So, I spent four nights in the Smoky's. My hike started and ended in the Clingman's Dome parking lot. I drove up there early on the Monday May 12th. As I drove up, I noticed it to be getting quite foggy. As I turned onto the road to get to Clingman's dome, I noticed that it was not only foggy, but windy. As I reached the top, I found it to not only be foggy and windy, but also cold. I thought to myself... "Do I really want to do this? The wind is blowing at some ungodly speed (my guess is 40 mph), the ground is covered in snow, and visiblity is <50 ft. Really I want to do this?... Really?" Needless to say I was not expecting this. I had previously planned on only bringing a fleece sweater and rain gear in case it got chilly. This was way beyond chilly! However, the beautiful thing about having everything in the suburban is that I just had to grab the extra gear (my winter coat, gloves, beanie, long underwear, thermal top, and fleece shirt) from it and then I was ready to go.

Day 1: Beginning Elevation: 6,300 ft; Highest: 6,300 ft; Lowest: 2,200 ft; Final Elevation: 2,200 ft

Trails: Forney Ridge Trail (5.6 miles) to Springhouse Branch Trail (4.2 miles) ended at Campsite 71 (9.6 miles hiked).

Today's hike was all downhill. This was high impact hiking and really wore on me. I'm guessing my pack was somewhere in the 45-55 lb range today, so my joints were tired when the day was through. After getting started, it didn't take very long for the fog to clear and the weather to start to warm. I'm pretty sure that was because I was quickly losing elevation on my hike. Probably after an hour or so it cleared up completely and the temperature was rising quickly. It was still very windy, mostly gusts, but that was more refreshing than a hinderance as I was quickly shedding layers due to the warming weather. I made it to camp in about 5 hours from when I started, that includes a 30 minute lunch break. I was relieved to have made camp in such good time (I think my joints were relieved as well), because I had never planned a trip like this before and didn't really know what kind of pace I would be able to keep. It was a good break-in day. I did come up with a blister on my right heel, but other than that I was doing fine.

That evening a college couple was using the same campsite and they built themselves a fire and invited me to join. Their names were Katie and Nick. They were from Kentucky and were getting away for a week after school was out. They love the Smoky's and camp there pretty often. Nick is even a Ranger at the park during most summers. So, I ate my dinner with them and then turned in for the night.

Day 2: Beginning Elevation: 2,200 ft; Highest: 3,200 ft; Lowest: 1,600 ft; Final Elevation: 3,200 ft

Trails: Forney Creek Trail (1.3 miles) to Whiteoak Branch Trail (1.8 miles) to Lakeshore Trail (1.9 miles) to Lakeview Drive (1.0 mile) to Noland Creek Trail (6.9 miles) ended at Campsite 62 (12.9 miles hiked).

I did pick up one tip from Nick last night and that was I didn't need to carry that much water because there were so many streams around where I was hiking, that I could just fill up when needed. That saved me about six pounds off my pack because I quit filling a 3 liter container and just carried 2 liters on ther trail. Thank goodness for that, because today was long day on the trail.

I broke camp at around 10:00 AM and didn't reach my next campsite until 4:50 PM. I was lost for about 1 hour 10 minutes of that and took a 30 minute break at one point to refill on water and give my feet a break. I got lost because I didn't reallize how far I had to hike on a road to connect my trails. I wondered around in a valley for a little while, trying to find where my lost trail could be, and eventually concluded that I hadn't hiked far enough on the road. That was the correct conclusion so after 1 hour 10 minutes of wandering, I was back on track. The rest of the hike included 4 or 5 creek crossings, the deepest being about mid calf. I talked with one other fellow on the trail and he was out on his first ever overnight backpacking trek. After talking with him, I thought he was a bit ambitious with where he was trying to spend the night, but he was determined to make it to the campsite he had chosen. I wished him luck and continued hiking. About an hour after seeing him, I made it to my campsite... What a long day!

Day 3: Beginning Elevation: 3,200 ft; Highest: 4,250 ft; Lowest: 2,400 ft; Final Elevation: 3,100 ft

Trails: Noland Creek Trail (2.5 miles) to Pole Raod Creek Trail (3.3 miles) to Deep Creek Trail (3.6 miles) ended at Campsite 53 (9.4 miles hiked).

Today was an on and off rainy day. The hike was beautiful, with 4 or 5 more river crossings. I feel bad for the first-timer, because I think he ended up sleeping on the side of the trail last night. I saw a small bundle of parially burnt sticks, a kleenex wrapper, and a headlamp strap right beside the trail. Poor fella was probalby <1 mile from his campsite before he tuckered out... or lost daylight.

Anyway, I ate on the trail today because of the on/off rain only taking a few short pit stops. The hike took 5 hours 15 minutes and I was in camp by 3:00 PM. Too bad it continued to rain on/off so I wasn't able to do much around the camp. I did however locate a couple sets of bear tracks that seemed to be heading in and out of my campsite, so I was on high alert that night. Because of the rain, I ended up going to bed around 9:00 PM.

Day 4: Beginning Elevation: 3,100 ft; Highest: 6,643 ft; Lowest: 3,100 ft; Final Elevation: 6,300 ft

Trails: Fork Ridege Trail (5.1 miles) to Appalachain Trail (3.7 miles) to Clingman's Dome Bypass Trail (0.5 miles) ended at the Suburban (9.2 miles hiked).

It was still rainy when I woke so I broke camp early, about 8:15 AM. Today was pretty much all uphill and it was pretty steep at times. It took about 6 hours 20 minutes to finish today's hike with about 1 hour worth of breaks. The rain lasted all day and as I approahed the top it began to get foggy/windy/chilly again. At the top of Clingman's dome there is an observation tower; however, due to the poor conditions I couldn't see anything... Nuts! What a trip though. The mountains, creeks, trees... everything was just gorgeous. It was a blast.