Gatlinburg, TN May 27th

I am sitting in the lobby of the Grand Prix Motel. So much has happened since my last post. I have met a whole lot of interesting people along the trail, with so many different stories. That is sometimes the best part. The hiking is really rough, trying to hike 18 or 20 mile days, but meeting people is fun. We've still have been eating mostly pasta for dinner and snacking all day, not stopping for lunch. We have entered the Smoky Mountain National park about three days ago and hopefully we will be on our way out in two days. The trail has been running along the TN/NC border. It is really cool because you are hiking the trail but you're in two states at the same time. Resupplying has been taking longer then we expected. It is really hard to go into a town and not get distracted! Since we have been in the National Park we have seen some really nice views. On Thunderhead Mountain it was so nice, all you could see were mountains. I even said to my brothers i wanted to play Thunderstruck on top of Thunderhead mountain. They didn't get it, only a few people out there would get that one. When we woke up yesterday morning at Silers Bald Shelter, we walked 1.7 miles to the next shelter. When we got there we were standing and chatting with some other hikers when a Deer just came walking up only about 10 feet from us and started eating grass. It was really nice to see that. Yesterday we hiked to the top of Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the trail at 6,600 feet. Dave and Doug put their grandmother's ashes on top of Clingmans. It was a little hazy but it was still the best view I've seen all trip. We got to Newfound gap and hitched a ride from a really nice couple that drove us 15 miles, and had a lot of interesting stories to tell us! Hopefully we will find a ride back to the trail head so we do not have to pay $10! My feet and body still hurt, i hope they start to feel better by Virginia. That is what most people say will happen. We are heading to breakfast to get a good meal before we go back out and then we will stop in Hot Springs for our next resupply.

Mike "Rolex"
GPS Logs:
http://wbafinc.motionbased.com
Williams Brothers Adventure Foundation:
http://www.wbafinc.org