Days 25 and 26 – Gatlinburg Double Zero 

I’m going to just hit the highlights for my double zero in Gatlinburg. Lolly and I decided to take two days off once we saw the weather forecast. 

Wednesday – heavy rain and thunderstorms

Thursday – severe thunderstorms, 2 inches of rain, flood warnings 

I physically don’t need a double. But with that much rain forecast plus what the last 5 days have been like, I’ll take two days.

Oh yes, and it turns out I got poison ivy on my lower legs and arms yesterday due to … an emergency bathroom stop on the trail. And I have a blister on my right foot. And I picked up some kind of trench foot. Ran back to Walgreens for meds for the poison ivy and trench foot. Will see how much both of those heal up by Friday morning. 

Lolly and I are splitting a shuttle back to Clingman’s Dome at 10:00 Friday morning. Using Starr shuttle service.

On Wednesday I took Gatlinburg’s free trolley service to a laundromat and washed everything that I was not currently wearing. I think I looked like a homeless guy. I’m not shaving until I finish this adventure. The couple sitting at the laundromat got up and moved away from me when I took off the socks I was wearing, put them in the wash, and put my shoes back on with no socks.

“And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and gave me the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things” – Alice’s Restaurant

And the moment I leave the laundromat to wait at the trolley stop, guess what happens? Really….I will give you 3 guesses!

Ran into 3 hikers that I’ve been leapfrogging for the past week on the trolley on the way back to the hotel. Chatted a bit about the weather and plans for getting back on the trail.

Got back to the room, lanced my blister, and bandaged it up. 

Didn’t do much on Thursday. Stopped at the local outfitter and bought one more good load-bearing carabiner. Tossed the cheap piece of junk carabiner that broke on me a few days ago. You get what you pay for. 

Took the trolley to the post office and shipped 2 pounds 11 ounces of stuff home. Remember from my pre-hike blogs, weight is everything! Shipping out some cold weather gear, some miscellaneous gear, and some food I don’t need. I still have some cold weather gear, just not as much…I’m learning. One thing to note is that I’m sending my insulated puffy jacket home. That is the big black thing in the picture below. I have only worn it twice. I wear my fleece much more often and I can put my heavy rain coat on over the fleece if it is cold enough or windy. I’ve slept in the fleece several times on really cold/damp nights.

I washed my inflatable sleeping pad. It really reeked! 

I spent a lot of time today revising my schedule based on lessons learned to date. I’ve got it updated up to Harper’s Ferry. I’ll post that along with blog updates shortly.

After that, I finished writing up all the blogs for the past 6 days. I will post them later tonight after dinner. This entire half of town has no internet service today. All the businesses are struggling and using backup systems or cash only. Supposed to be fixed soon, but still no internet service at the hotel as of 7:30 Thursday night. At least I have good cell service.