Mar 24

DAY #22
START LOCATION: Russell Field Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: Siler Bald Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 15.1
TRIP MILEAGE: 192.2
MILES TO GO: 1,986.9

Awesome sleep last night. I got up to answer a voicemail from mother
nature around 11PM and when I stepped outside, the entire wooded
landscape was brilliantly illuminated by the half moon. The stars were
out of this world too... literally I guess. It's something I'll never
be able to capture on a camera...too bad.

Knowing I was making a big push today, I was up early and out by 9AM.
Felt really good, very little Achilles pain that I'd felt the day
before. About 40 minutes up the trail, which put me at about mile mark
179, I stopped and etched the 2,000 miles to go marker in the snow for
my colleagues behind me to get a friendly reminder. Pretty cool, but
pretty daunting at the same time. Think 179 miles down in 21+ days and
I'm 2,000 to go. Whew... Keep walking...

Met up with Switchback, Picker, Corn Patch, Boomhauer, Pace Car and
Guidefoot up on Spence Field for some amazing photos of the Smokies
and most of southern Appalachia.

Then... The Smokies reared back and rochambeauxed me in the groin and
stole my lunch money. The moderate ups and downs, we call PUD's for
Pointless Ups and Downs just dominated me today. I was exhausted by
lunchtime at Beechnut Gap, At NOON! There was still 10 miles to go at
that point. The next shelter was too early to yield to.. Only 4.4
miles away, but the next, Silers Bald was 9.9. And, for those who
don't know, thru-hikers are second class citizens in the Smokies. Our
park permit only allows us to stay at shelters... $5,000 maximum fine
if caught not doing so. Unlike the rest of the AT, we can camp
anywhere when we get tired. But here you have to plan accordingly.
There was no way I was stopping at 2PM at the 4.4 mi shelter with rain
forecast tomorrow while staring at a 17 mile hike to the Gatlinburg
egress point to boot. So I pushed on and my feet paid the price.
Painful finish to the day in the last 3 miles, but I feel good now. I
now have a 12 mile day to Gatlinburg and will also summit Clingmans
Dome tomorrow. At 6,643 feet elevation it is the highest point on the
AT. The won't be too bad actually... here at Silers Bald we are at
5,460' and only about 4 1/2 miles away. So the hope is we can summit
before the weather gets bad and maybe even get some nice photos too.
After that, my feeling is rain and snow away for al I care. I'm headed
to Gatlinburg, TN where a warm hotel room, shower and AYCE buffet
awaits!

Met some cool thru-hiking brothers from Manchester, UK here at the
shelter... The collectively named Sykes brothers. Older service
veteran fellows that are just awestruck by the trail so far and so
honored to be here. Great guys that are raising money for a charity
that helps soldiers returning from our Mideast conflicts. We were
chatting about one of my favorite shows... Top Gear on BBC America and
I think we agree that the best episode is the one where the boys
traversed Vietnam on mopeds. Great talking with them.

The wind is howling, the cold is setting in and I have another
voicemail from mother nature to answer... Bedtime.

-natedog

PS... When you finally get to a shelter and there are non-thru hikers
filling them, we must tent within sight of the shelter outside. Or, we
have to give up our spots in the shelter if non-thru hikers venture in
late. Ridiculous. But, it's late March and midweek... We own the whole
park.