april 3 - standing bear hostel

April 3 was a good day, it was the day we crossed the border line of the smokies and we arrived at standing bear farm, a hostel. We woke up early because we wanted to get to standing bear very early, then enjoy the entire rest of the day off. It was only 4 miles to standing bear, so we left at about 8am. It was a pretty easy and nice hike to standing bear. Started downhill, we crossed over davenport gap then walkecd along a stream, then steep downhill past the stream and water falls. then we crossed a brisge over a river, then under a highway overpass. A few more hills and we made it to standing bear. Right before standing bear we found dump truck and clever girl and a few others packing up their campsite before heading to standing bear. Dump truck invited us to stay at the cabin hes renting in hot springs on saturday night. Saturday is also his bday. When we got to standing bear the first thing i did was find the resupply shop. The shop at standing bear is more of a hiker pantry than a shop. You keep tabs of everything you take, then leave the envelope full of cash in a wooden box in the shop. Its all based on an honor system, which hikers generally obey. In the first 1.5 hours of me being at standing bear, i ate about 3000 calories. I just kept going back to the shop to get more food. Another box of mac n cheese, a frozen pizza, sardines even. Despite that, it was still a productive day. I led mcjetpack through a 1 hour stretching session, and i cleaned some excess weight from my pack, some stuff i threw out, some i put in the hiker box, and some i sent home.