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?
