Today was a good day. Wing It and I left camp at 7:45. Stealth left right after I got up at 7:00! You never can tell with that guy, hence the trail name. The terrain was pretty rolling and relatively easy. It got hot quickly and I got sweaty! We stopped at Silers Bald Shelter for a large snack. I had a Snickers, a large hunk of summer sausage, some wasabi trail mix, and lemon heads. True Story caught up with us there (he's the fastest one in our group), then Wing It and I bounced to the next shelter to put on sunscreen.
Then it was off to Clingman's Dome, the highest point on the AT! The climb up was beautiful! I had "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" stuck in my head because of the pine trees. Christmas is about the only time of year central Texans get to see those. We even saw a patch of snow! The forest smelled sooo good. I smelled sooo bad. I stuck some sprigs of pine in the sternum strap of my pack. It didn't really help but I felt festive! I saw a small clump of fur next to the trail. I poked it and rolled it around with my trekking pole. It was a dead mole. I'm not striking it big with the wildlife sightings.
We made it to Clingman's Dome! We ate lunch at the edge of the woods next to the viewing tower. We were joined by a married thru-hiker couple and a guy named Timon. People watching the tourists was great! A couple with tween girls walked by. The youngest girl was just staring at us. I waved. She just kept staring so I said hello. The older daughter and the parents said hi. Then I heard the mom say, "Probably not there, but I bet they are camping somewhere tonight." Ha ha! We're like animals in a zoo.
During lunch we talked with an extraordinarily nice park volunteer named John. He checked to make sure we didn't need anything and gave us some great pointers. We hobbled up to the viewpoint and had someone take of photo of me, Stealth, and Wing It.
Then Wing It and I hit the trail again for the 3.2 mile hike to the shelter. There were lots of ups and downs but the scenery was beautiful and there was a nice breeze.
This shelter is in a beautiful spot! A green, wooded alcove in the woods. I went straight to the water source with a guy named Dependable Pete. I was out and filled up with nearly 4 liters since it was quite a hike to get down to the spring. I didn't want it have to go back. Then I used the nearly new privy. It had a latch and a door and handicap rails and a moon carved on the door. It also had two full buckets of duff (leaves you throw on top of your poop to help it compost). Most duff buckets are empty. I'm telling you, this was the Cadillac of privies! I can't wait to use it again!
The best part of the day came after dinner. Weekend hikers were staying at the shelter. They were so nice and gave us so much food! Almonds, cashews, gum. POUND CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE FROSTING! We polished off the cake and the jar of frosting in less than a minute. Poor Twist was off doing something and completely missed it. We are, quite literally, animals. I'm not even full. The names of the weekend hikers were TJ, John, and Austin. I didn't catch the rest. Some of them are college students in Knoxville. One of them was hammocking in the shelter and didn't have a sleeping bag (rookie mistake). We gave him clothes and an emergency blanket. To thank us he said he's shipping a pound cake to us in Hot Springs! Score!
A guy named Chris just walked up. He did 36+ miles TODAY! He came from Fontana. That took us 3 days! He's training for the Hut to Hut challenge in the White Mountains. It's 51 miles and something like 17,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. He says his pack weighs 30 lbs (about the same as mine). He doesn't use poles. That would break me. When I asked him what he did for a living I knew it would be a desk job. He's a software engineer from Pittsburg. His trail name is Maqina (or however you spell "machine" in Spanish). He was drinking a smoothie out of a bag. Here's his recipe. I took the liberty of naming it.
How to Be a Badass Smoothie Recipe:
1 lemon
1/2 avocado
1/8 pineapple
1 cup mixed berries
2 handfuls of spinach
1 handful of kale
16 oz water
Optional: Add Vitalite or double the lemon
Best Thing: Clingman's Dome, scenery, free cake, Badass Chris
Looking Forward To: Gatlingburg! Hot food in town, resupply, bed, and shower!
Loved the animals at the zoo comment! :) Do you blend the smoothie in town before you hit the trail? When I was in Honduras, they poured your soda into a plastic bag, stuck a straw in it and that's how you drank it. The store kept the bottles because they could get the deposit back on them. Sounds like things are going well!
ReplyDeleteAll I read is the junk food... Sounds like a great time. Lol
ReplyDelete