Weather: 70s/40s, beautiful sunny weather
Was out of camp by 7:30 a.m. Nothing like the promise of town to motivate! The terrain in the Smokies is so beautiful. For most of the morning's hike it was pretty flat. Twist caught up with us as we neared what we thought was Newfound Gap. She thought she saw trail magic up ahead but I had my doubts since it was 10 a.m. on a Sunday morning. She was practically pushing her way ahead of me and ended up beside me on the trail. Turns out, she was right!
A nice woman named Elizabeth and her teenage daughter had opened the back of their SUV in a parking area and were serving Dunkin Donuts, clementines, Pop Tarts, and other goodies. She even had a printed copy of the week's weather forecast. So thoughtful! The donuts were AMAZING! Trail angels are the best. They are so selfless. I always try to be super appreciative and thankful. We polished off the donuts so Elizabeth hid the box so other hikers wouldn't know what they had missed. Unfortunately, after we left our friend Boss showed up and she immediately told him he had just missed donuts. He's still grumpy we didn't save him any.
We were still 1.7 miles (about 30 minutes) from our end point, but 2nd breakfast put a pep in our steps. The last miles were ups and downs including crossing some weird hog barriers, but we made it to the gap to try to hitch the 15 miles to Gatlinburg. We split into small groups to increase our odds, but my group didn't have much luck. A woman in her 70s came up to talk to us. I thought she was going to offer us a ride, but instead she talked about her dreams of thru-hiking. I told her it's never too late! She never did offer us a ride.
A park volunteer finally offered me, Stealth, and Wing It a ride after about 15 minutes. He was really nice and told us about the area as we drove into town. We passed Blacksmith, Tigger, and Beans trying to hitch on the side of the road on the way down. They eventually got rides too. Mike dropped us at the outfitter and wished us luck.
Gatlinburg is redneck Vegas! Talk about sensory overload. It makes for great people watching though. Beans and my crew checked several hotels before booking a room at the Econolodge. The woman at the front desk was very friendly and gave us the hiker rate. The woman at the Microtel was very rude to us so we didn't stay there. The other 8 people in our group stayed at the Grand Prix even though they said it was gross and they didn't want to. Muffin Man and Simba hitched in from Clingman's Dome and stayed there last night. Trail romance?
We showered, ate BBQ (our waitress clearly hated her job and I had to send back my cake because there was mold on the frosting), and then Stealth and I took the trolley to resupply at the grocery store. The Grand Prix crew ended up taking a 3 hour trolley ride (one way) to Walmart. Yikes! I spent over $50 at the store. Eek! My food bag is bursting with only 4 days of food.
When we got back I did laundry in the tub. I had intended to share my laundry water with the boys but it was filthy and they declined. I had no idea my stuff was so dirty! "Clean" takes on a whole new meaning out here.
I wore my rain pants and thermal top to dinner at the brewery with the 3 guys I shared a room with. We had a great time! Beans ordered a flight of 9 five ounce beers for $7. What a steal!
After dinner I got to catch up with friends and family on the phone. When I Face Timed Heather she was just getting to my parents' house for Sunday dinner so I got to talk to the whole family. That was a treat! They asked Joshua, my 1 year old nephew, where I was and he pointed to the pin on the AT map. So cute! Then he wanted to go to my room to find me.
It's supposed to rain tomorrow and Tuesday then get COLD! Hope to make the best of it! Looking forward to breakfast tomorrow! Then it's back to the trail!
Loved talking to you !
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