Day 36

Newfound Gap to Ice water Spring Shelter 3.1 – miles AT mile 211.1

Card of the day – 9 of disks

Gatlinburg was a bit of a disaster really.  It’s not really a hiker town and did not have the things hikers need.  It’s not Gatlingburg’s fault, we are just not the towns priority.

The Baptist Church from Saturday has said that they were hopefully running a shuttle on Sunday at 8.30 and 11am.  So turns out there is not a shuttle today and getting out of Gatlingburg is becoming an issue!  We finally get a shuttle booked for 2pm, which changes our plans for the next few days.  Our shuttle driver was amazing however and even did a shop run for us of things we could not pick up on Gatlingburg.

Beam lost her shit because some guy died on a plane when the luggage fell out of the over head locker!  I mentioned that they now specifically tell you to be careful!  She could not stop laughing.

We sat in the brewery having a few beers whilst we waited for our shuttle.  I even ordered cake, which was lovely.  I thought it was Oreo but it was Reece’s.  I’m not the biggest fan of peanut butter, but I still demolished the cake.

The guys dropped their packs at Newfound  gap, and slack packed it from Indian Grave, which only took them about 40 mins.  In that time I was taking advantage of trail magic that was provided by Noah’s ark Ministry, a group of widows that support hikers one weekend a year because one of their husbands had had a heart attack and died on trail.

The section out of Newfound Gap was full of day hikers.  It’s probably odd to tell people they smell so clean, but they really do!  I will however stop mentioning this to them as it’s kinda creepy.

We were in camp by 6.15, I went to the front of the shelter to check out the view and found the people there were not the most friendly crowed, but I guess they are just in their bubble and didn’t want to engage.

Bean found a salamander in her water!  I thought that was kinda cool.  Naturally she emptied it all out and got fresh water.  At least we know they are actually here in the Smokies.