We are all doing another challenge, in addition to the 900 Miler Challenge and the 100 Mile Centennial Challenge. The additional challenge is called A.T. 100, which is to hike 100 miles on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail in the year 2016, with "at least one being on the Appalachian Trail."
So that leaves some things open to interpretation: "At least one being on the AT" could mean at least one mile, or at least one trail ... We took it to mean at least one trail. Since we hadn't hiked any of the AT this year, we decided to hike a section of it on Saturday, November 12, 2016. The section we chose was up at Clingman's Dome to Newfound Gap via the AT.
A little disclaimer: Each of us had hiked the .5 mile "there and back" (for a mile total) segment up to Clingman's Dome shortly before the official start of our 900 Miler Challenge. So instead of doing it again, we chose to add that mileage into our challenge and took the Bypass Trail up to the AT instead of the .5 mile paved tourist trap trail. The Bypass Trail included a short segment of Forney Creek Trail (0.1 miles).
At the top, the elevation is just over 6500 ft., and the views, which are usually remarkable, were instead quite smoky, and not the typical Smoky Mountain look. The air had the scent of smoke and we were reminded how dry the south is at this point.
Lisa had left before we arrived, as Ken drove up to Newfound Gap, picked up a carload of us (leaving a car behind for shuttling later).
This section of the trail was quiet and offered good views of the meandering Smoky's, (were it not for the smoke, they would have been rated "excellent.")
We picked up the Appalachian Trail and had to get our traditional selfie, using a trekking pole for a selfie-stick. It is beneficial to own Leki poles, as does Pam - she has an optional camera attachment for iPhone that she has added to the pole.
We have hiked a small section (1.7 miles) of the AT late last year, and picked up this section again at the end of this hike. We didn't see any through hikers on the trail. I was hoping to see someone that fit the description ...
Due to the elevation, the scenery was quite different from previous recent hikes, more pines, fewer leaves on the trail, cooler temps.
We met up with Lisa on the AT and took another selfie with the whole group.
And somewhere along the AT, we ended up on Love Mountain. Someone suggested Kiss-ey Selfies, so sorry if this is TMI ... but we couldn't pass that up:
Two hikers passed us in the middle of the selfie-kissing-multiple-attempts ... We suggested that they may be interested in knowing that they were on Love Mountain ... They quickly sped off, after a brief look of possibly horror ... It was suggested that maybe there were brother and sister. Who knows, but they didn't stick around to talk and we never saw them again. Oh well.
After what seemed like a very short time, it was noted that the sun was directly above and this of course signals the stomach to consider it's need for food. So we looked for sunlight along the trail and finally found enough to satisfy us all.
Then began the series of down hill sections, and several knees let several of us know they were quite displeased. It was slow-going for a bit.
On top of Mount Collins, Chuck and Heidi hit their 100 Miles for the 2016 Centennial Celebration! Woo Hoo!
The famous white trail blazes of the AT.
This is cool:
A section of the trail had downed trees everywhere, leaving the large root systems exposed and begging for photographs.
We met up with another hiker, Robert Burton at Fork Ridge Trail intersection. We talked for a while and found out that he has hiked 1600 miles in the Smoky's, has seen 89 bears, and has hiked all the roads in the park. This trail was one of his favorite hikes and he was happy to join us for the remainder of the hike.
He parked at the Road Prong Trail head, so we got a photo of us all at the white blaze for the AT. The best photo was blurry, the sun was setting.
We had 1.7 miles of the AT remaining until Newfound Gap parking area and hiked most of the remainder in the dark. Some of us tried it without headlamps for a while, which worked as long as a fellow hiker didn't ruin the night vision ...
We got in our car and drove back up to the car parked at Clingman's Dome parking area, then came back down and got this shot ... Ken and Lisa had taken off at this time.
The STATS:
Total Mileage hiked: 8.9 PLUS 1.0 miles to and back from Clingman's Dome done previously= 9.9
Mileage Added to 900 Mile Challenge: 7.7 miles
Total Miles Hiked Toward 900 Mile Challenge: 100.3
Miles Added to Centennial Challenge: 8.9 miles
Total Miles Hiked Toward 100 Mile Centennial Goal: 105.6
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