Date: 2015-04-19
From: Mt Collins Shelter

To: Newfound Gap
Miles today: 4.5

Last night was probably the most miserable night on the trail so far. Though it is a close call with the night at Mollie Ridge. Maybe we'll call it a tie. It had started raining at 4 pm and it never stopped. Every item in my tent was damp, including me. I wore all my clothes inside my sleeping bag before I got warm and I had to take my socks and booties off and rub my feet warm too. You know how hard it is to reach your feet while you're in a liner inside a mummy bag? All the while trying to avoid touching the walls or top of the tent so you don't get condensation on you or your gear? Let's just say it takes some doing. Eventually I did get warm and semi-comfy but I still couldn't sleep. Fun times!It rained throughout the night and was still raining when we packed up and did our morning chores. I treated myself to dry socks today, knowing that we'd do laundry in town anyway. Of course the second you stick a dry socked-foot in a completely waterlogged shoe, the sock is no longer dry, but I cleverly was going to solve that problem by using a plastic baggy around my foot-and-sock. Sadly I only had one baggy so my left foot was out of luck. It did seem to help some but the trail was so wet today that my shoes actually looked clean at some point so even the baggy had to concede defeat.The 4.5 miles went by pretty quickly but our ride plan hadn't worked out so we had to either call for a ride or hitch. Did I mention it was pouring? Shuttles were not answering, not available for another three plus hours (by which time we'd have expired from hypothermia) or wanted 150 dollars. No thanks. Enter our first bona fide trail angel: Ben Frame. He wasn't even going to Gatlinburg but said he'd give us a ride. We threw our packs in the bed of his (extended cab, yay!) truck, hopped inside where he kindly cranked up the heat and we were on our way. It was still pouring and it felt much colder than the 54 degrees it supposedly was outside. Ben Frame, thank you so much, you made our day (and he refused any money we tried to give him too).So now we were in Gatlinburg and had to find a reasonable place to stay. Ben had dropped us in front of a motel and there were at least 5 more within 100 yards. I spotted a Starbucks so went to get coffee and tea for us all and when I got back, Cherokee had charmed the ladies at front desk into giving these three soaking wet, stinky hikers a nice rate for two days and we could leave our just as wet and possibly even nastier packs in their back room while the room was getting cleaned. Fiddler and I have decided that we will send Cherokee any time we need a room for the next few weeks! Division of labor, it's a beautiful thing! We ate a hearty breakfast across the street (still wet, mind you) and after that took possession of the room. It's not pretty when three wet bag packs explode their contents across a room.I showered and charged my phone and caught up, while Fiddler and Cherokee went looking for rain paints and camp shoes respectively.Oddly, there is no laundry facility in the downtown area of Gatlinburg. The nearest place is no less than three miles away, but there is a trolley that goes there. We had to wait (in the rain) a long time and then it took one change in trolley lines and what seemed like a tour of every single motel in town, but we did get to the laundromat. And Cherokee and I had fries at McDonalds next door while we waited on laundry. I haven't eaten their fries in years but it seems I didn't miss anything.So no we had clean clothes, were showered and some of our wet yet stuff had dried. Things were definitely looking up. For dinner, we had Italian and 80s music. And we have a whole lot of leftover veggie pizza.It started out pretty shitty, but in the end it was a pretty good day. Tomorrow we explore Gatlinburg some more. So far it seems to be the poster child of kitschy tourist towns. Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?