Date: 2004-04-21
From: Double Spring Gap Shelter

To: Gatlinburg TN
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: overcast clouds

From the Sublime to the RidiculousWe had an uneventful night in our stone shelter. Except somehow a mouse had found its way into my closely hidden snack bag and had cleaned out a granola bar. That and trail mix is their favorite. Also the wind roared like a freight train over the treetops, while somehow sparing us. I wake often, still not used to sleeping on a thin mat.We were out before eight and soon climbed up Clingman's dome,at 6643 ft. the highest point on the AT. Sorry, Mts. Washington and Katahdin! From the observation tower we could see many days back and ahead in our trip. Still hard to believe I'm really out here. Along the way we came to a fenced-in section of woods, with the intention of keeping out wild boar, which have become great pests. The woods looked a lot cleaner and "happier."Clingman's Dome with its head in the cloudsObservation tower at Clingmans' DomeView off Clingman's Dome At the 6000 ft. level, the woods came to resembled Maine's evergreen forests, making me hike all the faster!We made it to Newfound Gap, where a huge parking lot lets tour buses and motorists stop and look out over all creation.There we ran into Papa Smurf and his wife Flame, thruhikers in 2003. They were dishing out trail magic to over a dozen of us hungry hikers, then arranged for a ride into Gatlinburg for resupply and a night's stay.Trail magic and rides dispensed at Newfound Gap rest area I can't imagine a more jarring change of scene than leaving the quiet early spring in the high wilds of the smokies, followed by a descent into Gatlinburg, the "Redneck's Las Vegas." A six-mile strip along a narrow deep valley, with every variation of restaurants, freak show museums, tchotchke/souvenir shops, quickie wedding chapels, ole-timey photo parlors, and so it goes. All quite clean and scrubbed, with mobs of tourists walking up and down. And so did we, ending up bloated with beer and pizza, still not quite believing where we had landed. Mouse riding cat riding dog: you saw it here in Gatlinburg!Sat down and enjoyed a really fine bluegrass combo playing in the courtyard outside a pizza joint. Familiar tunes, wonderfully picked and sung, stirring memories in this ole bluegrasser. Hope we run into more along the trail.Bluegrass group outside Gatlinburg pizza jointNow it's time to run laundry back at the motel, and repack the food we bought for the next three days' hiking.Cast of characters over the past three days: T-Bot, Greybeard, a former thruhiker, now a trailrunner looking after a segment of the trail. Hugs, an irishman and Patches, his girlfriend.Machine and girlfriend Amy, a hi-tech couple from Silicon Valley out of work and not worried about it. They call themselves the "Beats Working Brigade."K-2, the PCV from central Asia.Spot, Fly and Dreamweaver, hiking together.Tarzan, Steve, and Party Girl, a young group hiking together.Trail Lore: Mollie's Ridge: named after a Cherokee maiden who froze to death looking for a lost hunter, and whose ghost still haunts the ridge.Spence Field: 100 acres on a hilltop cleared in 1830 for cattle grazing. In 1926 a man was murdered in a fight over liquor in a cabin near the present shelter.Back to the Motel for a quiet night.G'nite! Now-or-Never