Day 20

Beautiful day today.  Mostly sunny and high temperatures reaching the 60s in all but the highest elevations. 

You are required to stay in the shelters if there is room in the Smokys.  If the shelter is full you can camp around it.  Lots prefer to camp around it because of shelter mice, snoring campers and cramped quarters.  Fortunately for us, Mollies was busy last night and it was more than full so we camped nearby. However, shelter people get a quicker start as they don’t have to break down a tent or hammock.  They just pack their sleeping bag and scoot.  We took a little time and were on the road a little after 9am and most had gotten a head start on us.

There is wildlife on the trail!  As we were breaking camp some deer came in to check things out.

There were two of them and they didn’t seem very afraid.  Nearly walked right up to us.

The major mountain on the day is Thunderhead Mountain  but we got our best views from Rocky Top. Rocky Top is a sub peak of Thunderhead.  The open summit area of Rocky Top provides nice views of Cascade Cove, Fontana Lake and Clingmans Dome.  This picture is looking back at Fontana Lake.

I think I said that I expected today to be a little easier than yesterday.  Wrong!  It wasn’t as much elevation gain but they were all straight up and down the mountains.  No easier switchbacks. 🤨. It was hard but we managed to cover the 12.8 miles as planned.

We got to our destination at Derricks Nob around 4pm.   It was busy as most who left Mollies like us in the morning had this as their destination.  A lot of tired faces. Today was tough and I really feel exhausted.  We are changing our plans for tomorrow to reduce our  planned hike.  It also includes Clinmans Dome which at 6,612 feet of elevation, is the highest mountain on the AT.  It’s a few hundred feet higher than Mount Washington.

My feet and legs are very tired but no blisters or issues with plantar fasciitis yet.  One finger is infected and I needed to drain and dress it when we stopped to camp.

Everyone is calling it a night early due to the long day.  Me too.  I’m beat and sore.  Zzzzz.