Day 18- Mt Collins Shelter to Peck's Corner Shelter

Monday May 23rd
Total Miles Hiked: 217.3
Miles Hiked Today: 14.5
Weather: Sunny and Cool
Trail Magic Received in the past 24 hours: 2 Pepsi, 2 Muffins, a bag full of Pay-day candy bars, a bag of dried fruit, a Chicken Rice meal, Fritos and 2 Lemon Biscotti

   This was probably our best day on the trail.  The section from Newfound Gap to Peck's Corner Shelter was amazing, great views in both directions,  most of it was a ridgeline that dropped off in both directions.  We were walking on the spine of the Smokies.  I highly recommend this section if you want to do a day hike or overnight on the AT.

     Our morning started early,  we were packed up and left camp by 0730.  We made good time down to Newfound Gap.

At Newfound Gap we took off our soaked shoes and socks to dry in the sun, and started making an early Lunch. My socks drying on the end of my trekking poles received as much attention as we did.

As we hung out, tourists would periodically come by and gawk at the AT hikers. Some asked us questions.

For example:
Do you sleep in the woods? What do you eat, do you forage along the way?

We were doing our best Yogi-ing (Hiker term for trying to get access to the picnic baskets) when it finally paid off. A fellow asked: "Would you like a soda or some kind of snack?"  We got very excited, and he brought us 2 Pepsi and 2 Muffins.

Score!

Fueled by our cans of Pepsi,  we charged up the next climb and took our next break at Icewater Spring shelter.

 In addition to sun and a beautiful view, this shelter had a strong 4G LTE Verizon signal, so we made a voice call home. 

The views along this section of trail are simply amazing.

 We stopped at Charlie's Bunion where throngs of day hikers lined up to see the view. I cringed at the steep cliff coupled with clueless tourists, I was just waiting for someone to fall.

It was not an easy section of trail, but we have enough hiking under our legs that it wasn't very hard. The Smokies are known for being one of the most difficult sections of the trail, but if you start at Springer, by the time you get here you can climb anything. Hiking through the Smokies with no preparation would be quite hard. Hiking the Smokies by starting at Springer makes them much easier.

Yes, the privies on the AT in the Smokies have wheelchair compliant hand rails. Only located 6 miles from a wheelchair accessible path.