BMT/AT Figure 8 Day 32: Highest Point on the AT
Day 32, Saturday, October 3, 2020
Mt. Collins Shelter to Derrick Knob Shelter
Mile 342.7
Miles Hiked: 13.5
After a fun night of practicing my social skills last night at Mt. Collins Shelter, tonight I’m back to my misanthropic ways, hiding in my tent as waves of hikers roll in and set up their own little portable abodes. It’s not so much misanthropy as me making the mistake of getting into my sleeping bag. Now that I’m in, I don’t want to get out.
These last few nights have been cold.
Last night was one for the record books, in the twenties with me waking up every hour or so to see if I was still alive, still blessed with all of my digits.
There was frost on the ground this morning and ice on the ramp that spirals up to the tower on Clingman’s Dome.
There was also a woman in heels and a mini-skirt.
Which means I won’t be dilly-dallying at the top for long.
But I’m a sucker for information boards that identify the distant peaks all around, the ones I’ve climbed already and the ones I will be climbing in the not too distant future. The tower on Clingman’s Dome did not disappoint.
I was glad to be there early.
