Bly Gap to Newfound Gap

Made it to mile 200 yesterday!!  I am now rewarding myself with my first true zero in Gatlinburg, TN.  I am not really done with North Carolina yet, the trail walks along the border of NC and TN for awhile then goes back and forth.  Since Georgia, I have been seeing some beautiful country, saw 7 bear (one mama with 3 cubs and one with 2), made my way to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, which is stationed on the Nantahala river, great little stop for some real food and a little bit of live music for a night.  After that I had a day and a half of great weather getting me to Fontana Dam.  While at the shelter just south of Fontana Dam it started to rain.  The others that were staying there said that it was supposed to last the whole next day...

I took this as an opportunity to try out my rain gear!!  So I got all of my 'special gear' (sleeping bag and electronics) wrapped in trash bags, put the pack cover that was given to me by Blueberry in Neel's Gap (THANK YOU!!), and put my new rain jacket on with the hood up and headed out around 8:30 in the morning.  I crossed the dam which provided nice views of the lake, and then entered the Great Smoky Mountains on the other side.  After I was completely soaked (around 8:45)  I really started to enjoy hiking in the rain.  It was one of my favorite days on the trail so far!  I found it kind of novel to just be out walking soaking wet, and if I wasn't worried about my stuff getting wet (which it didn't) I would have enjoyed it even more, which I am sure I will next time now that I know I can trust my system!!  There was thunder and lightning throughout the day as well, luckily the lightning never got closer than 7 miles away so I felt pretty safe and actually managed to put in some good miles.  The rain actually started to clear up around 4:00 and this was right as I got to some of the balds (large tree-less areas), which provided amazing views right after the storm!  The balds throughout the Smoky's have been just beautiful thus far.  It is kind of a shame that I was unable to take any pictures this day because it was amazing...

After my day in the rain, I woke up to a sunny morning and semi-dry shoes thanks to some awesome shelter mates that kept a fire going throughout the night!!  So I ate a little breakfast and got on my way, only 10 miles to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Tennessee and the highest on the trail!!  I was so excited, but that 10 miles killed me... for some reason I was just sapped of all energy and had to take tons of breaks and eat all of my snacks that I had left, but I made it.  It was a great moment, making it to my 34th state high point and the highest point on the trail at the same time:)  I spent about an hour there talking to people, taking pictures, going down to the visitors center.  I then got back on the trail for another 8 miles to Newfound Gap where I needed to find a ride to Gatlinburg.  About 5 minutes into the downhill hike, I saw a blue drysack roped to the end of a log by the trail... On it was some tape with "For Stacy from California" written on it... Some very specific trail magic:)  So I open up the dry sack and in it is an MP3 player and a note from one of the singers, Dwayne, that had played at the open mic night at the NOC and that I had talked to for awhile that night...  He had written me a song!!  Needless to say, this gave me something to listen to for the next 8 miles, and pretty much made my day.  So I made quick work of the trip to Newfound Gap through a lot of dead and down trees and made my way into Gatlinburg for my first '0' day!! 

Loving life, I have many good pictures on my camera unfortunately the only ones I am able to post here right now are off of my phone...