Exhausted!

I'm writing this from the Grande Prix Motel in Gatlinburg, TN, so we succeeded in making our 18 mile trek over Clingman's Dome. We officially crossed over the 200 mile mark, climbed the highest point on the AT, hiked a painfully long 18 miles, and hitchhiked into town to celebrate.
Today involved a lot of walking. I started out at 7:30am, my tent still soaked with morning dew. I took one food break on my way to the Dome, which I made it to by 1pm at a total of 10.1 miles. I still felt good, and the views were spectacular. A full day of beautiful scenery.
I was renamed, rather casually, as Dr. Horrible. I had been bringing it up a lot lately (Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog), so Mr. Fantastic named me as such because he though it went so well with his name. I was hard pressed to disagree.
The high peaks we hit today were enough to kill off the other trees, leaving only a deep mass of pines. It made the entire day smell like Christmas, though I'm still waiting for my gift. The deep mass of trees was gorgeous though, with fallen moss covered trees everywhere. Oh and it rained on me this morning. A lot. So that moisture turned the trail to a Swamp of Sadness of the Neverending Story variety (you will be missed Artax!). Thick, viscous, sucking muck. Pushing through this deep forest with mud-sucking shoes was a very fun experience. Though 18 miles of it was a bit much.
We got some water and chocolate at Clingman's Dome, and then pushed forward toward the road. Not before climbing up and seeing the amazing 360 degree view of course. It was just 7.9 miles to our destination, and we left at 2:30pm. It was long and arduous, and when we finally came out at a parking lot, exalted in our glee, we were informed that the road was another 1.7 miles further. We were feeling pained and dejected, but mostly just pained.
Once we finally reached the end of our trek, we realized we could no longer get a shuttle pick-up, as it was 7pm. So out came the thumbs. It took a little while, but an amazingly kind gentleman pulled up behind us and offered us a ride. He shuffled all of his stuff into the trunk and we piled in with him and his parents. He drove us the 15 miles into town, and we chatted the whole time while watching the beautiful Smokies pass around us.
Once at the hotel we cleaned up and grabbed some dinner. It was a very long, very exhausting, but very rewarding day. Now it's time to sleep! Tomorrow will involve food shopping, gear shopping, The Avengers, and Game of Thrones. Who doesn't love a good zero from time to time?

An early night

Today tricked all of us. We expected a simple day, even easier than yesterday, but we were in for a painful surprise.
The rain managed to hold off until around 4am, but then it came in force. Bright white flashes of lightning illuminated my entire tent about every 3 minutes, while a mist of fine rain water would occasionally sneak through my single layer ceiling. It still isn't completely dry.
I managed to stay in my tent until 8am, the latest I've slept in yet. I wasn't alone though, as we were all rather lax in our morning duties. After some cold oatmeal (surprisingly satisfying out here), I begrudgingly packed up my wet gear and set out.
Mr. Fantastic and I hiked together today, and the first half of the hike was heavenly. The mountains weren't too steep, we got to see all sorts of different terrain, there was a cool mist in the air, and we had spectacular views. As for animal life, we started the day with a wild turkey, and ended it was a couple deer. Between the two sightings my feet turned to ground beef.
After our lunch I went on ahead and quickly discovered some brutal, if not relatively brief, inclines and declines. As has been the case, my love for uphill climbs increases each day, while my blistering hatred for downhill rages brighter all the time. Today was no exception, even if the views on this particular brutal downhill were some of the best on the trip.
We trudged into the shelter at 5pm, the second latest I've finished a hike out here. At the shelter we met the Ridgerunner Carl, and he told us that we just did the most difficult section of the Smokies.. who knew? We each set off to make our dinners, and I set up my tent to dry it out (not happening).
The plan for tomorrow was going to be an easy 7 mile day so we could climb up to Clingman's Dome the following morning for sunrise, and end up in town. We've been revising this however. Our tentative plan is now to hike all the way to town tomorrow, an 18 mile day. I hope it happens, because I ate a lot of my provisions tonight once we decided on the plan. We're both pretty desperate for food, and I'm out of fuel for my stove. Sounds like the best time to push through, especially with a zero day to follow.
Not too much excitement today, mostly just foot pain. Also not enough sunlight to charge my phone. With a mere 10 percent battery remaining I'm going to just make it into town with a dwindling charge. But town means so much! New food supply, shower and laundry, beer and restaurants, a roof and a movie theater. It's always good to feel like a human being again before you dive back into the woods. Wish me luck tomorrow, as I'll certainly need it.

Welcome to the Smokies!

