Day 16 – Spence Gap Shelter to Mount Collins Shelter

The shelter ended up being not bad, only a minor bit of farting, snoring, and mice. We stayed nice and dry though. The big storm system left the area overnight so we ended up with a cooler, but sunny and very nice day. The morning started out with some neat alpine meadows.

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Smokies meadow

One of the negatives of the Smokies thus far however is that the trails are overused, so after all this rain they got very muddy. We spent probably half the day hopping in and around mud like this.

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Southern muddin'

That complaint being said, we saw why this is a national park today. There were many spectacular vistas as we approached Clingman’s Dome.

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After we summitted Clingman’s and took some pics, we hiked out a few more tough miles to the shelter for a total of 20 for the day.

We hit 3 cool milestones today –
1. Summitted the highest mountain on the AT – Clingman’s Dome at over 6500 feet
2. Passed 200 total miles hiked so far
3. Less than 2000 miles to Katahdin! (Lol still a long way to go but having less than 2k to go was a nice one for me for some reason)

We’re going to try to bang out another 20 miles tomorrow. Should be fun.

Vital stats:
Mood – satisfied
Physical state – sore but good
Smell – old cheese maybe?
Song stuck in my head – Party Rockers by LMAFO (WHYYYYYYYYYYYY THIS #*#*#^^&/ING SONG UGH PLEASE BEARS MAUL ME NOW)

6 thoughts on “Day 16 – Spence Gap Shelter to Mount Collins Shelter

  1. Susan

    So happy to see you both looking happy and healthy. More selfies + vistas, please!

    Thinking of you both and enjoying these posts each day. xxxxxx

    Reply
  2. AL

    Could be a worse song…It’s a small world after all…. ;). Evil auntie! You guys look great, BTW.

    Reply
  3. B'day Dad and Mom Heiser

    Great b’day present for Dad to see your smiles. Mud bath, horses have trail use here too and this is what they can do. I guess we must learn to share. I love the variety of your pics Joel. And that the trail angels are blessing you with some awesome magic. Mileposts even small ones are sources of celebration. No need to wait until Maine.

    Reply

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