Wednesday June 13, miles today 15.8, miles from Springer 195.1

Obi Wan and I escaped out of the crowded Mollies ridge shelter early after a quick cup of coffee and a power bar.  Major Tom and Hellcat were not far behind.  It was very foggy, visibility was bad.  We went about six miles and stopped on top of a grassy hill called Spence Field for a proper breakfast.  I had coffee, grits and chocolate.  It was a pretty eerie scene with all the fog morning over the hill.  The trail from there to our Derick Knob shelter changed from a shared horse/hiker trail to a hiker only trail and became exceedingly rugged with extreme ups and downs but lots of great views, unfortunately the fog and now rain ruined the views.  We arrived at Derick Knob shelter at about 1 pm and had lunch.  We then decided to go 6 more miles to Silers Knob shelter which would position us for an early climb the next day of Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the AT.

A visit to an outfitter was now becoming more important for Major Tom.  He was now hiking in his spare Nike running shoes because his high ankle boots were tearing up his feet but his running shoes were slipping on a lot of the rocks.  He had a nasty fall the previous day where he broke one of his trekking poles.  Engineer that he is he did a great job with a stick and duct tape repairing it but today he took another fall bending the other pole.

About two miles before our day's destination I came across a young couple where the girl was walking barefoot without a pack and the guy was carrying everything.  I guess she decided to throw away her high heels.  I wondered if they knew about the nasty rocks coming up.  They were smiling and having a good time so I wished them luck and continued on.

We made it to Silers Knob shelter in early evening and shared it with a father and three children who were hiking from Hot Springs, NC to Springer, a 275 mile hike.  Estimating the kids ages I would say a 14 year old girl, 11 year old boy and a 9 year old girl.  They seemed very organized and the kids morale seemed good, I think they will make it if they have enough time.