the park requires permits and reservations, so I wanted to plan it out as far as ahead as possible. Once we have a dedicated group I’ll make the reservations and figure out the schedule/stops/daily millage. After that we can figure out food and gear. The park caps group sizes at 8 people, and some campsites limit it to just 6, so for right now I’m setting a dynamic attendee cap at 4 until another driver joins. Also, the listed fee is just for the backcountry permit. You’ll also have to pay for a week’s worth of food which can be anywhere from $10 worth of catfood to $300 of freeze dried meals. I’ll have an exact cost once we finish planning out the group meals but I’d guess somewhere around $50-$100 for food.

Sign up if you want to end your summer on an adventurous high note! Please be quick though, cause those campsite reservation spots are filling up quick.

If you have any questions, just shoot me an email at wsc6eg@virginia.edu