Date: 2009-03-25
From: Mt. Collins Shelter

To: Newfound Gap
Miles today: 4.5
Weather: light rain

The AT traverses 67.3 miles through one of the most visited National Parks on America. When thinking about hiking through the Smokies, visions of lush green forests, black bears, salamanders, and wildflowers dance in your head. The reality of hiking through the Smokies on a thru-hike, however, is nothing like what you might imagine. In fact, the section of the AT that traverses through GSMNP is often dreaded by many thru-hikers for one reason or another, the main reason being you are suppose to sleep in shelters. Sleeping in shelters is meant to concentrate use within an area, thereby lessening the impact to the environment. I understand this, but to discourage tenting in these areas by threatening to issue a $500.00 fine is ridiculous. Sleeping in shelters sucks. They're dirty, they smell, they're infested with mice, they're cold, and it is guaranteed that there will be at least one person who snores like a grizzly bear. No thank you. If I have to hike 12 miles the next day, sleep is a requirement. I'll take my chances in a tent. It should also be noted that every shelter within the park only has 4 spaces available to thru-hikers, the rest are for overnight visitors to the park. So, if we were to setup in a shelter with 6 other thru-hikers and an overnight visitor shows up @ anytime during the night (even at 3 am) they have a right to kick us out of the shelter if we're taking up space. That's our tax dollars hard at work, and thats ridiculous to. It is for this reason that so many of us don't want to deal with hiking through the Smokies. It may seem minor, but think about the days that you go to work on little sleep, and how it takes everything in you to stay awake and be productive. Out here is no different. When we wake up, we have a job to do; to walk from point A to point B with everything we need to survive resting on our back. Not walking is not an option. We are limited by the amount of food we carry, along with other supplies and must make it to our next resupply by a certain date. So, we have to walk on a lack of sleep as a result of those who snored all night and/or the mice and other rodents who consistently scurred by our heads throught all hours of the evening. And unlike the "real world" there is no Starbucks along the trail to stop by for a latte for a recharge.The other confusing and annoying thing about hiking in the Smokies has been the differences on mileages between points of interests stated in the thru-hiker book and the same points of interests stated on park signs and between park signs. On our second day in the Smokies, we hiked from Mollies Ridge Shelter to Derricks Knob Shelter. In between these two shelters is Spence Field Shelter where we stopped to eat lunch. According to the book, the distance between Mollies Ridge Shelter To Spence Field Shelter is 5.4 miles. According to park signs directing you North on to AT, the distance between these to points was 6.4 miles. According to park signs directing you South on the AT, the distance between these two points was 6.0 miles. And throughout our time in the Smokies this far, this pattern has repeated itself. So my questipn is how far are we actually hiking????? The Smokies isn't all bad though. On our second day, a whole new world opened up. We went from hiking in a monotonous palette of brown, sleeping forests to hiking on ridgelines of beautiful open green balds and fir trees reminiscent of the upper North West. The weather has also been spectacular; sunny and not to hot. On our third day, we hiked to Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the AT (6,643 ft.). There aren't any "feet on the ground views" of the surrounding mountains from the AT at this point, but a short hike to an observation tower presented an opportunity to see what we have hiked, what we will hike, what we have been and will be surrounded in. Pretty neat.By Tuesday night (our third day in the Smokies) the winds had picked-up and wind gusts of 30-40 miles were becoming more frequent. By 3am, it started raining. So, on Wednesday morning we packed up early, and made the 5 mile hike to Newfound Gap, called a taxi and made hotel reservations at the Red Roof Inn in Gaitlinburg, TN. By noon, we were both clean and fed, and by 3pm feeling rested after an afternoon nap.We'll return to Newfound Gap on Friday morning with the Tag Team and we should be through the Smokies by Sunday.