START TIME: 5:05 AM 
END TIME: 9:15 PM
Well, I’m happy to report that Jen is halfway through the Smokies . . . and she has NOT been struck by lightning yet.
She woke up at the usual time and started climbing down Snowbird Mountain. And a few minutes later I had the tent and gear in the car and was heading down the mountain, too.
Several days ago, Matt-freakin’-Kirk agreed to hike with Jen again, this time through Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We were really psyched about that, but we were also concerned about the two 30+ mile stretches of trail through the park that had no road crossings. (That’s Davenport Gap to Newfound Gap and Clingmans Dome to Fontana Dam).
I wanted to make those monster stretches as easy as possible for them so when a trail runner from Knoxville named Kevin Hancock contacted me on Facebook several weeks ago to offer his services, I took him up on it.
Kevin and I met at Davenport Gap around 6:25 AM and I gave him food for the re-supply: a ham and cheese wrap, lots of snacks, juice water, and a Pepsi. He headed off toward Cosby at 6:45 and started hiking up the Low Gap side trail, which intersects with the AT about 14 miles into the 31.3-mile stretch from Davenport to Newfound Gap.
5 minutes after Kevin left, Matt and Lily Kirk drove up with Uhwarrie chasing them up the gravel road. He’d been running all the way from the North Carolina border. Which was only two miles away, but still.
The Kirks brought two McGriddles for Jen and two sausage and egg biscuits for me. (I have to say, I’ve really grown fond of McDonald’s these last six weeks. I love the sausage burritos and sweet tea on the $1 menu, the frappes that cost half as much as Starbucks, and the free wifi. Of course, we’ll detox when we get home and start eating real fruits and vegetables again, but McDonald’s has really come through for us since the hike began.)
Anyway, Jen reached Davenport Gap around 7:35 and she and Matt were off by 7:50. Lily headed to Joyce Kilmer with Uwharrie and I headed to that quaint little hamlet nestled at the foot of the Smokies: Gatlinburg.
The rear windows on our car have been stuck in the down position for the past several days. We were lucky it didn’t rain on us and that no one snatched our laptops during that time, but we didn’t want to push our luck, so I went into town to get them fixed, at least temporarily.
But that wasn’t the only thing I did during my roughly eight hours of free time. I’ve been hearing for years about Pigeon Forge, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It’s kind of like Myrtle Beach. Or Vegas. Except Vegas has glittering casinos and five star restaurants, and Pigeon Forge has pancake joints and putt-putt.
Speaking of putt-putt, I played a round at one of the most prestigious putt-putt courses in North America. Since I’m into comparisons in this blog, I think I would say it’s the Pebble Beach of putt-putt: open to the public, but very exclusive. It’s called Hillbilly Golf. It costs $11 per round (not cheap by putt-putt standards) and it’s on the side of a ridge so you have to ride an incline rail to get to the course. I played there on a family reunion over 25 years ago. And it was better than I remembered.
I had a makeable hole-in-one on number 18 to make even par for the round, but I choked. Ugh. I was really hoping for a Tiger Woods moment: not the “cheating on your wife with a dozen women” type of moment, but the “winning the U.S. Open with a torn ACL” type of moment.
After putt-putt, I headed toward Newfound Gap where I rendezvoused with our pastor John Greene and our friend Isaiah Mosteller. John loves hiking and is uber-supportive of Jen’s record attempt. Every Sunday before church, I call to give him an update and ask for prayers during the service.
Isaiah loves hiking, too, and was more than happy to handle the re-supply between Clingman’s and Fontana Dam on day two of the Smokies. So he’d come out early to spend the night with us.
Jen and Matt reached Newfound Gap around 6:25. They took a 20-minute pit stop then continued climbing toward Clingmans. We met them a couple times along the road before the final stop under the Observation Tower.
All in all, it was another solid day for Jen and the Pit Crew. We were thankful to have good weather and to have reached Clingmans Dome, which is the highest point on the AT. (That’s right, New Englanders. It’s higher than your blessed Mt. Washington.) I wish very much that I could say “It’s all downhill from here,” but we all know these last 200 miles will be brutal.