Day 15 - Mar 7

Remember how I said the cold can always be managed? Well thank goodness that Walker and I have both experienced cold before because we couldn't do anything about it last night. We learned that the temp got into the single digits last night and of course with our luck, the shelter we stayed at had a minor draft. Although the draft would typically not create an issue, when the wind was howling and the temp is in the single digits, that draft becomes miserable.

With that said, we slept okay. Our evolution of sleep is a strange process. The first few nights we probably slept 4 to 5 hours even though we were in bed sundown to sunup, which is about 12 hours. Now, we sleep probably 7 to 9 of those hours. Sure we still wake up, toss and turn, or wake up when somebody else in the shelter moves around, but generally we sleep much better now, despite however cold or noisy it is.

Another subject to note. In the smokies, you are mandated to sleep in the shelter unless it Is to full. The purpose of this rule is to provide some level of safety in such a large national park. Since there may be thousands of people in the smokies during the summer, forcing people to stay In shelters in case of some emergency helps the responders locate and aid in the situation much faster than searching the park for where someone is. With that said, I personally hate staying in shelters. It's basically a worse form of a hostel. On top of noise, I also find shelters to be colder than tenting. In a tent, a large majority of your body heat is trapped in both the bag and then the tent. In a shelter, there is basically a large tarp that covers the entrance where most of the heat is easily sucked right out of. I appreciate the national park system for providing these shelters but I wish they would allow people the option to either tent at them or stay in the shelter.

One final bit of information worth mentioning is that this was the night all of our electronics lost their battery power. Even sleeping with them could not keep them warm enough.

We started the day before 8 but probably only established a good pace by 8. We hiked through thick fog and a freezing wind. Thankfully, by 10 the wind had died down and the fog burned off to reveal a clear blue sky. I believe this was the first time we had felt the sun in 4 or 5 days.

As we summited silers bald around this time, we caught our first glimpse of clingmans dome, having an elevation of 6643 feet, clingmans is the highest point on the AT. As we ascended clingmans we left behind the hardwood forest and found ourselves surround by a high smoky forest, comprised of evergreens and moss. The higher we went the more snow was on the ground. Although the trail rarely had more than an inch or two, directly beside the trail there maybe have been a good 6 inches.

By 1230 we had summited clingmans. At the top we met two vloggers who I had been following before the trail; kamper and screwball. Both guys were real nice and I enjoyed hearing there stories of the trail.

Our day was far from over at this point. Half through our own desire, and half through the design of the trail, you have two options as to how you can tackle the smokies. You can either go 8 to 13 miles a day and stay at a shelter, or you can go 19 to 23 miles a day and stay at a shelter. Since you MUST stay at a shelter, we decided that we would shoot for higher mileage over today and tomorrow, setting ourselves up for an easy descent out of the smokies.

As we climbed down from clingmans we were in awe of the views and forest around us. Walker and I both really love evergreen forest and it was so rewarding seeing them again, knowing how hard we worked to get here.

By 515 we had 3 miles left in order to hit ice water shelter. As we sat at newfound gap to take a break, two girls came over and gave us some cliff bars and pop tarts and told us about there experience hiking the trail last year.

Now comes the part where I make fun of Walker for a second. The girl offered us lunchables. For anyone who doesnt know what a lunchable is you're life is probably better off not knowing such food exists. Anyway, I politely declined the offer, but Walker accepted since he didnt want to come off as rude. The calories to weight ratio of a lunchable may be 1 to 5. Other than a fake hotdog and a bit of cheese, there isn't much left. So after receiving 200 calories, Walker has had the joy of carrying the 1 pound plastic container with him everywhere he has gone since then. Hopefully we can dispose of our trash soon. The situation may not be all to funny to an outsider, but the whole thing cracked us up.

We made it to our shelter by 630, and as the sun set we cooked food and did our final preparations for the night.

The temp was probably in the high 20s but it felt amazing compared to the other night. Plus the shelter was built much better so there was no drafting.

We went from derricks knob shelter to ice water spring shelter. In total the mileage should be around 21. Excited for tomorrow as we will be in the height of the high smokies. Weather should be good and the views exceptional. So glad everything worked out to our favor.

Goodnight,
Tyler M.