Date: 2008-03-13
From: Derrick Knob

To: Gatlinburg
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Headed out before the sunrise and took some great pictures as it came up on a beautiful day. Today Klingmans Dome was on the agenda. Unfortunately it would be the last thing on the list to do today. You see I am a morning person and I like to accomplish the hard stuff in the morning and have the easy stuff at the end of the day. Out here you take what you get. I could change up how many miles I do in a day and make the Dome first thing in the morning but that wouldn't allow me to meet my goal of seeing Johnna in Harpers Ferry.Lots of birds chirping this morning as I got started. It has been a very nice day weather wise. Had some weird dreams as of late and last nights dream had the health department quarantining my shelter for 3 days and I went stir crazy as I couldn't leave the shelter and there isn't much to do at a shelter let alone for three days.8:53 Klingmans Dome 7.3 miles ahead. Should be there by 1pm and will be able to talk to the kids while I eat lunch.10:05 Siler Shelter10:30 took a break and I removed my pant legs from the zip off pants I have and found that it was much easier to do the climbs with them off. I shall be hiking everyday without them. (I did just that until I got into tick country)Terrain changed from hard woods to cedars. The cedars had a lot of moss and was a welcome change in scenery.Ran into SOBO Skipper, he had to get off trail to help his wife who just had surgery. He returned to the trail in Feb. One thing I noticed was that Skipper didn't have any trecking poles. Nice thing about SOBOs is you get to know where people are. Brer Rabbit did 29 miles the other day thru the smokies that is AWESOME. Go Brer Go!! I don't think I'll see him again.The hike up to the Dome was brutal. I had in my mind that around the next bend was going to be the dome. Little did I know that around the next bend I would see that the dome is actually on the next mountain over. That took the wind out of my sails. It's amazing how your mind plays such a BIG part in how your are feeling. I haven't done many miles up to that point but once I found that the dome was on the next mountain that just zapped all the energy out of me. I did reach the dome at 1pm and I was unable to find any cell coverage. There was a lady at the top of the dome and she checked her phone and she didn't have any coverage either. Down to New Found Gap we go.On my way to New Found Gap to hitch a ride into Gatlinburg. This was not on the agenda today but I decided that I needed some more Carbs in the diet and not so much of the protein bars. While I was walking to NFG(new found gap) I remembered a story that was told to me. There was a guy back at Cloud 9 that was doing his wash and he put all his cloths into the wash and was waring a robe that Cloud 9 supplied. While he was waiting for his cloths the rest of the hikers were rounding up a town trip. The robed hiker needed to run to town as well so he climbed into the car with his robe on. He did his shopping around town and when everyone was finished he still had some things to do so he stayed in town when the rest of the hikers went back to cloud 9. This robed hiker managed to hitch a ride back to cloud 9 with his robe on. That must of been a site.2:51 ran into the ridge runner Jim Moran I believe.The blow downs between Klingmans and NFG were unbelievable. There must of been close to 100 trees down. The trail maintainers have been working really hard through this section for a few years. I came across my first stile. This stile is not on private land but in the Smokies that was used to keep the wild pigs from damaging other parts of the forest.Made it to NFG and took some pics then tried to get a ride to Gatlinburg. It took about 10 minutes but a nice guy and gal from Mississippi allowed me to jump into the back of their white Ford pickup. They also gave a couple young kids a ride down the road a few miles. I believe the trip was like 10 miles to Gatlinburg. Once in Gatlinburg I stayed at the Days Inn where my tub wouldn't drain. I found the KFC behind the motel and a grocery store next to the gas station. All this on the same block and that is the first block into town.