Day 14 200 Miles

Writing from a hotel room in Gatlinburg after crossing mile marker 200 and summiting Clingman’s Dome, the highest point in the AT. 



Last night was very wet and windy. I slept most of the night but woke up for a few hours when the wind really picked up around 2AM. 


We started moving around 6:30, got our stuff together and ate breakfast in the crowded shelter to dodge the rain for a little longer. 


We started hiking and made it around 7 miles before stopping for lunch at around 12. My legs were feeling great. We talked with a couple other thru hikers who had made it the same 7 miles and decided to spend the rest of the day there in the shelter. They were both very nice and we talked for a while about our other outdoor hobbies of hunting and fishing. The weather continued to be bad, but we pushed on. 



After lunch my right calf was very tight and kept cramping. This made things difficult but I pushed through and we made it to the 200 mile point, Clingman’s Dome. Clingman’s is also the highest point on the AT, standing over 6,600 feet. Given the weather we didn’t have awesome views. Still exciting to hit the landmark and the milestone. 




After Clingman’s my calf really started bothering me, and we were all completely soaked from the rain. We decided to cut our day short by 3 miles and get a shuttle into Gatlinburg TN. We could have kept going to Icewater shelter, but the three extra miles won’t change our plans to dodge bad weather on Friday night and Saturday morning. We still totaled 18 miles through bad weather. We will get back on trail around 10AM tomorrow and hike 15 miles, then 14 miles Friday, and be out of the Smokies and take a much needed zero in Newport TN. 


I’m going to enjoy sleeping inside tonight, out of the bad weather. 


By the way, I just updated days 11 and 12 with pictures of you want to go back and check those out. 


Goodnight,

Walker 



If you want to follow Tyler or Spencer, here are their logs as well:


Tyler: https://tylerat2024.blogspot.com/?m=1


Spencer: https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

Comments

  1. E R Stick, JrMarch 7, 2024 at 6:19 AM

    thanks for the news. remember: discretion is the better part of valor

    ReplyDelete

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