-sorry no pictures during these posts as I lost my solar charger. I will post some later off of a friends camera, hopefully.
Today we woke up at 3:30am and broke camp at about 4am. Our goal was to be at Clingmans Dome (the highest point on the AT) for Easter sunrise. Me and Hobo barely made the sunrise. About a minute or two after we got there the sun broke over the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, Tric had taken a wrong turn on the trail and found herself at the Clingmans Dome parking lot for the sunrise. She did have a great view down there too though and actually loved the hike! After sunrise we lounged for a bit and begged tourists for their water and snacks. A little time went by and I Believe and her husband Jimmy, who are fantastic trail angels, showed up. They gave us some honey buns and told us there has been trail magic at newfound gap 7.9 miles away for a few days now. They said they would drive down there and tell them to wait for us to hike in before they left. So me, Tric, Jersey Girl, and Hobo hiked the next 8 miles together at a pretty fast pace. Those 8 miles were beautiful and a fantastic day hike if your ever in the smokies. When we arrived at the gap we were treated with trail magic from 2 groups. The first was a couple from really close to where I'm from! Dunedin! They came here on their anniversary and helped a bunch of hikers and now come back every year and feed and shuttle hikers. The other group was part of the Warrior Hikes program. The Warrior Hikes program are a bunch of ex military guys, girls, and dogs that are hiking the trail and get hosted at each town by all the vets. They have sponsors and a schedule and the whole nine yards. The Warriors are a very fun group. But often you see trail magic waiting for all hikers but mosty the Warriors.
So after eating biscuits and gravy, candy, sandwiches, guacamole, and getting a small resupplying Hobo and Jersey Girl went into Gatlinburg. Me and Tric wanted to skip the mess that is Gatlinburg so we hiked on to the shelter with another hiker we met named Fairway. At the shelter we were feeling pretty beat from the past few days so we were pretty anti social and just went straight to bed.
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