It got really windy overnight, a consistent 30-40mph starting at 8pm around 1pm a Thunderstorm rolled in. Luckily the rain stopped by dawn, but the wind picked up to a steady 40mph, threatening to blow us off the ridge lines.

Aside from the wind/cold, the trail was not bad at all. It wound us through old growth stands of giant pine trees.  The change in vegetation was a nice.

 We walked to Clingman’s, the highest point on the AT at over 6400 ft. It was too windy and foggy though, we couldn’t see anything.

The wind was relentless all day and kept it cold any time we were exposed on a ridgeline or came out of the forest near a clearing.

At one point, the trail cut out near a parking lot on an old back road and I stopped to wait for the rest of the group. It was freezing in the wind, so I found shelter in a bulldozer!

Get warm CHECK!

Fulfill childhood dream of sitting in a real life Tonka Truck CHECK!

The sun finally came out (though the cold and wind persisted) and we were able to actually see off into the distance

In the afternoon we had worked or way to Newfound Gap which had a parking lot full of tourists braving the cold wind for a couple minutes to snap a picture before running back to the car.

It had nice views, was right on the NC/TN border and most importantly, had a large stone building that held heated restrooms!

After talking with a couple other hikers and checking online for a forecast, we found out a snowstorm was coming on Saturday with over a foot of snow up in the mountains.  We decided to try and get a ride into Gatlinburg to ride out the storm.

We would have had about 30 miles to cover in two days to get out of the Smokies, had we continued on.

We happened to find a family from Ohio that we had talked to on the trail earlier in the day, that offered us a ride into town in their minivan.  So we piled in and headed to town.

We still have to figure out a plan for the next couple days, but for now we arm and dry!