It was another nice day with sunny skies and temperatures near 65. We are traveling at a higher altitude and the hike included more switchbacks but still a few straight up climbs.
No lions or tigers or bears for us yet. A couple of hikers reported seeing a big wild boar 🐗 approaching 300 pounds. We had seen evidence of them tearing up the ground looking for food but no siting of the critters ourselves.
At the higher elevations, ground flowers have broken out and are flourishing before the leaves break out on the trees and block the sunlight but the trees are starting to get buds so it won’t be long.
We made it to Clingmans Dome. We completed two milestones. First is climbing up Clingmans, the highest peak on the AT and second highest peak in the Eastern United States behind Mount Mitchell in NC. The second was going past the 200 mile mark of the trail. Clingmans has an observation tower at the top with magnificent views.
It’s also filled with tourists who can drive up to a parking area near the top so there are lots of people here.
As luck would have it we scored a ride to Gatlinburg from a couple who were there sightseeing. They drove us about 15 miles to a hotel in Gatlinburg. He is retired from Bell South telephone company but she is still teaching. They were here on vacation. We gave them the trail name of Mr. and Mrs. Dial Tone.
So we made it to the Microtel for a night in bed. Got to Gatlinburg around 4:30pm. No washer and dryer here so clothes are hand washed in the sink and dried using hair dryer or hanging overnight. My hand dryer blew a fuse but I was able to get another from the front desk, It still took a while to dry the clothes with the hand dryer so I passed on going out with Sandy and ADD after dinner so I could get this done. Took a long shower which felt great. Had pizza for dinner. I ordered a large pizza which was pretty good. I packed out about half of it the next day. That turned out to be a great idea.
Gatlinburg is a tourist town with amusements like wax museum, pinball hall of fame, arcades, and lots of restaurants. Pretty ticky tacky but looks like fun for a day or two. It’s not very big. I didn’t have a lot of time to explore the town but got to see a little when we were out for dinner.
I need to stop at outfitters for gas for stove in the morning before we catch the shuttle back to Clingmans to resume the hike.
The Climb to Clingmans Dome was a long one but not as hard as I anticipated. Should be done hiking the Smoky Mountains in three maybe four days.
Time to sleep 💤 .
Very cool! Love the pics!
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