Date: 2008-04-12
From: Mt. Collins Shelter, TN

To: Icewater Spring Shelter, NC
Miles today: 7.5
Weather: overcast clouds

It was still pouring off and on when i woke up this morning. As Strider and Tracer were leaving to head for Gatlinburg via Newfound Gap, I grumbled something about glucosamine from the mouth-sized opening of my mummy sleeping bag. Strider said they'd check for it at the grocery store in town. The rain stopped soon after they left and the rest of the day was clear and warm. Awesome.Crabby and I set off late since we had a pretty short day ahead of us. Again we were stuck choosing between 7.5 or 15 miles, so we chose 7.5. After a few miles we stopped to rest at Indian Gap, where the trail comes to a road and parking lot. After a few minutes of basking in the sunlight, some trail angels showed up and asked if we were hungry. They heated up some bean soup on an old Coleman stove and had made jalape±o cornbread and chocolate cake for us. They even brought chairs for us to sit in. Thanks, Jim, Kathy, and Josh! Jim is raising money for a charity called Summit for Someone, which provides a wilderness experience to at-risk inner city teens.We moved on to Newfound Gap, which was swarming with tourists. People came over to us a few times to ask questions and we felt like celebrities. I was on my way to the bathroom (with running water!) when I saw Strider and Tracer saying good bye to their ride back from Gatlinburg. They joined us in our resting spot (yup, resting again!) and reported that there was no glucosamine to be had in Gatlinburg. It was so nice there that we ended up staying about an hour and a half. We only had 3 miles left at that point, so we weren't in a rush.We finally left Newfound Gap and the trail continued to be similar to what we saw yesterday. Very pretty. I found out today that what I had thought were old growth forests are only ~70 or less years old. Apparently the whole area had been logged before the NPS took over in the late 1930s. On the way to Newfound Gap from Indian Gap, we had passed through an area that looked very different from what we saw the rest of the day. It was a Beech forest that was fenced in to keep the wild hogs from getting in and ruining the plant life.When we arrived at Icewater Spring Shelter there were already 7 people here. Four of them are from Kentucky and are just here for the night having a good time. Real funny folks. I helped them get a fire going, but the wood was pretty damp and the wind made it tough. Had it going good for an hour or so, though. They gave me some of the awesome jambalaya they made for dinner. Good stuff.It's supposed to get down to 24 degrees tonight and I believe it. It's pretty chilly out. Not sure if it's my sleeping bag or the Kentucky bourbon they Kentucky folks kept passing to me, but I feel warm enough in my tent right now.I called Tara earlier and she said ZigZag's doing pretty well with his agility class. Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You are! Yeah, you...oh, sorry. Anyway, I think we may have come up with a tentative plan for when Tara meets me in Shenandoah National Park. Can't wait.Tomorrow's hike looks pretty flat, so we'll probably do 12.6 miles to Tri-Corner Knob Shelter instead of the lousy 7.4 miles to Pecks Corner Shelter. I'd rather do the longer day toomorrow on easier terrain and leave the shorter days for Monday and Tuesday on the long downhills. Can't wait to get out of the Smokies so we can just hike however long we want without worrying about staying at a shelter. I don't really mind doing 7 or 8 mile days, just not all the time.I just looked closely at the map and can see how we've been weaving between TN and NC throughout the Smokies. It looks like we slept in TN at Mollies Ridge Shelter on our first night in the Smokies. Funny that we didn't know we had crossed into our third state then.