Date: 2013-04-03
From: Double Spring Gap Shelter

To: Newfound Gap
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Day Twenty six - Double Gap Spring Shelter to Newfound GapToday is Clingman's Dome day and it is sunny and beautiful! The day started early I had set my alarm for 5am for Quaker and 7am for myself. Hobo woke me up minutes before my alarm went off and we all packed up as quickly as possible. It was cold! I waited until the last possible minute to check out the privy, the thought of putting my wet shoes on was not appealing! And then we were off! It was the day of ice! All of the water on the trail had frozen like a skating rink. At first we were all concerned any time someone fell but soon we were laughing out heads off and counting the group falls. By the end of the day we were at 19 falls (I think 3 of them were mine). It was cold but sunny and if it weren't for the ice it would be a perfect hiking day. As we crawled up the highest mountain on the Appalachian Trail (6655ft.) we all told ourselves that the other side of the mountain would be easier. At the top the views were absolutely incredible! We were all excited to reach this milestone! I have seen so many pictures over the years of other hikers reaching Clingman's Dome and it is so cool to finally be here! Sour Patch was there, he had woken up at 3am and hiked from the shelter before ours to get here to watch the sunrise! How cool is that! The path down the mountain turned out to be just as treacherous as the way up and for the first time on this trip I will admit that going down was just as hard as going up ( a lot of hikers have claimed this right from the start saying that the downs are hard on their knees but I haven't found that to be true)! It was still a fun day! We knew that we would be in town tonight so we spent the day fantasizing about food and what we would have for dinner and even breakfast the next morning. It's nice to be able to talk and laugh with other people while hiking. I thought the top of Mt. Collins (6182ft.) would never show up, I just kept walking up, up and more up in a zigzag. After ten and a half hours of hiking to only go ten miles we made it to our trail angel "September" and she is amazing! She had treats waiting for us and had already got a room for us at Days Inn. She had several restaurant choices for us and knew where the laundromat was. We unloaded out packs, had quick showers and put on the cleanest of our dirty clothes and went out to eat! Next up was laundry and I didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight. I was tired but I couldn't sleep. The room seemed way too warm and having caffeine at dinner after days without it was probably a mistake. Since I was up anyway I uploaded more pictures to Facebook and uploaded more journals. I think I can sleep now, it's 2am!I almost forgot! Every once in a while I am going to add a new section:Confessions of a Thru Hiker - A fellow thruhiker secretly admits to sitting at a shelter with some section hikers at lunch and as the section hikers moved on he noticed the boy had dropped a yellow m&m and without even thinking about it he picked that m&m off the ground and ate it!Trouble'If adventure has a final and all embracing motive, it is surely this: we go out because it is our nature to go out, to climb mountains, and to paddle rivers, to fly to the planets and plunge into the depths of the oceans.... When man ceases to do these things, he is no longer man' Wilfred Noyce