Thu. Mar. 24, Day 14, Newfound Gap, 12.1 miles, 6:35 hours, 1.83 mph, 207.0 hiked / 1,960.1 to go.

Stayed on the ridge line while hiking. In the morning the winding was very strong. Being on the ridge you really feel it. For the first couple hours the clouds were moving over the tops. I was sure it was going to start to rain. It is above freezing. It then cleared out and the sun came out. It was great.

 

While hiking today I left the forrest with deciduous trees, trees that lose their leaves in the winter, and entered into a lush timber Forrest. It was like walking through a door. Left one room and entered another. Since then I have been in a beautiful timber Forrest. None of the deciduous trees have had leaves, and it has been barren. The timber Forrest reminded me of Washington state with moss. It is very pretty. With the wind blowing I could smell the pine.

 

Beautiful

 

 

Trail still snowy and slushy

 

There were a couple steep climbs as we stayed on the ridge line. Don't like those. The trail was also tough in some areas with large rocks and timber step ups and downs. There were some steps that my grand children could not have done. The short 12 miles was nice. Went by quickly.

 

From Newfound Gap to Gatlinburg, TN I hitch hiked. It was that or $40 cab fee. There was a large parking lot. I cleaned off my shoes in the snow, best I could and stood by the exit of the lot. The very first car that looked like it had an empty back seat I asked. They said yes. They were great. They had a daughter in the back seat that I couldn't see. She was almost 10. Daisy. The husband was originally from Poland, Jan. The wife who said yes right away was Holly. Jan asked me to email them about my hike. I am going to send them my blog link. They drove me right to my hotel. I didn't have my map orientated and they ended up driving all the way through town and back to take me to my hotel. That took 1/2 hour at least because of the traffic. It was very busy.

 

Newfound Gap in Great Smokey National Park

 

Gatlinburg is a resort town. It sits on the edge of the Park. As we drove down there were several places you could stop. Very pretty. I was glad I didn't have to hike to the top, but wait I did just a couple days before. A couple thousand feet elevation. WOW.