I find that I gauge how difficult a days hike will be on the same scale that I did when we first started. This means, today for example, that I expect to get my ass kicked and leave camp early, and then finish my hike at 2pm.
I left camp and walked along the road back to the dam, but this time continued across it. Immediately on the other side I saw the sign declaring me as arrived at the Great Smokey Mountains.
I knew today included a 3000 foot climb over 12 miles, and admit to a mote of trepidation. That was unnecessary though, because today's hike felt like a breeze. I finished with sore feet, and everything else feeling fine.
The first campsite was closed due to bears, and they were sitting there when I walked by. Barabus was coming back from trying to get water down at the site, and told me he saw the mother and her cub. We moved on quickly; better to be thirsty for a few miles than disemboweled I always say.
Barabus and I had lunch (actually second lunch) at the shelter before he moved on to the next. This shelter was very nice, made of stone with a tarp front wall and fireplace.
No one else arrived for 3 hours, so I set out my solar charger, pitched my tent, and listened to Sacre Bleu on Audible while laying in the grass. The Houston crew arrived first, followed by Dick Flap, Meta, Stonechair, Optimus, and Mr. Fantastic. Once dinners were started Philly and Tapeworm trundled into camp as well.
Dick Flap showed off some of the great footage he got of a couple rattlers he found just off the trail. Day one in the smokies and shit just got real. There is a somewhat massive list of creatures that make there home here, and I hope to see many.. from a distance.
This is the first shelter I've been to that doesn't have any form of privy. There's just a sign pointing to a private hill, a little wasteland of used toilet paper. Pack in pack out people! Thankfully there's a great water source, and bear bag cables.
Tonight's activity was solving riddles that Mr. Fantastic posed. It began with a riddle left by Aspen Glow in the hiker log at the shelter, moved forward with a riddle from Optimus, and concluded with a series directed by Mr. Fantastic. I tried to abstain, as riddles frequently annoy me, but when it's a group activity it can be difficult. It was an entertaining and frustrating activity.
We all plan to be in Gatlinburg on Sunday night, so I brought up The Avengers to gauge interest. Everyone jumped at the idea, so we should have a rather large group of smelly vagabonds ordering massive quantities of popcorn and clearing isles. Mr. Fantastic and I also plan to make sure that wherever we stay either has HBO or wifi to catch up in Game of Thrones. Brief excursions into society will always have a soft spot in my heart. We both look forward to taking a zero in town. A hot shower, clean laundry, and air conditioning sound damn good right about now. Hiking in the 85 degree sun between trees too dense for a breeze makes for a sweaty day.
There's a thunderstorm rolling by off in the distance, so I think I'll try to fall asleep before it arrives. Here's to a soggy morning.

A busy relaxing day

The day started like any other, waking up with the sun. There was one key difference today, in that both my digital map and Mr. Fantastic's physical map ended 6 miles up the trail.
We both awoke rather exhausted from our long hike yesterday, but of course pushed forward regardless. Of course it was only a couple of miles before Mr. Fantastic broke one of his hiking poles. That's a pretty upsetting moment; but again, he pushed forward regardless.
After making our decent to the road we called for a shuttle into the Fontana Dam "town". It was an exciting drive on a road known as the Dragon's Tail where our driver explained that it's winding nature was a big draw. As a matter of fact there was currently a Mini Cooper convention going on in town, and things were popping. He said that it consisted of people from around the country driving their souped up Minis to town, braving the winding roads (with at least one accident each year), and getting them washed.
In town we stocked up at the general store, procuring enough snack foods to last us a few more days (plus a new map), and I went to the one local restaurant and had lunch with Dick Flap, talking comics and movies. After that we decided to wait until the ice cream shop opened at 1pm, and use their outlets to charge up our phones while waiting. Totally worth it.
We had a lot of downtime today. We're about to enter the Smokies and once there you can only camp at the shelters. That means we have to plan our hikes much more diligently, especially when a shelter is closed. So we could either do a 7 mile day and camp by the dam at the Fontana Hilton shelter (named so for its proximity to a bathroom and shower, and its 24 person capacity), or do a 17 mile day into the Smokies. We opted to take it easy for obvious reasons.
When we arrived, we immediately pitched our tents to reserve good spots, and washed up before eating. Dinner was very enjoyable, chatting with Just Brian, Optimus (whose name I learned was actually Optimist, but none of us call her that now), and Rowan with his wife whose trail name we haven't learned.
It was about 2 hours before sunset so Mr. Fantastic, Just Brian and I walked the third of a mile to the dam to watch. We talked Game of Thrones, Africa, and aviation while taking in the sprawling mountains and sinking sun. The sunset wasn't particularly spectacular so we started to head back and passed Optimus, Master Splinter with his dog Bruce (named after Bruce Campbell), Rowan and his wife, and a couple of guys I hadn't met yet. Optimus joined us, turning right around from the lackluster sunset.
The shelter was packed when we got back. Let me see how many names I can rattle off here: Dick Flap, Stonechair, Meta, Megamind, Queen Bee (who is trying to change her name to Snake Charmer), Barabus, Tea is Ready, Philly, Super Mario, Word Bringer.. and many others.
Word Bringer pulled out a guitar, which I'm still enjoying from inside my tent as I write this. The air is full with the serene croaks of tree frogs and the smell of honeysuckle. No pairing of smell and sound could drive me back to childhood any faster. Everyone is excited to be here, excited to meet everyone, excited to tell stories. Tomorrow brings a 12 mile hike with a 3000 foot climb, but tonight we live as kings (as Nat Geo would say). It'll be sad to say goodbye to all of the dogs for the next few days, but we do get some of the most exciting terrain and animal life on the trail. We think we've seen the last of Aspen Glow, he hikes many more miles a day than we do, but hope that CVS, Israel, and Reid catch up. We're a few days away from our second planned zero, and pretty excited for all that will entail. First though, we have to hike another 41 miles. Here we come!