I think I forgot to mention yesterday that I entered the third state of the trail – Tennessee. For most of GSMNP the trail crisscrosses the Ten/NC border before reentering NC. There’s now less than 2000 miles to go until Katahdin!
I’ve stayed at shelters almost every day so far, but here in the park you have no other choice so they really dictate how far you hike. Today it was about 14.5 miles, and the climbing continued. No more bears today but getting up higher in elevation made for amazing scenery. There’s more grass and most of trail is lined with tiny purple flowers. The one good lookout point, Rocky Top, came a few miles into the day but there was still some lingering fog. The cumulative effects of two consecutive big climbing days began to take their toll in the afternoon. Around that same time the afternoon thunderstorms began rolling in again. I ended up only getting some sprinkles before getting to the shelter, but the wind made for a refreshing afternoon climb. I did hear what sounded like several wild turkeys very near the trail but after stopping to get the camera ready they were moving away and I never saw them. Mostly it was a long uneventful day of walking and seeing lots of trees.
Doing 14+ miles meant seeing John for the last time, but I was ready to be far away from the rest of the crowd at last night’s shelter. The younger thru hikers were the only ones to make to Silers Bald – Matt is here again, as is Westin. There’s also a pretty cool group of four college guys from Chicago doing a six day trip in the park.