Date: 2016-04-06
From: Fontana Dam

To: Newfound Gap
Miles today: 41.0
Weather: clear sky

We are still alive!I apparently have the worst phone carrier to have on the AT. I hardly ever have service on the trail.Day 21, April 2ndWe left Fontana and entered the Smoky Mountains on a cold and windy day. I find it difficult to take pictures on days with cold temps. So I don't have many pics from the last few days. We traveled nearly 12 miles this day in the cold wind. We made it to Mollies Ridge Shelter (MM 177). We spent the night in our first shelter. The other days we have tented outside the shelters. It was a good thing though because the wind blew like crazy all night and the temps dropped in the twenties. Later we found that some tents went down during the night at the previous shelter.Day 22 was spent basically going from one point to the other because the cold temps made it difficult to enjoy most of the scenery. However, we did get some good panoramic views from the top of Rocky Top and Thunderhead mountains which are over 5,500 feet elevations. We ended the day at Derrick Knob Shelter (MM 189). We were in the shelter again. We were fortunate that a couple of guys were there that enjoyed making fire. This shelter had a fire place, so a fire was nice. There was plastic sheeting covering the front of the shelter to help keep the wind out. This campsite was crowded similar to the areas from our first week. There must have been fifty people at this location. The shelter holds twelve people, so everyone else set up tents near bye. I will try to get a pic of an area to show y'all. It's crazy.Day 23 was a very good day. The weather was very good. We did 13.5 miles which included a climb of Climgman's Dome. This is the highest elevation on the entire AT which is over 6,600 feet. Also we crossed the 200 mile mark. Since the weather was good I was able to enjoy many views this day Also at the higher elevations we entered an evergreen forest for the first time. It was very nice. We made it to Mt. Collins shelter (MM 202.8) and set up our tent for the night. We had a few rain sprinkles, but not much. Again this camp area got very crowded. Tents were pitched in areas you thought could not be big enough between the trees. In the Smokies you have to stay in a shelter or tent outside a shelter if it's full. No camping is allowed in any other area. We had been in between bubbles of hikers, but our days in Fontana allowed others to catch us. So now we're in big crowds again.Day 24 We woke up in out tent to very cold temps. Possumhead's water bottles were partially frozen. It was colder than we had expected. Packing up the tent and ground sheet in the cold is not fun. And Possumhead couldn't drink her water either We finally got rolling about 8:30 with intentions to get to Newfound Gap to go into Gatlinburg for a break. Our original plan was to go straight thru the Smokies in six days to get it completed. However, the cold temps had worn us down so we wanted a break. It was only a five mile hike, but the cold makes it seen longer. We had two surprises on the hike. At about three miles we came out adjacent to a road and a husband/wife were there giving snacks and drinks. The lady, Dancer, completed the AT last year and wanted to share some magic with this year's hikers. Later we popped out of the trail at Newfound Gap and right in front of us was a church van with more snacks and drinks for us. These acts of kindness are always a joy to have, but when the weather/temps are bad and you get it, it's doubly good. After snacking we decided to try our luck at hitching a ride into town which is 15 miles away. We weren't having any luck. Then the church providing the snacks also had a van shuttling hikers into town. That van arrived and we were able to get a ride with it.Day 25 has been spent resting and preparing to get back to finish the Smokies. The weather forecast is not too good for the next few days. Up to three inches of snow is expected and temps in the teens are forecasted. This makes you second guess your reasoning to continue hiking. We'll see how it goes.It feels good to be lost in the right direction.