Today, plain and simple, kicked my butt. It was a new record, though! 17.1 miles from Birch Spring Gap to Derrick Knob shelter.
I think my hiker legs are coming into form. There were some points today where I just blazed ahead, thinking nothing of it. When I reached Rocky Top, with a 360 degree view, it came as a surprise that I only had 6 miles to go to get to the shelter. Those last 6 miles, however, were not fun. The trouble was that I knew the shelter was at the top of a hill, so every time I climbed a ridge I was expecting it, of course to no avail.
A section of the panorama atop Rocky Top! (Photo by Purple Blaze)
The fact that I am finally getting "hiker hunger" is not helping either. Basically, hiker hunger is when you eat a snack and start looking forward to lunch, then when you eat lunch you start looking forward to dinner, and when you eat dinner you contemplate whether you should eat tomorrow's breakfast. Luckily, I did not give in and have food for tomorrow morning.
Everything in the Smokies in at a larger scale. The mountains are higher, the slopes are steeper, the nights get colder, hell, it even rains harder. Today a monsoon-like rain fell for about 10 minutes as I reached camp. Thank goodness all's clear now. Tomorrow I hike Clingman's Dome, the tallest mountain on the east coast. I expect a very good night's sleep tonight.
- Ted
8:40 pm 3/31/2015
8:40 pm 3/31/2015
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