Date: 2013-05-21
From: Newfound Gap-Gatlinburg

To: Tri Corner Knob Shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: few clouds

Day 18 - Tri Corner Knob ShelterToday was a great day, full of trail magic and awesome hiking. The Voice, Rabbit and I went to an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at a restaurant near the motel. We ate a LOT of food, the headed over to the local outfitter (the NOC has a store in Gatlinburg), the posted up next to the stop light at the edge of town hoping to get a hitch. That's when our first bit of trail magic happened. A man and a woman approached us, and the man ask us if we were thru-hikers. We said we were, and he asked us to stay there for a second while he ran into the gas station. He came out a minute later and handed us each 2 candy bars, and told us how cool he thought it was that we're thru-hiking and that he had done some sections of it himself. It's amazing how giving people can be for seemingly no reason! We were all so thankful and thought it was super nice.   They then went about their way, and we turned our attention back to hitching a ride. The Voice and I decided that we need to start doing something more unique if we expect to get a ride. We considered making signs that read something "AT-Thru Hikers - Not Dangerous ", or something along those lines. Rabbit went into the gas station to buy a sharpie so that we could make this a reality, and in the meantime I decided to ham it up a little in hopes of enticing a passerby. When cars came by, I would grab my hiking poles and act like i was using them to trudge up a big hill, arms and legs in motion as i stayed standing in the same place. Then, as the car drew nearer I would stick my them out and give a cheesy smile and nod like "oh yea, you know you wanna do this".   I think it took like 30 seconds before a couple guys pulled over and told us to jump in. Sounds like we have a new plan for getting a ride. The guys were super nice and took us all the way up to Newfound Gap, even though it was well past their intended destination (our second bit of trail magic). Again, we were super grateful!We finally hit the trail at about 12:45, and the terrain was easy and the scenery was amazing. I think today's was by far the best day on the trail in terms of the scenery. The majority of it was ridge walking, where the ridge was maybe 10 or 15 feet wide, and there were views of the craggy peaks everywhere you looked. The terrain certainly changed a lot after we passed Newfound Gap. Pretty early into the hike we came across a spot called Charlie's Bunion, and I think that was the coolest spot on the AT so far. There's a rocky outcrop that you can climb out on, and it juts out away from the rest of the mountain so that you're almost on a little rocky island. Then it just drops off hundreds of feet on three sides and you can see forever. We got some really awesome pictures up there and we definitely didn't want to leave. However, it was then that we heard our first rumbling of thunder, so we decided to move on. It rained on us for a bit, but the storm passed after a little while. Later, another storm rolled in, but it stayed in the valleys below us (we were up around 6000 feet), and we had only mist and dark skies. It was only around 6:30, but it was dark enough that it seemed like dusk. It was around then that we began passing through these very narrow corridors of dead spruce trees and moss. It was so dark and misty in there that you felt you could be in some movie-like haunted forest. And when you would get through the forest and out into the grassy ridge again, you could look back and see the dark, twisted trees leaning out over the path that you had just walked.   It really was a unique experience. When we had about 5 miles to go, we encountered our third bit of trail magic. On a sign at a trail intersection, someone had left an unopened bottle of Captain Morgan - of course we couldn't pass that up! When we got to the shelter, we were sure to (responsibly) enjoy some of it, and I think we will continue to do so for the coming nights until it's gone. Talk about trail magic!   I think today was the best day on the trail yet!Today's song: "Hello Trouble" - Buck Owens