Date: 2004-10-21
From: Clingmans Dome

To: Derrick Knob
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: light rain

Got up at 6 a.m this morning, both Terry and I are very tired, we didn't get enough sleep. We went ahead and got our packs all ready for today's hike. We left the motel at 7:37 a.m. We bought some milk and drove all the way into Sugarlands Visitor Center, got our overnight permits. Had our breakfast, Drove up to Clingmans Dome. Started on the trail at 9:30 a.m. We were up at the Clingmans Dome Tower at 10 a.m. We started down the Trail South, and the trail was narrow and muddy and rocky. We had foggy, cloudy, and drizzly weather this morning. Talk to a guy on the trail from Houston, who said the Cardinals and Houston are tied, and we won't be able to find out who wins until we finish our hike. Not a problem. We made it to Double Springs shelter at about 11:40 a.m. Terry talk to some trail maintainers at the shelter, while I use the privy. Another guy hikes in from the Goshen Prong Trail, which is a hard climb. As we're hiking, Terry loses a lense out of his glasses, and has to stop and put his sunglasses on. When he puts his sunglasses on, the same lens falls out of the sunglasses. We sit here on the trail while Terry repairs both glasses with duct tape. Hopefully that solves all problems. Did I say that today was Thursday October 21st, well it is. Today we're hiking from Clingmans Dome to Derrick Knob. We got to Silers Bald at 1 pm, and to Silers Bald shelter at 1:05 p.m. We had lunch at the shelter and left there at 1:30 p.m. We went over a bunch of gentle knobs on the trail. There was even a lot of flat today. The Fall colors were very nice today. And finally we come down a steep section and arrive at Buckeye Gap. It's 2:45 p.m. We have not seen Chicks with Sticks or the old guys or anyone that we met yesterday. Maybe we'll see them at Derrick Knob Shelter tonight. We're taking it slow today because we had a hard day yesterday, and my legs are protesting. But it's only three miles to go to Derrick Knob shelter, so not bad. At 3 p.m. we are at Mary Ridge Trail. From there you go up and then down, and you think will the next mountain be Derrick Knob, but you go up it and down. You see another mountain, and think this will be it, but you go up and then down. I guess we're hiking slow today, but this was getting ridiculous. So finally at 4:20 p.m we get to something like Gregory Ridge Trail. It seems like you go up and up but at 4:30 p.m we are at Derrick Knob shelter. So there's nobody else here yet. It's one of the old style shelters, but they don't have the wire beds luckily, they have a wooden floor. So there's no benches or table, and we do have the chain link gate. And now we are both hear voices. So we didn't have the shelter to ourselves, the Chicks with Sticks show up at about 5. Jim from yesterday shows up after that, and they are expecting 2 more to show up later. They actually showed up before dark. Shortly after the gals showed up, a ranger came in with a another young guy. Heated words followed shortly after the Ranger said, ¢you better have your permits if you're sleeping in the shelter¢, because he was planning on sleeping in the shelter. The leader of the girls group, Jan is an outdoor guide. She's smarted off right away to the Ranger, about what she thought the rules were. ¢We don't need no stinking permit cause we are long-distance hikers¢. She didn't know yet he was a park ranger. He told her what the current rules were, but he was not going to try to enforce them. He is a Ranger, but he works in Park Education, not enforcement. We had a nice evening talking, and we were in our sleeping bags at 7:30 pm. One other guy showed up later and put his Tent up outside. Jim put his tent up, and we had 11 people in the shelter. The gals were a little bit noisy and wouldn't settle down. The Ranger finally told them to be quiet. They were ready to go to sleep and the Ranger speaking up, helped a little bit. By 8:30 p.m it was quiet, we got up at about 1 a.m. to go to the bathroom.