Hiking Trail Journals

Appalachian Trail 2003 - Chelsea's Journals

Entry #29 - April 20, 2003

8:30 PM – In my sleeping bag @ Mt Collins Shelter.  We are here with Easy E, Rumbler, 3 guys who are hiking to Damascus, and 6 “weekend” hikers from Boston.

We left around 8 this morning – it’s Andy’s Birthday!  I told him “Happy birthday but I’m sorry, I didn’t get you anything!” He was very disappointed – Ha Ha! But Oh, well…  I told him when we got to the top of Clingman’s Dome, there’d probably be vending machines so I would buy him a Pepsi.  10 miles later, we got to the top of Clingman’s and there was this huge cement spiral overlook.  There were tons of tourists buzzing around who had walked up a half mile from the parking lot.  A lot of them gawked at us, it seemed, or maybe they were just reacting to our sweaty stench, heehee! We walked to the top, but there wasn’t too much of a view – too much fog.  Also, there were no vending machines, so no birthday treats for Andy.  Hiked another 3 or 4 miles then to the shelters. All in all, it was a pretty good day of hiking, especially for going over the highest point on the Trail.  Tomorrow we’ll be going 15 miles.

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