My trip through the Smokies has been pretty interesting. I camped out with Stryder and two other guys called Detour and Slopes one night. Well apparently you're only allowed to sleep in shelters in the Smokies. A ranger came along in the morning and slapped us all with $75 fines each. That was pretty lame.
Other than that, the Smokies have been really beautiful. We hit the 200 mile mark and reached the highest point on the trail in the same day. Clingman's Dome is the highest point. It's a cool tower that has a 360 degree view over the entire park. It's also a tourist attraction, and us hikers are quite the spectacle. I think people really get a kick out of talking to us and checking out our gear.
The weather has been COLD. It's the worst at night and in the mornings. I've been sleeping with all my clothes on in my 30 degree bag, and I still wake up cold at night. It's been hard to get started in the morning. We've also had a few bad thunder storms that have just soaked e everything. I don't want to complain though because I know I'll be missing the chilly weather when its hot this summer.
There's about three rotations of hikers leaving in the morning. There's the old guys that get started at 6:30 or 7 am. There's the people that leave at the most reasonable times, 8:30 or 9. Then there's the group I'm part of: we don't hit the trail until 10 to 11. We generally stop in the middle of the day, get distracted, and take a 2 or 3 hour break. We've been rolling into camp only a little before dark. We still do the same miles as everyone else. It's just that a lot of people get to camp around 3 pm.
I ran into some awesome trail magic today. This couple made all the hikers grilled cheese and they had brownies, fruit, chips, and pop. Then they gave a bunch of hikers rides into town. They said they do this every Saturday and Sunday. They were really nice people.
My next town is Hot Springs, and its not for 70 more miles so who knows when I'll get there.
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