Day 22

Today was awesome. I left the shelter at 6:15 and made it to Clingman's Dome by 8. I'm so glad I waited until today to go to the highest point on the AT (elevation 6,643) because the sky was clear and I could see miles across the Smoky Mts. If my hardest day walking was a 10 then today was a 5 and the best day for feeling strong. Around every bend in the trail there was a new scenic treasure. Many of the hemlocks here are still alive and I love the mysterious quality of the light that filters through their needles. There were also Frazier Firs. (Both trees are doomed.) The ferns grew thickly everywhere and moss covered everything. Perfectly magical.

On Tues (the day it rained) it took me 10 hours to go 11.7 miles. Today it took 7.5 hours to go 10.8 miles.
And now I'm in a $29 hotel room in Gatlinburg. I've picked up my next food package, had a pizza, a shower and my clothes are washed. Yeah.

For the first time in my life I hitchhiked. At Newfound Gap there's a large parking lot with lots of tourists. I approached several people who looked O.K. And found a nice couple who agreed to give me a ride. Turns out he's a minister so I think I chose well. Getting back to the trail tomorrow is turning out to be problematic. There is a shuttle but it leaves late in the morning and it takes an hour to get back to the trail. Still working on options. The park has closed one of the four shelters on the trail northbound out of the park because of aggressive bears. So now I'm going to have to do two 16 mile days which is probably pushing my limit.
There have been interesting people on the trail but all have been only doing small sections. For three nights I shared a shelter with a Florida father hiking with his 12-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son. I admired their positive attitudes even when they melted parts of 2 boots and the father's hiking shorts (not on him) caught on fire while they were trying to dry them in front of a campfire. He just said to his kids: "Well we're learning how to dry clothes in front of a fire. And it is kinda funny."

Virtually everyone has been very friendly. Almost all have seen bears and rattlesnakes on the trail but I've only seen turkeys and deer. Twice I've heard what I think were wild pigs and I've followed tracks so fresh they were still warm. Well truthfully I'm not sure I can tell the difference between pig and deer tracks. The floor of the woods sometimes look like someone dug it all up with a shovel. Pigs are very destructive. Some hikers are more afraid of them than bears because they are unpredictable.

I've reached two milestones: I've now walked 206.8 miles which puts me just under the 2000 mark. (1977.4 miles to trail's end), and Gatlinburg is where Bill Bryson gave up walking the whole trail. (He wrote the most famous book about the AT. Later he did a few section hikes on the trail.). So I feel more than a little pride that I walk tomorrow.
 
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone, powered by CREDO Mobile.