Date: 2008-10-31
From: gatlinburg/newfound gap

To: silers bald shetler
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: clear sky

Its the last day in October!! so here is what I invented on the trail today... have you seen VH1's pop up video? it is sorta like that...we were walking down trail and there was this weird gate like contraption but it had 2 sllanted ramps on it, as i passed over it i wondered what the heck it was there for, i mean weve seen gates before but this was weird so 2 steps later there was a white sign posted on a tree with an explaination of what that ramp; thing was (by the way it had something to do with wild bore and preserving some thing beach???) anyway the sign got me to thinking what if life was liek pop up video? anytime you wondered about something say oh what type of tree is this or what is this fungus on the tree, a popup sign balloon thing would come up and give you an explanation or info...i dont know i guess they already invented the internet so it might be the same thing?waking up in Gatlinburg after a WARM nights sleep, it was hard to be motivated to get ready to go back out into the cold, we saw the weather for the vfalley and tried to figure what the temps would be up on the higher mts and we still were figuring in the 20's at night so we packed up went out to a great pancake breakfast and go a ride to visitors center wehre we got info on water (heard that the southern half of smokys was pretty dry) and saw the temps were going to be higher than we expected in the 30's at night!! yeah be/c this morning i was praying dear God please let there be a heat wave at least 30 degrees at night. so i sit in my tent cozy and warm tonight in my sleeping bag at over 5000ft, so great to be warm at night! sun was out today and melting the snow we hiked without hats and coats for the first time in a few days. so this second 1/2 of the smokys seems so different for us! of course b/c of snowy cold weather but also b/c we were on a lot of ridges where you felt and could see how high you were looking down a steep down on your right side and feelign the wind wip around you going over almost like a camel back hump so on narrow ridge to up to next top of mt then coming out to narrow ridge and up other mt felt like on top of the world seeing how snow and ice on only one side of tree as it blew mighty wind across we have been on ridges before but much wider wereh you didnt really know you were on a ridge just felt like in middle of a flat forest. we were also on the side of a mt alot so not at the top of the mt but just to the side of the top with a steep up on one side of you and a steep down on the other side of you. today we climbed up to the tallest pt on the AT which was clingmans dome there is a road which people can drive up so when we hiked to the top there was an observation tower peole were all standing on enjoying a 360 degree view different crowd around as most if not all drove up to the mt. was a nice view but we got back on AT and continued south for about .2 miles and had our own backcountry view of the mts from top of clingmans dome like a peacful private view as we faced south climbing down the mt. just trying to savor the great view as i know they soon willbe a memory for me as I now have abour 189 miles leftand only few short weeks though it is hard work im going to miss being out here! saw a lot of trees lying on there side with their roots sticking up in the air alwasy wonder how this happened and think it would be interesting to see it happen headr there is some bug out here killing lots of the trees, dont think this is what caused them to fall over but we are seeing a good number of dead trees around. after dinner walked back to tent to admire the bright orange sunset. so i started the day dredding the cold night but got my head on straight and remembered to rejoice in all things to see positives and be thankful for good things not focus on negative ended up realizing how much i like being out here ya wanna know an interesting thing shawna pointed out to me that was written in the guidebook??? well im gonna tell you anyway...so there are a lot of mountains down south that have been "bald" meaning when you get to the top they do not have any trees on them, a lot of them have nothing but grass which is actually mowed in some parts, but the great thing about these mts are the views that you get, 360 degree views! now these mountains are not what you consider"above treeline" or in the alpine zone so there are theories as to why they are treeless or bald (this is the idea from the guidebook....) so one theory is that the harsh weather conditions do not allow for the trees or plants to grow, another theory is that native americans cleared them because of religious beliefs/practices, and the other is that "spacemen" cleared the areas. and yes the book really does say spacemen! but you wanna hear my theory i think that it was the native americans worshiping the spacemen gods of harsh weather who used riding lawn mowers to get around. But who am I, Im just a hiker..."many men will drink the rain and turn to thank the clouds, many men will hear you speak but they will never turn around, but will not forget you are my God my King." 100 portraits, I Will Not Forget