Day #21 - Rocky Top Tennessee

Was woken up at 4:23 a.m. by two hikers on the second level of the shelter. They were quiet, but they still kept me up with their headlamps until they rolled out at 5:30. Because of the weird Smoky shelter rules, they had to stay in the shelter even though they probably knew they'd disturb people by getting up that early. 

I got out of my sleeping bag at 7:00 and took things slowly to make sure Tigger was okay. She woke up late and is feeling a bit better. We left camp around 8:30. The first part of the day was relatively flat because it's graded for horses. There are lots of small white and purple flowers starting to pop up everywhere. 

We stopped at the first shelter out for a snack (we call it second breakfast or first lunch), then stopped at the second shelter for lunch and to use the privy. They don't have privies at every shelter in the Smokies so it's a toilet paper minefield in some areas. At some shelters there's literally just a sign with an arrow pointing to the "toilet area." That means "go over there a poop in a hole." Many people don't bury their TP so it's just gross. Build more privies! 

At lunch, Kim checked her phone and had 20 texts from Nita! Yikes! She got worried/curious since Kim hasn't been mentioned much in my blogs recently. Don't worry! Kim is still hiking with my group. Her trail name is Twist since her dog's name is Oliver. I had some service too and got a video from my sister, Heather. It was my nephew saying hi and blowing me a kiss. It made me tear up so I went down to the water source to fill up and pull myself together. I miss that little guy! He's growing up so fast. 

Since our next destination was Rocky Top and no one had heard of the song, I insisted Simba play it on her phone before lunch was over. Once people heard it they recognized it. It had been stuck in my head for days. It was a hard climb up but the views were amazing! 

We also passed the 2,000 miles to go mark! 

The rest of the day was full of TOUGH ups and downs. I cursed to myself a lot. It seemed like the toughest day since I hurt my knee on Blood Mountain on Day #3. All I could think about was a creek bath and washing the sweat and salt from my t-shirt. That's the first thing I did when I FINALLY made it to the shelter at 4:00. I dropped my pack and went straight to the water source. I accidentally leaned on the metal pipe coming out of the mountainside and the water stopped flowing! AHHHHHHH! I thought I broke it for everyone, but I wiggled it back into position. That would have been the LAST thing I needed today. 

My mood improved drastically after my "shower." I walked back up to the shelter and someone said I looked refreshed. I told them the showers were great! Someone else said, "There are showers down there?" Ha ha! 

Twist and I played lookout for each other so we could change clothes behind the shelter. Later, I traded Muffin Man a Snickers to fill my water for me. It was such a steep climb! Snickers is gold out here! 

It's going to be so hard to adjust back to "normal" life after this is over. I can't believe I've only known these people 3 weeks at most. We spend nearly 24 hours a day together. We eat together, share food, sleep shoulder to shoulder in shelters, fix each other up when we are hurt, go to the bathroom together, plan our days together... It will be hard to leave them and think about other things. Even a crappy day out here is way better than a good day at most jobs I've had. Out here, we concentrate on eating enough, resting enough, and getting from point A to B each day. It's simple but it's great!

Best Thing: Rocky Top views and the video from Joshua. 

Looking Forward To: Clingman's Dome! The highest point on the AT.