Date: 2007-04-12
From: Siler Bald Shelter

To: Newfound Gap and Gatlinburg
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: clear sky

I made myself get up even earlier - a bit before 6:00AM = but my body was ready. My old bones find shelter floors very hard even with a pro-lite 4 thermorest. As I took my morning stop in the woods I could see the lights of Gatlinburg far down in the valley in the darkness. The rain had stopped.I got ready as quietly as possible and was ready to go not long after daylight at 7:00.The sky was blue and clear and the wind diminished somewhat. It was still cold. I started out at 34 degrees. But the day was beautiful!I hiked past the next shelter and said good morning to the guys there whom I knew: Carpenter and Ghetto blaster. They were impressed that I was already up and passing their shelter when they were just getting things together. (Old people have to start earlier as they are not as fast as the young.) I hiked up Clingman's Dome, the highest point on the AT at 6,643 feet. Sara and Andrew, It was interesting to me that all those blackened trees killed by the wooly aldegid that we saw when we were on top of Clingman's Dome 3 years ago have died and are snags. But now there are new firs coming and a few old ones that seem to have survived and it looks lots better.Carpenter (whose father is a Presbyterian pastor, by the way) and another two guys whose names I did not catch caught up to me at Clingman's Dome.From a little before Clingman's Dome and from now on in the Smokeys there are fir trees mixed in with the deciduous trees - looks more like home. The altitude of the Smokeys allows this pocket of more northern trees to survive in the South.I pressed on hard today because I knew I needed to hitch a ride at Newfound Gap into Gatlinburg and I did not know how long that would take. I only stopped for GORP and water breaks (and getting the obligatory pictures from Clingman's Dome space age like tower.) Ghetto Blaster passed me just before Newfound Gap and when I got there he and the two guys whose names I had not caught had a ride all lined up for me with a day hiker approximately my age. She is Ruby Slippers and is an AT hiker too. Her husband has done the whole AT and she has done more than 1,000 miles of it. She had hiked to Charlie's Bunion (A view spot on the trail) and her husband is helping a few neighbors go vrom Newfound Gap to Hot Springs.What a gift to get there and get into a car already waiting for me to go to Gatlinburg. Thank you guys for thinking of me and thank you Ruby Slippers for the ride to Gatlinburg and for knowing exactly where I needed to go.Now I am clean and my clothes are clean. I have the gas canister purchased from the outfitter along with 2 trail dinners. And, thanks to the good man at the Grand Prix Motel (They have special rates for hikers) I have my journals caught up. I probably won't add pictures until Hot Springs as the guy here was supposed to be off an hour or two ago and besides I need to go to bed - in a soft bed, at least much softer than a shelter floor.Tomorrow I will try and hitch a ride to Newfound Gap to continue my hike. Tomorrow's weather may be so-so and the two days after will be rainy. Oh well, the trail is what the trail is amd I cannot controll the weather. At least I saw some very beautiful views today both into North Carolina and into Tennessee.