Date: 2014-04-10
From: Gatlinburg, Tennessee

To: View Entry
Miles today: 206.8

Hey everyone,Greetings from Gatlinburg, Tennessee! This town is a bustling little tourist haven stuck right in the middle of the Smoky Mountains. Coming down off the mountain out of Newfound Gap I was thinking about dinner and a cold one at a dusty old saloon, channeling my inner Johnny Cash. However, as soon as I rounded the bend and saw the 32-story "Space Needle" looming over the main strip I realized I was in for a different kind of town experience than the boy named Sue. If I had a much thicker wallet and a lot more time to kill I'm sure I could have a fine time riding the mountain chair-lifts, climbing the space needle, checking out Dolly World (Dolly Parton's theme park down the road), or perusing one of the several Ripley's attractions. As it stands I'll make my escape with what little money I have back to the area's original tourist attraction, the enchanting Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Getting through these mountains is considered one of the major milestones of the trail, and for good reason. It is definitely some of, if not the, toughest terrain south of the White Mountains, and a large percentage of hikers drop out before completing this section. It is also the highest terrain on the trail, 2000-3000 ft higher than most of the trail. Yesterday alone I broke the 200 mile mark and summited the tallest peak on the trail, Clingman's Dome, at 6,643 ft. The scenery at this height is pretty unique for the trail so far, as well. I've been hiking through beautiful evergreen forests of spruce and fir that are typically found in higher latitudes. The lichen that covers the most of the deciduous trees below has given way to a carpet of lush, deep green moss. A lot of the hikers from the north are commenting on how much it reminds them of home, but for me its a strange, enchanting landscape. There have also been some pretty wild meteorological conditions. The past couple of days I have hiked through some strange flash ice storms. While I estimate that the temperature around me has been well above freezing, a cold, wet breeze will occasionally blow in and condense right before my eyes into over an inch of ice on the branches above me. Its pretty awesome looking until it falls on your head as you walk underneath. Yesterday the ice formed and fell so many times that there was about two inches of fallen ice on the ground in places. While the beauty of the Smokies has been unmatched so far, there are a couple of draw backs to hiking here. For one, you have to stay in a shelter every night, which means sleeping on a wooden floor. A month ago I wouldn't have thought this a major issue, but that was before I started sleeping in a hammock. As it stands now I can hardly sleep on a pillow top mattress in town without yearning for my hammock, and wooden floors just aren't cutting it. The other issue in the Smokies is the restroom. Most shelters elsewhere on the trail have privies (outhouses) for the moving of bowels. In the Smokies, there is a sign in front of every shelter with an arrow pointing in the general direction of the "toilet area". It is not the going in the woods that bothers me, I have gotten plenty used to that. But the high concentration of poorly dug cat holes (poo must be buried 4-6 inches below ground) can make traversing the toilet areas highly precarious. I totally understand why hikers are required to sleep in shelters. Given the high volume of visitors to the park it would be quite taxing on the environment if everyone pitched a new camp site every night. I'm a little less sure as to why they don't allow privies. For one thing, the privies use mulch, leaves, worms, and assorted other decomposers to turn the human waste into fertile soil, which I would have thought served as a boon to the natural environment. Privies also keep hikers from digging up the soil and roots around plants for their cat holes. Well, there is somebody out there who gets paid to figure out how we can use the restroom while doing minimal damage to the environment and who am I to argue with their methods. All things considered, these are two very minor inconveniences that I am more than willing to endure for 5-6 days of unforgettable hiking. Before I head back to my room I'll leave you with another interesting hiker story. I started off from Amicalola Falls at the same time as a couple of hikers from New Hampshire. I remember them vividly because one was a stereotypical loud yankee with a Bostonian accent that you could pick out of a crowd from a mile away. I remember his buddy because when he put his pack on the butcher scale in front of the visitors' center it came in at just over 55 lbs! This is easily the heaviest starting pack weight I have heard on the trail, and instantly made me feel better about my 41 lbs. I have since gotten to know both Low Jack (accent) and Snickers (55 lbs!) from hiking with or around them over the past few weeks. It is simply amazing that Low Jack is out here. In fact, it is amazing that he is walking. He is a carpenter by trade and has worked construction his whole life. Several years ago a stack of dry wall (if I'm not mistaken) fell on him, crushing his right leg and nearly ripping off his right arm. His entire knee and arm had to be reconstructed using veins, ligaments, tendons, and muscles from other parts of his body. It is a trip watching him flex his right bicep and then realize that it is actually muscle from his back. Both of these guys are absolute joys to be around on the trail, constantly cracking jokes and offering words of kindness and encouragement. It's pretty hard to complain about a heavy pack when you're hiking with a guy carrying 15 more lbs than you (mostly because he is a cook by trade and wouldn't sacrifice his gourmet diet) who is always in such a good mood he can't suppress laughter, hence the name "Snickers" (not named for the hikers' favorite candy bar). As far as I know Snickers is only a few shelters behind me and may actually pass me while I'm in town. Unfortunately, Low Jack is off the trail due to some family issues. However, if I learned anything about him and his attitude while hiking with him then he will be back on the trail and on top of Katahdin someday in the not so distant future.