Mt Collins Shelter (4-18-10)

The past few days have been a bit of a blur. I pulled out of Fontana a couple of days ago and entered the Smokies. Going into the Smokies was a big climb, but I was handling it pretty well - passing hikers left and right. When I got to the first shelter, I ran into a ridgerunner who told me that the road to Clingman's Dome was closed. Clingmans Dome was the place where I was supposed to meet Christine. After talking with the guy some more and consulting the map for the park, we figured out that the next best place to get picked up was Cades Cove.

To get to Cades Cove, I would continue along the AT for another 6 miles and then hike down from the ridge on non-AT, park trails. The detour was less than a half-day walk, so when I woke up the next day, I knew there was no rush. That changed everything.

From AT 2010

As much as I've tried to avoid it so far, I've fallen into a bit of a trap where I focus on my next destination for the day and hustle until I get there. But once my plans went out the window, I was free to go as slow as I wanted and enjoy the whole nature thing.

From AT 2010

I had about 4 or 5 hrs to kill while waiting at Cades Cove, so I fired up the audiobook I brought on my phone (The Pillars of the Earth) and listened to that for a while. Around 6 or 7 that evening, out of the corner of my eye, I see Christine sneaking up on me. I was busy showing her some of my interesting tan lines I've picked up so far and out of nowhere, my friend Steve pops into view. Christine had apparently talked Steve into coming up to Gatlinburg for my birthday.

Part of my birthday present was a pizza. I dug into that and then we hopped into Steve's car and rode off to Gatlinburg. While checking into the hotel, some more friends (Dave and Stephanie) appeared and offered a second round of surprise. That night, we would go out to dinner and stop by a couple of the local bars. After we called it a night, Ben and Corel show-up after a slow drive from Knoxville. We wound-down the night with some deliciously trashy Talk Soup.

The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel (delicious!) and walked down the street to find some entertainment. We settled on Ripley's Believe It or Not, which would have been a dud under normal circumstances, but thoroughly rocked my entertainment-starved brain. Afterward, we had lunch at one of the roughly 5000 pancake houses in town and then stopped at the grocery store - so I could re-load on food.

Sometime late that afternoon, they dropped me off at Newfound Gap, which is roughly in the center of the park. I felt a little bad about cutting out the ~16 miles of the AT after Cades Cove, so instead of hiking north out of the gap, I hiked south. Tomorrow, I would hike to Clingman's Dome and then turn around and re-trace my steps back to Newfound Gap.

This was definitely one of my most memorable birthdays. I knew Christine would meet me in Gatlinburg b/c she's obligated. It's quite another thing, though, to convince other people to come along with. Thanks guys!