Date: 2009-03-09
From: Double Springs Shelter

To: Newfound Gap (Gatlinburg TN)
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: few clouds

We made it into Gatlinburg tonight, to the Grand Prix Motel. It wasn't easy, but nothing is easy on the trail. Last night was great. The eleven of us at the shelter gathered around the campfire for a night of trail friendship. Garage Man, and his wife, Pound Hound, Rail, Hot Chocolate, E, and four others who we can't remember names for. We had a hiker rain (at night, but over by morning) and woke up to an overcast and foggy morning. The temperatures were around 50 and we were too warm in our zero and 15 degree bags. Unusual to complain about being too warm in the Smokies in March. We were on the Trail at 0830 (Daylight Saving Time). During the climb toward Clingmans Dome, the clouds blew away. We had a clear sky by the time we reached the trail junction 0.3 miles before the summit. At the junction we misunderstood the trail signs and ended up going down a bypass trail around Clingmans Dome. By the time we realized our eror we had gone about 0.4 of a mile downhill and lost about 40 minutes and precious energy on what would be a long, difficult day. Back at the summit, Rocky took some pictures from what is the highest point on the Appalachian Trail. We met E there, as the others in our shelter group had all passed us.Starting down from the summit of Clingmans Dome was treacherous, due to ice patches. We had to bypass parts of the trail by bushwacking past the icy sections. After we got past the worst of the icy sections, we had to contend with the mud in the trail. The hike became a mud-slog. Much of the AT in the Smokies is depressed 6 inches to two feet below the surrounding ground, due to years of wear and erosion. This is where the water and mud collects. It is exhausting to try to avoid the mud, so soon our boots were covered in mud.The temperatures climbed into the 60s during the course of our hike. We reached what we thought was the summit of Mt. Collins about noon, so we stopped for lunch and much needed rest. After lunch we found we had been on a false summit and still had 1/2 mile to the summit. After Mt. Collins the trail is mostly downhill to Newfound Gap. So we continued to slog our way down the trail. We reached Newfound Gap at about 1700 (5 pm, Rocky doesn't like military time). After we took some pictures at the Gap, we approached a very nice Asian-American couple who gave us a ride into Gatlinburg. On the way down, Rocky, who is the biggest advocate for the Appalachian Trail, told our Trail Angel couple the joys of AT hiking. She may have found converts.In Gatlinburg we were dropped off near the Happy Hiker outfitter. We expected to ask for directions to the very hiker friendly Grand Prix Motel. Unfortunately the outfitter closed at 5 pm, so it took some time for us to locate the Motel. Once there, we checked into our very nice room for about $44 (includes tax). Swamp Fox has very nice memories of a two day stay here in 2005 (while Rocky was slogging through 18 inch snow drifts in the Smokies).We had to do laundry first before we could go out and get something to eat. We have too many things to do here before we can get back to the trail, so we will probably be taking a zero here tomorrow. Our beaten up bodies can use the rest also. The drawback is that we will lose a good weather day tomorrow, with bad weather predicted for later in the week. However, we will enjoy this nice comfortable bed tonight.