Date: 2008-04-05
From: Silers Bald Shelter

To: Newfound Gap
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: light rain

Did I ever mention that the shelters on the trail are full of mice? Everynight, once everybody goes to bed, the mice come out. We can hear themsqueaking and running across the shelter floors, and if they smell food, oreven crumbs, they will chew through your pack or stuff sack to get to it. Wehave to leave everything open so the mice can explore at will, withoutdamaging anything.One morning a couple of weeks ago I woke up and discovered that a mouse hadchewed a hole through the outer layer of one of my glove liners. Anothermorning I awoke to a chewed up water bladder mouth piece. I guess both ofthem smelled like food. Last night the mice topped both of those incidents,however, when one actually ran across the top of my head--TWICE! Yes, that'sright, I was sleeping in my sleeping bag, with my head under the mummy headcover, and I felt a mouse run across my head. It felt as if someone wastaking their fingers and running them across my head, except that no one wasthere. Everyone was asleep. It was really creepy. What if my head hadn'tbeen under the sleeping bag? Would it have run across my bare head? Would ithave run across my face?!? Other people have reported mice falling off the ceilings onto their sleepingbags, running across their bodies, and even crawling into their sleepingbags with them! I think I could've done without the more up close andpersonal experience with the mice. Now I'm going to be all jumpy in my bagat night; I hope I can sleep!Today was another long day through fog, rain, and wind. Two exciting thingsof note were that we climbed the highest peak on the entire AppalachianTrail, Clingmans Dome, and that we passed the 200-mile mark. Clingmans Domewas a bit disappointing, though, because it was completely fogged in.Looking off the side, all we could see was a wall of white in everydirection. In fact, almost our entire time in the Smokies so far, we havebeen fogged in. I'm really looking forward to the weather clearing so we canfinally get some nice views!After 12.5 miles, we arrived at Newfound Gap, a big parking lot and roadcrossing, where we were planning to get off the trail to catch a ride intoGatlinburg. It turned out that our friend Rodger (Corkscrew), who we hadn'tseen in a couple of weeks, (since he went home to Seattle for a few days)was back in the area, and was hanging out there doing trail magic! He hurt his ankle and was taking some time off, but he rented a car to come seeBrad & Aggie, and so when we showed up he was handing out Gatorade andsnacks to hikers. What a great surprise! He drove us the 15 miles intoGatlinburg and dropped us off at our motel. It was a lot easier thanhitch-hiking, which we might be doing to get back to the trail tomorrow. When we got to the motel we showered, but there was a long line of peoplewaiting to use the washer and drier, so we put on our least stinky clothesand headed out into the rain to look for some place to eat. We found a BBQrestaurant close by, ate, and then hopped on a trolley to take us to thegrocery store. An hour and two trolley rides later, we arrived at the store,which luckily was open until midnight, because we didn't get there untilalmost 10:00.When we finally got back to our motel, at 11 something and way past ourbedtime, the washer was finally free so we threw in our laundry. And then wediscovered at midnight when we took our clothes out, that the washingmachine was actually broken. It had taken our quarters and our laundrydetergent, and had run a cycle with no water. Our clothes were still dry,and as stinky as ever! The laundromat is all the way across town by the grocery store, and wouldrequire another two trolley rides each way, so we basically we decided we'reheading back to the trail tomorrow with clean bodies and stinky clothes. Beglad you don't have to smell us!Oh! I almost forgot about Eric's trail name! So... when we're walking downthe trail, Eric always hikes THISCLOSE to me. He says that's how he learnedto hike, and that growing up, he and his buddies would literally step intoeach others' footprints, right as they lifted their feet. I, on the other hand, learned to leave at least a full body length or twobetween me and the person in front of me. And I expect that much space to beleft behind me, as well. Because I have shorter legs and hike slower than Eric, I always walk in thefront to set the pace. He always walks so close behind me that we'repractically touching. Anytime I have to stop, whether to scratch an itch,get a rock out of my shoe, or whatever, he has to struggle not to run intome. And half the time he does run into me! I've tried asking him to leavemore space, and I've even tried jabbing my trekking poles back at him. Buthe always creeps back up! Brad & Aggie even noticed how close he wasfollowing me and thought it was strange and funny. As a result of hisinteresting ability to walk so close behind me, Eric's new trail nameis... Tailgate! He likes it and thinks it's funny. I wonder how funny hewould find it if someone was always running into him every time hestopped...?! :-) Hmmm. Tomorrow we're heading back out into the Smokies for about 3 more days, andthen it should be 3-4 more days until Hot Springs. I really hope we finallyget some nice weather and can see the mountains around us!