Date: 2015-04-18
From: Derrick Knob Shelter

To: Mt Collins Shelter
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: overcast clouds

We broke the 200 mile mark today, just a hair after Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the AT. And we had sun today, so there are lots of things to celebrate.It rained most of the night but was clear this morning and Fiddler insisted there was a sunrise, but I told him it was just a fake-out again. It turns out he was right though and the morning hiking weather was really nice. The mud still made for very slow going, especially where the top layer of mud was separate from the layer underneath and you ended up as if walking forwards on a backwards moving escalator. I.e. not making a lot of progress. But I did have a whole bunch of views so I thought the Smokies were actually redeeming themselves. Fake -out alert! I had lunch at Double Spring Gap shelter, which was the first shelter I saw in the Smokies that had a privy. This may not sound like an important detail, but trust me that a privy is vastly preferable over a so-called 'toilet area'. And that's all we'll say about that. It was another couple of hours to Clingmans Dome and the sun was now gone but there were still lots of views. When I did get to the road that leads to the tower on top of Clingmans Dome , there was a family just passing who looked at me as if I was some strange Creature of the Woods. They asked me a few questions about where and when I started and such. Three women nearby had heard and asked if they could take their picture with me. I warned them I was stinky but they were undeterred. So I had my little celebrity moment at Clingmans Dome . It was another 3.7 miles to the shelter partly because this shelter is 0.5 miles from the AT! But there are no good alternatives given our starting point of the day so we sucked it up. And it's a nice shelter, with Cap, Goose (of Traveling Circus fame), Double Back, Star Crunch, fellow trail journalists BonBon, Sea Shell and Whoopie Cat and a bunch more people from the last couple of nights.Sadly but predictably, it started raining, then pouring the last half mile to the shelter. I learned my lesson 2 days ago and put on not only my rain jacket but also the pants and was very happy I did.The shelter wasn't quite full yet but lots more were expected again, so I tented again. I slept well last night but I think tonight will be significantly colder so hopefully I'll be ok.My feet are in sad shape at the moment, from having been soaked all day for three days running now. The skin on the soles of my feet are getting cracked and it's painful. Bonbon gave me some lambs wool and tape to put on the sore spots and it feels good. I think it will be ok to Newfound Gap, since that is only 4.5 miles (plus that blasted .5 of course). After changing my mind about every ten minutes about bailing/not bailing to Gatlinburg, we have now decided to go. We can get a ride with a friend of Cap and Goose who is visiting for a couple of days and we'll probably take a shuttle back. I did have good reception early today when I was getting up on the ridge so I got all the guest book comments. Thank you all again! I will try to respond when I'm zeroing in Gatlinburg but I wanted to mention that it's a lot easier to do so if there is an email. I don't often have enough of a connection to go online but email gets through more easily. Just in case anyone posted anything I should respond to!There's a 100% chance of rain tomorrow. At least we know what to expect!Open map in new window