We got a late start, I was able to convince Ben to let me sleep until 8a. I am not a morning person. Typically, I like to wake up at the crack of 11a.
We were hitting the trail around 9:15a. It was a spectacular morning. Ben and I hiked up into the sunrise. Well, let’s be honest. At that time of the day it was no longer sunrise, rather it was morning sun. Either way, I loved having the sunshine in my eyes.
We had a lot of hard pushes today, which gave us some fantastic views of where we’ve been and where we will be going. We are slowly working our way to the highest point – Clingman’s Dome. We tackle that beast tomorrow. I’m super excited. It’s an iconic spot on the AT. First we hit Springer Mountain, then Neel Gap, and now Clingmans. It makes this whole we-are-hiking-the-AT thing all the more real. These are places we’ve seen pictures of, but now we get to experience them in person.
We keep jumping back and forth from NC to TN and then repeat. We hiked 11.8 miles today and are staying at the Silvers Bald shelter. At this point in the trail, statistically more than half are already off. We are still here. I feel great about it, but know that have barely begun to check off those miles.
Apparently when there was the snowstorms a few days ago, a woman got hypothermia and had to be airlifted out. She had gotten wet in the rain and never dried out, a really bad thing when snow is coming. I don’t know how in the world a person can get hypothermia when there are so many others around. However, I know I can confidently say that the people on here would never let that happen if they realized it. I hope she’s all right. I only knew about this because of the trail log in the shelter.
-ansel