The climb up Rocky Top came early, was tough, and caught us by surprise. We’re not sure what the guide book said, but the profile this morning looked to us like the serrated blade of a saw – constant up and down. The panorama view from Rocky Top with the low hanging clouds in the vallies below was spectacular! However, the rocky path continued after the views were past, and our progress seemed barely a crawl as we made the second tough climb of the day up and over Thunderhead Mountain. Looking northwest from the top, we gazed down into lovely Walker Valley which is the home of the Great Smoky Mountain Institute at Tremont, where we hope to stay tomorrow night, and which at the moment might as well have been on the back side of the moon… even the mighty N had a slight crack in his morale, when he calculated we’d only averaged 1 mph for the first two and a half hours.

Fortunately, at this point X flattened the path and kicked in her afterburners, and the sun blessed us with its presence as it burned through the clouds. Just like that it was shorts and t-shirt weather again, as we enjoyed the return of spring in the Great Smokies. And X took off her tobaggon for the first time in 36 hours and donned her more characteristic pink bandana headband.

Once we got the steep up’s and down’s out of the way before lunch, we settled into a decent afternoon filled with sunlight and more gradual inclines and descents. Trust us: we have come to appreciate the restorative power of sunlight like never before.

We arrived at Double Springs Gap Shelter about 5:30pm and snagged two of the last three spaces in the shelter. This is a first for us (sleeping IN a shelter), but we want to be on the trail at daybreak tomorrow with plans to hike the nearly 11 miles to meet our ride at Newfound Gap for a night off the trail: more laundry & resupplying to be done. The shelter is nice, the crowd congenial and we have space to cook and eat our dinner. Rain returns as we’re cleaning up. The sound of the raindrops on the tin roof is soothing and – hopefully – sleep will come easily tonight.