April 22, 2000 -- Day 22
Destination: Gatlinburg, TN
Today's miles: 10.8
Trip miles: 201.7

Brrr! There's snow on the ground, and the trees are coated with ice. It's very windy. Joker is making tea, but the rest of us are cowering in our sleeping bags. We'd planned to hike twelve miles to the road at Newfound Gap and hitch a ride into Gatlinburg, but I'm wondering how much, if any, traffic will pass by today. If the road is even open. I'm watching plump little birds that seem unaffected by the cold and dampness.

I just ventured out to do what had to be done, and it's slick walking. People are discussing plans, so it's time to listen and think about packing up.

....

10 p.m.: Once I started hiking this morning, I realized it really was a great day on the trail. It was below freezing, but with a few layers on top and the effort of hiking, I was sweating in no time. And the ice and frozen fog on the trees was magical. We entered an area thick with evergreens, which was a nice change from the bare trees we've seen most of the way. Many of the ice-laden boughs hung over the trail and dropped some of their load on us when we brushed by. As the wind blew, the frozen branches jingled, and I frequently heard cracking and crashing of falling limbs and whole trees. A huge pine came down minutes after Joker and Marie passed and minutes before I did. When I caught up with them at Clingman's Dome (the highest point on the Appalachian Trail at 6,643 feet) and remarked how tough it had been for me to get around that blow-down, they had no idea what I was talking about. Later, a tree fell maybe a hundred feet behind me. We slogged along the very muddy trail all day, and more than a few times the mud completely engulfed my boots. Such is life on a well-trodden, wet footpath.

In the crazy little tourist town of Gatlinburg

At 3:30, Joker, Marie and I arrived at Indian Gap, 1.7 miles before our original destination. As we've seen before, there was someone with a vehicle waiting for thru-hikers to emerge from the woods to sell them rides to town, which in this case is fifteen miles away. We took the opportunity for five dollars apiece and will find a ride back to that point tomorrow. We're now in a hotel room in this crazy little tourist town called Gatlinburg. We had a big dinner and visited the Happy Hiker outdoor store, where we posed for a group photo for the thru-hiker wall.

The (apparently) homeless man survived the potentially hypothermic conditions of the past couple days. He was searching a trash can at Indian Gap when we arrived. I won't be surprised if we see him again. I call him Red Pants.

--Ramkitten