Date: 2004-03-23
From: Fontana Dam

To: Mt Collins Shelter
Miles today: 35.8
Weather: clear sky

"The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness" William SaroyanThis is going to be a long entry that covers the past few days. It has been so cold that the pocketmail doesn't work, let alone my fingers working enough to type.A few milestones passed in the last few days. Our first night in the Smokies saw us staying at Mollies Ridge Shelter. When you leave the shelter and start up the Trail again, there is less than 2000 miles to go. Cold. Did I mention how damned cold it was? That same first night: 'Welcome to the Smokies' - a minimum temperature overnight of 15.6F. Hang on though, it was still only that same temperature at 9am! Tell me it wasn't hard getting out of the sleeping bag that morning! The temperature high for the day was 32F - that is ZERO in my calculations... bloody cold by anyone's standards! 'Welcome to the Smokies'...Yesterday saw us crossing the highest point on the Appalachian Trail - Clingman's Dome, topping out at 6643ft. They say that only 20% or so of thru hikers get a clear view from Clingman's Dome - we are a part of that 20%! What a magnificent day! Sunshine, warmth (well, better than the previous days). Our plan had been for Heather's dad to meet us at Clingman's Dome carpark (yes, some people actually choose to drive up there on the paved road rather than hike up - how silly). He was then going to take us to their holiday home in Gatlinburg. The one thing we hadn't counted on was the fact that the road to Clingman's doesn't open until the 1st of April, and even that is weather permitting.Luckily for us, a group of Spring Breaker's who had a mobile (sorry, cell) phone enabled us to get in contact with Heather's dad. Problem solved. We would hike the 3.9 miles to the next shelter, stay there and then head to Newfound Gap where we could meet him. In the meantime, Heather's dad (Jim) had been working on it at his end of the deal: he could organise to get us down from Clingman's Dome in a police car, but they couldn't get us back the next day. This would have meant missing out on 7.9 miles of the Trail, something that didn't sit well with any of us, so to the shelter it was.We hadn't counted on the Appalachian Trail turning into the Appalachian Glacier on the backside of Clingman's Dome though. The Trail was literally a frozen river of ice. Not a recent freeze either. Made it easy to see why the road would be closed. It was just like walking on the footpaths in Russia all over again. At least this time we had rocks and tree roots to stand on. I never thought I would be pleased to see those!We also stepped foot into Tennessee in the past few days (we have been walking along the North Carolina/Tennessee border for a good majority of the Smokies) which marks our third state. Only 11 to go! Some tips for hiking 'The Smokies' in March: DON'T! Don't believe people when they tell you that "once you get passed Mollies Ridge Shelter it becomes nice rolling hills. Don't bother looking at the profile maps - you know you are going to have to go over the damned thing anyway and sometimes it's better not to know what it looks like beforehand. Know that it is going to be cold...find a way to stop your water bag/water treatment from freezing.... take some sort of crampons for walking on the ice.... remember that The Smokies only last for 71.6 miles....