Date: 2012-10-24
From: Clingman's Dome

To: Davenport Gap
Miles today: 39.2
Weather: clear sky

Great Smokey Mountains 10 24 12 through 10 26 12Peace and I decided because the weather prediction was perfect and his skin infection on his leg was healed and my wrist was good that we would try to finish the AT in the Smokey Mountains. On Tuesday, 10/23/12, we drove from home in Derwood, MD, to Sevierville, TN, where we rented a car. We drove to Gatlinburg and checked into our Sleepy Bear Motel.We positioned the rental car at Davenport Gap where we left off hiking a couple years before at the TN/NC border. The leaves were absolutely brilliant yellows, reds, and oranges as we drove along the very winding Rt. 32 to get to Davenport Gap. Then we drove back to Gatlinburg where we had dinner at Subway.Wednesday, 10/24/12We left early so we could make sure we got finished hiking in the daylight. However, that made it dark when we were leaving and it took us a while to find the trail at Newfound Gap Overlook parking area. We enjoyed the beautiful stars from the overlook and began our trek with our headlamps. And we enjoyed the views of the mountains upon mountains as the sun rose.I had lots of energy and thought the person who said the Smokies were ¢a piece of cake¢ compared with Maine was definitely correct. The terrain was easy compared with Maine. Not many rocks, roots and definitely very minimal mud which was pretty much dry. My backpack didn¢t seem so bad. Then we kept hiking, and hiking, up and down, up and down. The longer we hiked, the heavier my backpack got. By the time we were half way through our 15.7 mile hike for the day, we were wishing we had a Sherpa! Near the end I had to take some of Peace¢s weight so he could make it the last mile.We met Floater from VT who was a southbound thru-hiker who reassured us we were not far from the shelter. We were happy to finally reach Tri-Corner Knob Shelter where we stayed overnight with Chase, John, and Mark. Chase was a southbound thru-hiker from Virginia who began from Katahdin February 12th and has a journal at under chaseAT99 at postholer.com. John from Wisconsin was out for a 30 mile trek and Mark from TN had just hiked 23 miles. Ernie or Sgt Rock from TN dropped; in for dinner before moving on to continue to collect trail data for AWOL. We enjoyed our hummus, cheese and tofurkey sandwiches before brushing our teeth and hanging our food bag on the bear cables. We were happy there were no bears or other critters around, although I think there was a mouse on my toes once during the night.Sleeping was quite a challenge. The air mattress seemed to have less air than I remembered from our last overnight in VT so it was difficult finding a comfortable position. I used the large backpack for my knee support and my smaller backpack for my neck pillow. Besides everyone tossing, turning, zipping and unzipping their sleeping bags, at least three of the four guys snored. I finally gave up poking Peace to change positions to stop his snoring and just caught cat-naps as I could. As always, I enjoyed getting up to go to the bathroom because I saw millions of stars in the clear sky each time. I didn¢t have to use the headlamp for the first several hours as the moon brightened the woods.Thursday, 10/25/12We woke way before daylight around 6am as Mark was already stuffing his sleeping bag into his stuff sack. After breakfast and packing up, we were off at 7:30am just as twilight began lifting. We felt rested when we began our hike but soon tired with the pack even though the weight was slightly less with less water and food. I had extremely sore muscles from the day before, something I hadn¢t had the whole 6 weeks of hiking in VT and ME. Guess it was the weight of the pack and frequently taking it on and off.Horse riders suddenly appeared and I said how nice it would be to have a ride down the mountain. They were sympathetic but didn¢t take my remark seriously, of course. The next riders we encountered, I asked if they knew if anyone who we could pay to bring our packs up for us next time we hiked. The leader said there was a lady named Lucy Lowe who had a Llama pack business. He took my number to call me later with her number.When we reached Davenport Gap, we went to the Big Creek Ranger Station to try to register for our overnight backpack shelter reservation. We hadn¢t found the permit forms at the beginning of the trail and when I got cell coverage, the reservation clerk said