Clingman’s Dome Highest point of the AT
Starting mile 190.1
Today has a couple of trail milestones, the highest point on the trail and I’ll cross the 200 mile mark. I got moving a little earlier today than yesterday because I was hoping to get to Clingmans Dome for lunch today. Just like yesterday the morning was going to be the easiest part of the day with most of the elevation gain accomplished in the second half of the day.
My first stop of the morning was at the Silers Bald Shelter where I needed to refill my water. When I got to the shelter I looked around and found some backpacking gear laid out nicely along with a hanging bear bag. I figured someone was out getting water. When I went to fill my water there wasn’t anyone there. I was a little concerned, but thought maybe they were just off exploring the area. It was a weekend so people will do that around here.
It only took me a couple of more minutes to figure out this mystery. That gear belonged to a trail maintainer who was up for the weekend replacing steps up the mountain. I sat there and talked to him for fifteen minutes about all the work they still had to do in the wake of hurricane Helene from a couple of years ago. Ken has been working on trails in the park for the last 25 years and really enjoys coming up for a weekend of trail work whenever he can. Eventually I thanked him for his work and moved up the trail.
I had some great views from Silers Bald and quickly got to Double Spring Shelter where I decided to stay for lunch. My stop with Ken put me far enough behind that I was going to make it to Clingmans Dome by lunch so this was as good a place as not to have lunch before the long climb to the Dome. It was going to be a 1,200 foot climb over the next two miles.
After lunch I started the climb. The first mile was very exposed with the sun beating down on me. When I get into Gatlinburg I think I’m going to try to find a sun hoodie for these exposed days. I know the back of my neck is getting a lot of sun. While it was still a good climb I enjoyed when we got into the Spruce-Fir Forrest that surrounds the Dome. It really cooled everything off, and it was neat seeing all the moss covered trees as well as the giant root balls with the fallen trees.
I continued to climb until I started running into day hikers. That was when it flattened out and before I knew it I was on a paved trail with hundreds of regular people. This place was a zoo. When I got to the tower there wasn’t any free space because there were so many people. I climbed to the top, walked around it once and headed back down. It had nice views but no better than I get every day out here.
I high-tailed it back in the woods and away from the throngs of tourists. In that fifteen minutes I probably saw more people than I have in the last two weeks. I continued walking for an hour trying to get away before I decided to take a break. During that hour I crossed the 200 mile mark. Only another 2,000 miles to the end. I only had another mile to camp but I really needed a break so I just sat down on the side of the trail. It was a nice fifteen minute break.
It took me another 45 minutes but I finally made it to camp. While we were relaxing at camp a Search and Rescue guy came by. We were all a little worried, but everything was OK, he was just heading home and decided to hike down to the shelter. He told us that a group of eight was going to be at the shelter. All the thru hikers were happy about this because we didn’t have to stay in the shelter. By the time they arrived I was already in my hammock for the night.
I ended up doing thirteen miles and about 4,000 feet of elevation gain. Tomorrow I have 4.5 miles to Newfound Gap and a zero day in Gatlinburg.
Ending mile 203.1