Date: 2005-04-21
From: Derrick Knobb Shelter

To: Gatlinburg, TN
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: light rain

Up and gone early again (Bird chirp thirty), today we were to make three notable accomplishments on the trail. First we were going to summit the highest point on the Appalachian trail, Clingman's Dome at 6643 feet. Second notable was to pass the 2000 mile "to go" mark and third was to go over the "200 miles completed" mark. That is how it was on the trail, events were broken down that way. Either a particular accomplishment or some increment of measure. This day the "Downs" were extremely rough through this section after the Dome. It was a nice climb up there though as we slowly worked our way up the ridge line. Trail garbage was heavy here as well, cigarette butts everywhere (that was the cost for having a road at the summit). A simple lack of respect by those few, it pissed me off to see.    I personally carried out pounds of trash from Georgia to Maine. Everything from fire pit trash, empty bottles, containers and even at one time a Pink Flamingo. That is another story for sure. While hiking through PA I came upon a unusual site. Some fool(s) got together and decided to have a cookout/party right on the trail, literally in the middle of it. They built a fire, evidently cooked some hot dogs, drank their beer and left the trash. There were uncooked hot dogs, empty beer cans scattered everywhere, the pink flamingo, a busted ceramic figurine, all in all about 10 pounds of trash. I packed it all together and back tracked it about a half mile to the road.    At the Dome I ran in to quite a few fellow hikers taking a break. There was Red Wolf, OB, Cheesecake, Cosmic Turtle, Dandy Lion, Two Bears, Sundance Kid and two weekenders, Nichol and Jeff. We sat there enjoying the moment and watching the visitors walk by. You can tell the day hikers apart from thru hikers by simply looking at them plus, they smell good. Afterwards we moved on to "New Found Gap" and eventually hitched a ride to town. I lost contact with Tal this day basically because he left the shelter later then I. During this section OB, Cheesecake, Red Wolf and I hiked together, on and off, for the rest of the day. I was at the Gap first, followed by Red Wolf and then all of a sudden Cheesecake came running in and said, "Something is wrong with OB, he said he couldn't take another step and then he collapsed". We left our packs with other hikers and off we ran. He was only about a 1/2 mile back when we found him. He was back on his feet and walking towards us (with his backpack on his back). I asked him if he was all right and he said he just ran out of energy (like I said it was a rough down hill section). I advised him to dump or drink all the water he had on him to lighten his load, we were heading to town anyway and it would make the load lighter (it made sense). He did so, thanked me and we moved on together. I asked but, he would not let me carry his back pack. Later at Trail Days he re-told the story about how we came to his rescue to my daughter (Shannon) who came to visit me there in VA. (Thanks for the kind words OB).   It did not take long to hitch a ride down in to town. The ride dropped us off at the Visitor Center near the edge of town. We sat there while we waited for Red Wolf's wife to show up with her car. She was in town and the two of them were planning on taking a few days off the trail. We listened to a "three person" live band that played good local mountain music. There was even a fiddle in the group and their voices were beautiful to say the least. One ol' boy was a former Duece man (82nd Airborne Division Paratrooper) as was I. We talked for a bit and then they played some more. Extremely peace full there, the calm before the storm.    That night I stayed at the Grand Prix hotel there in Gatlinburg, TN. The trail through the Smokies meanders between the two states of NC and TN for quite a ways. Go off the trail to the left your in TN, to the right then you are in NC, we went left that day. It was a bit expensive there in town but, I did receive a hiker discount for the cost of the room and I was thankful. I was hoping Tal would show however, he did not so I spent the night in the room alone. Pizza, beer, hot shower and a soft bed plus the TV, no complaints from this tired old man. The weather reports did not look good (lightning again) and I was concerned for my friends that were still out there. It was an 18 mile tough day, the hardest yet. Now it seems the weather was going to be an issue.