Samwise Hikes the Appalachian Trail! - Trail Journal -
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April 23, Peek's Corner Shelter - mile 214.2

    Words can barely describe an experience like today. Every muscle in my body is aching (especially the ones in my legs) after a record 16 mile day. Only 15 were trail miles,I confess, since the hike out of the shelter this morning & the mile in tonight were both 1/2 mile extra. However, I feel a lot better now since Polar Bear arrived & is telling a story of a 4 mile detour he took by mistake!

    Any way, the views today were far above any views I've seen in the past 3 weeks - even far above Clingmans Dome. The last 8 miles were all ridge walking - mostly about 6000 feet. I felt like I was on top of the world! In many places, the ridge was so narrow that one or both edges of the trail dropped into nothingness. One misstep & WHOOSH down the side of the cliff you could go. I loved it. I could see ridges of mountains for miles on end - the closest ones I could see how rugged & jagged they were, with land slides that cleared huge swath's of forest. There was a short side trail today out to a cliff called "Charlie's Bunion. As usual, I couldn't resist the appeal of a blue blaze, so I wandered out to check it out. WOW! It was a big bunion, essentially just a big round cliff that you could climb on & see everything in every direction. I tried to take pictures, but I know there is no chance they will capture the magnitude of these mountains.

    The rest of the hike was equally grand. Even into the 14th & 15th mile, I was still stopping to admire the amazing views, even though at that point it was harder to stop & start moving than to just stay moving.

    Now that I'm here, I'm pretty well glued to the spot. I managed a trip to the spring for water & to soak my feet & knees, & I suppose I'll have to answer nature's call before I hit the hay, but other wise I'm not moving. Not til tomorrow any way

   

April 24, Cosby Knob Shelter - mile 222.1

Betting chilly here in the shelter, with a long time to go before bedtime. It was an extraordinary easy walk today, even though it was over 13 miles. I made it here in less than 6 1/2 hours, but it's raining & my aching muscles are still recovering from yesterday, so I've decided to stay here. The lure of Mountain Mama's - only 9 1/2 miles down the trail., with it's famous cheeseburgers & dry bunks & hot showers is pretty tempting, but it will have to wait for tomorrow.

    Well, the Great Smokey Mountains lived up to their name today. The most I saw of them was early this morning, with clouds & mist swirling all around them. It definitely looked smokey! After a bit, the entire trail was in fog, though, so I spent the rest of the day looking at my feet & day dreaming about food. I can't believe how food has overtaken everyone's thoughts & conversations. It's the most important item on our minds & it seems like we spend inordinate amounts of time thinking about which Lipton noodle dinner we'll have tonight --- or better yet, what we'll get at the next "town" stop! Myself, I'm craving dairy products the most, I think, although anything other than noodles or dried food would taste good right now. Even a hot dog would seem like a feast, & I haven't touched hot dogs in about 15 years.

    Max & I are here & we think we might be the only ones for tonight since the others from last nights shelter sounded like they weren't going to hike this far in the rain. It's possible some may arrive from the one before, which is 20 miles away, but that would be a really long day in the rain. It would be very nice if we really do have this shelter to ourselves - usually that's an impossibility in rainy weather. Unfortunately we're again in one of the old style "people cage" shelters but it will do. Last night we were pretty comfy in one of the refurbished ones, which had a long extension of the roof over an area built with a platform & benches. No cages on those, either. There's also a fireplace inside & we had a nice fire keeping us warm as we fell asleep. No such luck, tonight, though. Everything outside is far too wet to think of a fire.