Day 17, Celebrating 200 Miles

We woke this morning to a hard and cold wind blowing over the bald we called home for the night. But what a relief to have blue skies and the promise of a warm spring day ahead of us after our 7-hour march through sludge and slime during yesterday's all-day smokey mountain downpour. 

We were blessed to be able to start a little fire inside the small fireplace of the shelter we stayed in last-night. It helped dry some of our drenched clothing, lift a little light in our eyes and infuse the rock and concrete that make up the three-walled structure with a little warmth for the cold night ahead. All slept soundly even as the temperatures dropped to near freezing and several other hikers stumbled in after dark.

We started the day with a short 5 mile hike up to the highest point on the Appalachian Trail: Clingman's Dome (6,684ft), also the second highest point east of the Mississippii River. Within a mile of the shelter, getting just above 6,000ft, the landscape changes drastically and abruptly from deciduous hardwood forest to a thick coniferous rainforest covered in dark green moss, and dotted with near-alpine-like outcroppings and small yellow meadows flush with short-stocky Mountain Laurel. It's the first we've been in this type of landscape and its a welcome and exciting change. With it come more dramatic views both east toward Knoxville and southwest back over the hills we've climbed in North Carolina. 

It was a beautiful morning and a relatively easy climb over a magnificent piece of mountain. Then suddenly, the trail dumps us out onto a paved walkway leading from parking lot to the spiraled observation tower that tops the Mountain. It seems we were just as much a part of the spectical as were the glorious views for some tourist. We placed our packs at the foot of the tower and folks started asking questions, the same we get from most day-hikers at some point every day: "where did you come from?" "when did you start?" "going all the way?" "What do you do about food?". Automatically: "Amicalola" "16 days ago" "God willing" "carry it"

Even with the somewhat bothersome somewhat entertaining inquiries into our presence and pursuits, the views from Clingman were unequivically unmatched to date. 

We ate a little 10:30 "lunch" or "second breakfast" of trail mix and jerky and pressed on for Newfound Gap where we'd decided to try to hitch a ride into the sparkling city of Gatlenburg for a cheap shower, hot meal, and celebratory moonshine. For in addition to hitting the highest point on the Appalachian Trail today also marks the 200 Mile mark!

On the way to Newfound gap we ran into a University of Tennessee botany class that'd taken over a 1/4 mile section of the trail to study the Spring Beauties and Blood Root Blosoms that've just opened up at this height. 70 eager and smiling students parted like the Dead Sea to allow us through (maybe we just smell that bad), one of whom yelled "make room for these boys, they've got somewhere to be". Yep- Moonshine Distilleries in Gatlenburg!!!!