Date: 2016-03-17
From: Spence Field Shelter 

To: Mount Collins Shelter 
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: clear sky

Slept pretty wonderfully last night, had a lot of space to myself, what with five people in a 14-person shelter. The morning was clear and beautiful, and I could already tell I was about to have spectacular views all day. I would have to decided whether to do a shortish day to Double Spring Gap, or to push (as Timeout was planning) to Mount Collins Shelter, not only more than 6 miles further on, but also half a mile of the trail. The morning was full of tough, tough climbs, tons of up and down. The first big one took us up to Rocky Top. Yes, Rocky Top Tennessee, like the song. The view was beautiful. The AT goes through about the middle of the park, but you wouldn't know it from up here. To the north, there are only a few ridges before flat level plain around Gatlinburg. But to the south, the mountains extended forever, far beyond Fontana into Georgia. Timeout and I spent quite a bit of time just soaking in the view. Rocky Top is actually just a subsidiary peak of Thunderhead mountain, but has much better views (and also a better name for a song). The miles to Derrick Knob Shelter were very taxing, and I took a decent rest at the shelter. But the trail after the shelter was like night and day with what came before: the trail for the rest of the day until just before Clingman's was gorgeous. Wide and well graded. I was convinced I couldn't go on after Double Spring in the morning; this made me feel differently. I had been wanting to up my miles, and it seemed like I could make it. I ate some lunch just before the second shelter. There are only two miles between Silers Bald and Double Gap shelters, but they were very neat, heading along a knife edge ridge, one foot in TN and the other in NC! When I arrived at Double Spring, I found a whole clique of about 8 thru hikers. The only one I recognized was Honeybuns, whom I'd met at NOC. Most of my preconceptions about thru hikers have been incorrect, but these were just about the most stereotypical ones I'd met. They talked a lot about smoking weed, two were German, and one very long-haired, sunglasses-wearing hiker - appropriately named Dudeman - was giving Tai Chi lessons. They had been hiking together for a few days and clearly had a bunch of inside jokes, and didn't appear very welcoming. I talked to Honeybuns for a little and moved on. Apparently their plan was to catch the sunset off Clingman's Dome and then night hike to Mount Collins. Seemed like a bad idea to me. Four miles in the dark? The terrain got tough again after the shelter. The climb to Clingman's was serious, lots of steep steps. On a different note, there were suddenly evergreen trees for the first time on the trail! The tough, muddy trail, the rocks, the close trees and the water running down the trail made the whole thing feel like Vermont and the Long Trail. All the hardships were familiar and were comforting in some odd way. I spotted the observation deck from a while away, and soon I was right under it! I took the side trail up, deciding to bring my pack first because this is the highest it'll get on the whole trail and two because the wind was blowing hard and my back was soaked and I would've become even more frozen than I already was. There was a young couple up at the top who took my picture and asked me about my hike. She asked me whether I was cold, to which I responded, "Freezing." Out of the tree cover, it was cold cold cold. I Spose at more than 6600 feet, the warm sun can only do so much. Speaking of elevation, I think it probably made the hike even harder than it would've been. I was panting climbing Clingman's. The hike down to Collins Gap was very reminiscent of Vermont, and I sped over it. I turned on some music for the last climb of the day, and soon I found myself at the turnoff for the Mount Collins Shelter. I (and Timeout) had thought it would be abandoned, being half a mile off the trail, but when I arrived, it was already packed. A Ridgerunner asked me to take the last spot in the shelter, and having seen very few good tent spots, I was happy to oblige. There are two groups of section hikers here, and a number of thru hikers, including Thor and One Feather, whom I talked to while making my dinner. As the sun set, the crew from Double Spring showed up and made food and talked loudly. I stayed up and talked with Chloe the Ridgerunner (who hiked the trail last year with the name Vulture) and an older man known simply as The Natural. When I finally turned in, the shelter was packed tight and I felt like I might've been better off camping out. Oh well!