Welcome to my reliving of my 2015 AT hike. I have decided to share my trip as a day by day memory. Each day I will share my personal journal (what I captured while hiking the trail), my comments (thoughts about the journal/trail from present day), and pictures from the day of the hike.
Miles hiked (day / trip) - 10.8 / 1911.6
Staying - Double Spring Gap
Back on trail after resting my shin. Skipped a little trail to hike w/Darin. Unfortunately, the shin was still hurting. I hope this is not a thing.
Walked up Clingman’s - highest point on the trail.
Haven’t broken Darin yet.
Night hiked - first time.
Addendum - The morning after. The trail in the Smokey’s was harder than I remembered. I recalled mostly dirt w/a few areas of rock/steep. Not a lot of steep (yet), but a lot of rocky/rooty portions.
The views were good. The look of the forest is unkempt. There are down, rotting trees almost everywhere. It takes away from the trail experience (not sure why).
The sunrise is amazing. Deep purples, oranges, reds, blues, yellow... almost every color represented. The sky is overcast and I swear I heard rain drops this morning. I’m hoping its merely fog rain.
Leg felt better this morning - lets hope it stays that way.
I jumped around on the trail. I’ll try to explain, in case you want to know where I am.
I left the trail at NC208 - north of Hot Springs.
I returned to the trail at Newfound Gap in the Smokeys. I am hiking south to Fontana Dam with my brother.
I enjoyed having a hiking partner. I spent a lot of time on the trail alone. It was nice to know I would have someone to talk with.
My brother and I at Clingmans.
Sunset - First time seeing it while hiking.
Fallen trees - that somehow took away from my experience. Weird.
