The Appalachian Trail - NC/TN Part 2

I'll just jump right in. Only a few minutes til I have to hit the laundromat.

September 25, 2006
Double Spring Gap Shelter - Icewater Springs Shelter (13.8 miles)

Finally! A good day in the Smokies! I love the Smokies. Have I mentioned this?

It was a rough night. The temperature dropped a good 20 degrees after the rain came through. We spent the night shivering and woke up an hour late because Tina's alarm didn't go off. We were covered in thick mist still, and weren't convinced there wasn't more rain on the way.

We left the shelter around 9:30. The trail started out pretty muddy, but the sun was starting to peek out a little. We started with a 3 mile ascent to Clingman's Dome. Only a few parts were steep, but we were sweating in our raingear. Still, I felt like I was flying and was disappointed that we still didn't break our 2mph barrier that has plagued us in the Smokies.

We got to the top around 11 - our first milestone of the day. Clingman's Dome is the highest point on the AT at 6643 feet. Unfortunately, they're doing some work on the tower, so it's only open on weekends now. The mountain was pretty socked in anyway, so we got a picture in front of the construction flags and the sign reading: "Tower close". A ranger took the picture and also mentioned to us that the Smokies had received about 5 inches of rain in the last three days.

Our other milestones today? We made it halfway through the Smokies and 200 miles!

We set off again at a brisk pace and had lunch near Mt. Collins shelter. By then we'd done 6.3 miles and it was almost 1:00. We left there at 1:30, donning dry socks - hoping that would spur us on. It did. We made 2.8 miles in the next 70 minutes, entering into heaven - a small grassy sunny spot on the side of Indian Gap road. We quickly laid out all of our things to dry.

The closer we got to Newfound Gap, the road crossing in the Smokies, the better the trail got. There were a lot of log steps and bridges and stumps over mud.

We hightailed it to Newfound Gap after our things got a little drier, took some snaps, used the bathrooms, then headed another 3 miles uphill to our shelter. The shelter is packed tonight, and we are lucky the section hikers made room for us. In the Smokies, thru-hikers are the bottom of the barrel - we have to sleep in tents if section hikers have filled the shelter. They are allowed to reserve their spots.

September 25, 2006
Icewater Spring Shelter - Tricorner Knob Shelter (12.6 miles)

It was a good hiking day. We were reluctant to get up after shivering much of the night. One of the guys there said he checked his thermometer at 4am, and it was 35 degrees. Now it's 46 degrees at this shelter and not even sunset. Brrr!

Still it was great weather for hiking! We walked along a ridge all day with frequent gorgeous views. We said goodbye to some of the guys from the shelter at Charlie's Bunion. They were a fun group. Plus we got some help opening our water filter, which was so dirty it wasn't working well.

September 27, 2006
Tricorner Knob Shelter - Davenport Gap Shelter (14.8 miles)

A record day for us! It was freezing last night and this morning, but it warmed up nicely as the day progressed and we went down in elevation.

Things started out roughly with some downhills on loose rock. I have two blisters on the bottom of my toes and the molefoam didn't help. But eventually we got into a groove and made good time. It was a mostly downhill day and we're sleeping 3300' lower.

We did a long climb on Mt. Cammerer. There was an observation tower 0.6 miles off the trail; we couldn't decided if we wanted to go, so we flipped a rock for it, and were happy when it told us to move on. Our day was long enough!

On the rocky downhill from there, my feet had had enough. Every step was excruciating on the blisters. So I wrapped the foot up good, and put a Teva on to hike in. It worked!

We have company at the shelter - a guy named Statesman who is doing the trail in sections. He's very pleasant and gave us some freeze-dried ice cream!


----OK, breakfast time! Don't know if I'll have a chance to write again before I'm done. Official ending date: October 21.