At 6643 feet Clingman’s Dome is the highest point on the AT and the third highest peak east of the Mississippi – I reached the top of the observation deck on the summit shortly after 11 am. It was a relatively easy climb up from Silers Bald, most of the work was already done the previous two days. The sun had not yet managed to penetrate the clouds and fog of the night so the views were limited but still impressive. Walking the miles immediately before and after the peak were spectacular as well, like being on a movie set for Lord of the Rings or Avatar – everything covered in dense moss, condensation reflecting the light, and a cool breeze.
After Clingman’s the rest of the 12 mile day was mostly downhill with only two short climbs. Matt and I made it to Newfound Gap by 3:00 and were heading into Gatlinburg for the usual town routine and hopefully to see Star Trek. It was supposed to be pretty easy to hitch a ride, but there were already people trying not having any success. Luckily someone overheard us discussing shuttle options and offered us a free ride. He already had a shuttle coming to take him and his son part of the way back to where his car was parked, then hed drive us the rest of the way. We had to wait an hour or so for his shuttle, but it was free and we made it to town. There had been lots of talk on the trail about Gatlinburg, “the gateway to the smokies” everyone either loved it or hated it. It didn’t take long to see why it was so infamous. It’s the biggest tourist town I’ve ever seen. There’s countless hotels, restaurants, candy stores, old tyme photo shops, a Ripleys Believe It or Not, a Ripleys Aquarium, a wam museum, etc, etc. All that and no movie theatre. We got a hotel room, had dinner #1 at Five Guys – Double bacon cheeseburger with fries and Barqs red cream soda – then decided to take the trolley over to the neighboring town to see Star Trek. It turned out it took two trolley transfers and three trolleys to get to Pigeon Ford.
Pigeon Ford is even more touristy and more trashy than Gatlinburg. The first section was miles of nothing but cheap hotels and cheap restaurants and the next part was miles of cheap restaurants mingled with things like gokarts, minigolf, ferris wheels, bumper cars, and more old tyme photo shops. When we got on the last trolly I told the driver to let us know at the stop near the theatre. a couple of stops later I noticed it across the street and asked if that was it, he said yes but he had planned on waiting until he was on the other side of the street 30 minutes later to tell us. We were already 20 minutes late, but we got off there, got across the road, and found out that it was sold out. There was about four other movies worth watching but none of them started until after 10. We found a place to get a real pizza for dinner #2 before doing the epic trolly journey back to Gatlinburg. So it ended up being a three hour adventure for a pizza. On the ride back through the rows of cheap motels an automated trolly message played, “We hope you are enjoying our beautiful surroundings.” Quite different than being on the trail a few hours earlier.