Mar 28

DAY #25
START LOCATION: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: Davenport Gap Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 14.8
TRIP MILEAGE: 235.1
MILES TO GO: 1,944.0

Miserable sleep last night with the wind howling the whole time and
the temps in the upper 30's. Then the rains came making for monsoon
conditions when we awoke in our cramped, wet and muddy floored
shelter. We all dreaded getting up. Boomhauer was up first and
exhibited yet another fantastic act of kindness. He donned his
raingear right off and fetched not only his food bag on his bear
cable, but everyone else's on the other cables. He made two trips out
in the monsoon so the other 9 of us wouldn't have to. Just another
example of how great the people are out here.. Especially Boomhauer.

I made my usual oatmeal, Carnation IB and pop tarts breakfast all the
while hoping my soaking wet boots had even dried just a little...
Nope. Starting the day in sopping wet boots is a downer, let me tell
you.

As we rolled out by 9:30AM the monsoon misery was sweetened with a bit
of optimism. Word from yesterday's southbounders was that we only had
four more miles of snowpack to fight through. They were right. We
pushed hard and fast over our last 6,000' peak hoping to get down
below 4,000' by the time the monsoon turned into the thunderstorm the
forecasters were calling for. The effort paid off. As a reward, which
really amounted to a simple uplifting coincidence, the sun broke out
for about 15 minutes as Cornpatch and I summitted, of all places, Sun
Up Knob... the last 5,000' peak of the northbound Smokies.

Then, it was literally and figuratively all downhill from there... We
had a 2,500' descent to the park boundary at Davenport Gap. As we
glided down, the skies pounded us with the heaviest rain and sure
enough, the thunderstorm. Fortunately we were low enough in the deep
forest to be safe. Which makes me so glad I pushed to Tri-Corner
yesterday.

Of the 10 that started at Tri-Corner this morning, only 3 of us held
up at Davenport... Upgrade, Cornpatch and I. The other 7 pushed the 4
miles to the Standing Bear Hostel. I'm glad we stayed here. Some
laughs over dinner, milder temps, the shelter is great and best of
all, it's not cramped. I will definitely sleep much better tonight.

To wrap up my thoughts on the Smokies... Gorgeous national park. It
threw all it had at us... Rain, snow, mud, ice, hail. But, it also
gave us some gorgeous views, stunning landscapes and beautiful flora.
We are really proud of these five memorable hiking days and definitely
impressed with quirky Gatlinburg. Given all that, we are ready to move
on. There's little to no snow left to experience on this thru-hike and
we are all very excited about it. Time for budding flowers and green
landscapes.

-natedog