Yesterday morning as we broke camp, it began to rain and 20 minutes into our hike the bottom fell out and there was a lot of thunder and lightning nearby. It wasn’t long before the temperature dropped from the mid 50s to low 40s. We were drenched from head to feet and were becoming a bit concerned about potential hypothermia. Around mile 6 we came to a shelter where we were able to duck inside and take off some of our wet clothing. Mountain Crusher was able to start a fire in the shelter from some embers that were still hot from the night before. While there was very little dry wood to burn he managed to get the fire going enough to knock the chill off, which was a great help. After one and a half hours at the shelter the rain diminished enough that we decided to move on as we still had another 6 miles to get to our next shelter. Around 2:30 pm we achieved 2 key milestones in our journey – we passed the two hundred mile mark and we climbed up and over Clingman’s Dome (6,612 feet) which is the highest point on the entire Appalachian Trail. In order to do that we had to ascend more than 4,000 feet in the cold, mud and rain yesterday. But, hitting these two milestones lifted our spirits in the gloomy weather. At the top of Clingman’s Dome is a observation tower. As the clouds and fog had been so thick all day long we had no expectations for any kind of view, but when we reached the top of the tower the view was quite spectacular as the clouds, fog and mountain tops created a perfect canvas of beauty. Once we reached camp around 5:00 pm we unpacked all of our wet gear, prepared dinner and then listened to the rain falling on our tents. It was a cold night and I got very little sleep. This morning we packed up in the rain and headed out for a 5.5 mile hike to Newfound Gap where we were picked up by Cobweb Rose’s husband, Curtis, who had driven from Asheville to pickup Cobweb Rose for a weekend at home. Just as we reached Newfound Gap it was raining hard again and very cold. Crossing over the highway to the parking lot we saw a white van and were motioned over. There were three or four trail angels from a local church and they had all kinds of goodies to offer – donuts, fruit, crackers, chips and drinks. It was such a welcomed treat. But, we were freezing and went into the public restroom there to warm up and eat our snacks until Curtis arrived. After arriving at our motel in Gatlinburg we showered, got some lunch and then did laundry which, long story short, took almost 3 hours. Looking forward to a good nights sleep in a dry room. We will return to the trail on Monday morning and hope to have better weather as we begin the second half of our hike through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

I am posting pics below from the past 3 days since I did not have a strong enough cell signal to download them.

Pics from April 5th

Pics From April 6th

Pics From April 7th

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