Date: 2004-03-23
From: Derrick Knob Shelter

To: Mt. Collins Shelter
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: clear sky

The plan today was to meet Heather's dad at the top of Clingman's Dome. There is a road that leads up there from Newfound Gap, 8 miles further down the trail. When looking at a map I found in one of the shelters, I noticed there was a little note under that road that read "Closed in winter".    Uh oh.    Someone offered their cell phone, but we got no service from where we were. So we planned to just leave the shelter hoping to find a pay phone at Clingman's Dome. Someone suggested the visitor's center which may be a mile down that road, but may be even further than that. We'll just have to do whatever we can. This is a really sucky situation.    Almost everyone was gone by the time I left the shelter. I kinda had to umm....well...let's just say, "do some business" but there was no privy. I figured I'd just wait til Clingman's Dome, where there supposedly is a bathroom. Hell, I could hold it for 10 miles.    I made a mistake right away. I didn't take the Appalachian Trail out of the shelter; I took the trail to the "toilet area." I guess God knew something I didn't. There was gonna be no holding it 10 miles. There was going to be no holding it 10 minutes. I suddenly felt a pain that told me I had to find a spot right now.    I looked around for a log to sit on and saw one about 30 yards away. I started to walk there, when the pain came back. And it was worse. I am not speaking figuratively when I say that this pain brought me to my knees. Yes, i actually fell to my knees. And then onto all fours. I had never felt anything like it before, and I was afraid I might have to do some laundry in a stream somewhere really soon.    The pain went away again and I whipped my pack off, QUICKLY found the toilet paper, and RAN to that log.    Relief.    Okay, so lesson for the day: "When nature calls, answer the damn phone. Nature doesn't like to be put on hold."    After that, the day contiued to be tough. I definitely have the hiker appetite now, cause I was hungry all day long. And physically exhausted all day. When I finally caught up to Arwen, Heather, and Nuffy for lunch, they had been waiting a while. But at least they had a good laugh at my crappy story.    We eventually reached Clingman's Dome after a lot of climbing. I pretty much kept up with Arwen the whole time and had someone to talk to, so the time went by quickly and the climbs didn't seem as tough. When we got there, we were lucky to find a group of students from the University of Maryland who were on Spring Break. One of them had a cell phone that we could use to call Heather's dad.    No service. What the hell are we gonna do?    Another student pulled out her cell phone, and we were in luck. She got ahold of her dad, and we planned to just meet them tomorrow instead. When you're that close to getting a hot shower, a good meal and clean clothing, it's really depressing to find out you're staying in the woods another night.    We had another 3 or 4 miles to the shelter, and it was all ice. The trail itself was a sheet of ice. We made horrible time, and I had my second fall. I'm surprised I didn't fall the whole way down.    It was that slippery.    Clingman's Dome is the highest point on the AT, and now we're done with it.    It's all downhill from here.