we could register after the fact there. However, no one was there and we couldn¢t find forms again. (We later found the forms at the Sugarland Visitor Center after we picked up our car at Newfound Gap.) While we were at Big Creek Ranger Station, a postal worker gave us directions to Lucy Lowe¢s house and we left her a note explaining how we¢d like to use her Llama Pack services.Meanwhile, we drove back to our motel for a hot bath, had dinner at the Cherokee Creek Grill. They had delicious veggies¢buttered acorn squash, broccoli, spinach/spicy cheese macaroni, French fries¢cooked to perfection. Then we went to pick up our car at Newfound Gap. We stopped at the Nantahala Outfitters on the way back to get information about Sherpas and pack businesses. We left messages for A Walk in the Woods guide services and another Llama pack business. We reached Lucy after getting her number and learned that she was phasing out her business and wasn¢t available this weekend. We later learned that the other Llama pack business wasn¢t allowed on the AT. Walk in the Woods left a message saying they were unavailable but might help in the future but it would be very expensive. Friday, 10/26/12We had breakfast out since we only had 8 miles to walk today. We drove to Clingman¢s Dome parking lot, enjoying great views of clouds over the mountains. Most of the colored leaves were gone at the higher elevation over 6,000 feet. We walked .5 miles to the Observation Tower, then back to begin our AT hike down to Newfound Gap. We only had one long up about 1 mile or so. We saw Floater early on and gave him contact information in case he found anyone who could be a Sherpa for us.   We spoke with Jeff out for a four day hike and two 13 year old girls hiking ahead of their family. When we saw their parents, we assured them they weren¢t far ahead when asked.After we completed the hike, we drove the rental car back to the top to get our car. Since there was no parking, Peace went back to Sugarland Visitor Center to meet me while I checked with the ranger about the weather and horse pack options. He said it would be wet and cold with possible snow at the higher elevation. He showed me on the map that a horse trail comes directly across the AT where we would need to overnight at the Spence Field Shelter. He gave me numbers of horse concessionaires.On the way down the mountain, I picked up an AT thru hiker to give him a ride into Gatlinburg. His trail name was Late Bloomer because he was just beginning his North-bound thru hike. I gave him contact information in case he wanted a ride into the DC area from Harpers Ferry when he arrived. We enjoyed the pretty colors on the trees at the lower elevation. I stopped at Sugarland to meet Peace and we agreed to meet at the motel after I dropped off Late Bloomer at the NOC. Late Bloomer said he got a text from his dad saying there was a hurricane coming, and he thought it was in the Gulf, so I said I guess we didn¢t have to worry about it then.We agreed we wouldn¢t finish our Smokies hike on Saturday as we didn¢t want to hike in the rain and would wait til a later date, probably September next year. Nevertheless, I called the Cades Cove horse concessionaire and Rick assured me when we were ready he could take our packs up for around $200 to Spence Field Shelter and back down. We are now looking forward to our Clingman¢s Dome to Fontana Dam hike without heavy backpacks!When I called my brother to make arrangements to visit on the way home, he asked if we were leaving because of the hurricane. He then filled us in saying it was coming up the East Coast and we watched the news later to get up to date. We were then really glad we had already decided to delay the rest of our hike.After a hot bath, clean clothes, and packing up for the trip home tomorrow, we caught a trolley a mile downtown since we still had sore muscles and didn¢t want to drive through the very heavy Gatlinburg traffic. We walked the rest of the way checking out different restaurants, but without many vegetarian options, we ended up at the same restaurant, Cherokee Creek Grill again. And it was just as yummy with the same veggies. Then we walked back to the trolley stopping for fudge and ice cream.So, we completed 15.7, 15.6, and 7.9 miles this trip, totaling 39.2 AT miles in the Smokies. Only have 32.4 miles to go in the Smokies from Clingman¢s Dome to Fontana Dam to complete the AT there. Then only a few miles in Maine and we¢re done. Hurray!