Day 93 - Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Yesterday was a travel day for us. I met Turtle Power at the Fontana Dam Visitors Center where we left my car as this is the southern end of the Great Smoky Mountains and we then went to Cherokee, NC to spend the night. We continued to Newfound Gap, US 441 (207.7 NoBo) this morning to resume the AT through the Smokys. This will be a 3 day/2 night hike.

Hopefully the weatherman will be right as no rain is in the forecast for the next several days. We experienced torrential rain the last couple days so I’m thankful we weren’t on the trail then.  Nighttime lows will also be mild, but then again it is officially Summer. To save on my pack base weight I’m not bringing my tent and plan to use the shelters each night. Just in case the shelters are full and as backup, I did pack my fly, footprint and tent poles to use as a supplemental free standing shelter if needed.  Today we will hike to the Silers Bald Shelter (195.5 NoBo) equaling 12.2 miles.

We began hiking at 9 am and with clear skies and the temperature was 57°… here we go!






Started right off with a 3.4 mile long climb with a change of elevation nearly 1100 ft making our way to Clingmans Dome.








Clingmans Dome observation tower.








Views from Clingmans Dome… spectacular!



Rhododendron’s still in bloom. 





Made it to the Silers Bald Shelter at 5:45 pm. There were 5 other section hikers there. Met a section hiker and his son who are from Tallahassee, Florida. They hiked in camping a couple days then hiking out to Miry Ridge Trail tomorrow.







A few other guest showed up later… walked around as if they owned the place. 

Everyone gets ready for bed around 8 pm. Turtle Power and I stayed up to about 9 waiting for any bears to pop in, but not tonight. There’s always tomorrow 🤞🏼.

And the weatherman was right… so far. We had sunny skies with temperatures in the high 60’s 😉. 

Till next time... Happy Hiking   🥾 

😋


“You gotta have passion for life and passion for something that you're going to get up and do,".    

                                Meredith “Sunny” Eberhart  


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