We took showers at the Hilton and got.on our way. Today begins the 3 day slow climb to the top of Clingman's Dome. We crossed the dam with Ghost and hiked pretty much all day with him.
On the way across the dam they apparantly require horse rescue rings to be spaced every few dozen feet.
Midway up the mountain we had to decide whether to take a 0.1 side trail farther up hill to the fire tower.The biting flies drove ghost, Becca, and myself up the tower while Sarah I guess just dealt with the flies.
The tower was.sketchy as hell. Though the steps had relatively new wood stairs, the missing handrail, and many rusted pieces of tower that littered the hill around it shook my confidence. The top of the tower was worse, with rotten floor boards covered by two layers of water logged plywood too shore it up. Oh, and a huge mound of birdshit. It looks like some eagle routinely perches in the same corner of the tower to create the mound. Becca ate lunch with her legs swinging off the top pstair platform like a skyscraper construction worker. She was braver than I as I had to descend several levels before feeling comfortable enough to eat.
Next awesome thing was acres of tiny flowers creating a virtual flower carpet along a ridgeline. Eventually the beauty ended and we hiked the last miles to the shelter.
The smokies require a shwlter.to be filled.up before anyone is allowed to camp. Rumors of a storm led.me to.convince Becca to try the a shelter for the first time despite the fact that 15 people were needing to tent camp. She begrudgingly agreed. Fast forward to the morning and she loved being out of the wind and rain and we didn't get any mice on our faces.
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