Appalachian Trail Adventures: 4/8-4/14 The Great Smoky Mountains National Park

4/5-4/7 I stayed in Fontana Village these days to heal up my injury on my heel. Pretty much nothing happened these days

4/8 After 5 days of not hiking I finally got back on the trail. As I walked accross the dam, looking at the great mountain range in front of me, I knew the next several days were going to be great. I hiked 13 today and my heel felt great. I met up with Jahmonji, Blazing Sandals, Hamster, and Redwood.

Fontana Dam

The Smoky's

Shuckstack Firetower

4/9 Today was such a gorgeous day. I walked along the ridgeline all day. There was so many views. Also, on a side note my hiker appetite had hit me... I am eating 3x the food I was eating when I started and I am hungry nearly 24/7.

Shelter Life

4/10 When I woke up this morning someone already had a fire going. I quickly moved In front of it when I noticed something moving in the ashes. It was a baby mouse. Redwood scooped it up in his mug and tried to help it. Several minutes later it started squeaking. Mama mouse came out and Redwood set the baby on the rock. Mama picked the baby up and left. It was a pretty good start to the morning. I finally got on the trail about noon. I walked only 7.2 miles to Double Spring Gap Shelter.

Clingmans Dome if you look closely you can see the tower

4/11 For some odd reason I found myself waking up at 3:30am. I decided to get ready and got on the trail at 4am. After only 3 miles I ended up at this place called Clingmans Dome. This is only the highest point on the entire Appalachian Trail. When I walked up the tower it was still pitch black out. I crawled into my sleeping bag since it was 30 degrees out with a 30mph wind. I sat there and waited for the sun to come out and when it did, it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced. After the sun rose I decided to get back on trail because I was so cold and hiking would warm me up. After only a mile I hit the 200 mile marker! I walked 6 more miles to Newfound Gap. When I arrived, I was treated with some wonderful trail magic from Godspeed and Mountain Momma. They also gave a bunch of us a ride into Gatlinburg. Now when I got to Gatlinburg I was not impressed. After being outside of society for a month I absolutely despised everything about this town.

Sunrise on the tower

Sunrise

Spruce Forrest

Newfound Gap

4/12 I stayed at the Econolodge with The Baron, Shorts, El Borrego, and Tortoise. We ended up having to hitch out. Since Gatlinburg is a tourist town we didn't find a hitch. We were actually picked up from the trail angel Godspeed. Once I got back to the trail I continued on hiking. I got to Charlie's Bunion with Blue, The Stowaways( Galen and Liam), and Green Lantern. It was Green Lanterns 19th birthday so we celebrated and then went to bed.

Tortoise trying to hitch

Charlie's Bunion

4/13 Today was pretty uneventful. I hiked 13 miles to Cosby Knob Shelter.

4/14 I left the shelter in the morning and headed toward the Mount Cammerer Firetower. I left my pack at the head of the side trail and literally jogged .6 miles to the tower. After I enjoyed the tower I headed back out on the trail and a couple of miles later I was out of the Smoky's!!! I made it to Standing Bear Farm and had a pizza. When I left I headed up Snowbird Mountain. When I got there, there was a canopy set up. I was exhausted so I set up my hammock underneath and went to bed. It rained all night.