April 18. What an emotional roller coaster!

We have been low on battery so unable to publish our posts. We always want to make sure we have enough battery for photos.

Mark shared about our trail magic at the gap. That was a great evening. We felt so good, we decided to make Tuesday our first 20 mile day. We had a gorgeous sunrise at the shelter. Hiked to Charlie's Bunion and stood in complete awe of the Smokys. This section of our hike from ice water Spring Shelter to Tri Corner Knob Shelter has been our favorite and we hope to bring our kids here someday. At Tri Corner Shelter, we had hiked 12 miles and it was beginning to get cold and wet. We had 8 miles to the next shelter it was 2:30 so with our two mile per hour pace, we decided to go for it. Our perfect day started to go downhill. The fog came in, the rain poured down nonstop, and the temperature was dropping. Our bodies were warm as long as we were moving. When we would stop to break, I would feel an almost immediate chill. No breaks allowed, we just marched hoping there would be room for us in the shelter. Relief came when we heard voices telling us we were close. I knew I would have to quickly get into dry clothes to avoid the chill that would come. This was the most crowded shelter we had encountered and not a friendly group. There was no place to to change. Rain still coming down and we had to find a tent site. Mark wanted to rest but I was feeling too cold to wait. Being the sweet man he is, he agreed to set up the tent now with me. I was so chilled when we finally got in our sleeping bags, we broke a few rules. We ate in our tent and left our food bag right outside. The way I was feeling, I thought it would be the bears mistake to mess with us. It took an hour for the chill to subside. Then we started to feel tiny splashes on our faces. Our tent was leaking. Too tired to care...we dozed off.

6 AM. Still poring rain. Not a stitch of dry clothing available. Even my raincoat was soaked. We knew we were 11 miles from a hostile called Standing Bear. We also knew we would be too cold to break. We would have to get these miles in fast. Packed up all our soaked belongings, dressed in our icy wet clothes and took off. The trail had turned into a river bed with two to three inches of water flowing heavily down. Should we try to avoid the water which could mean more dangerous footing or give in to wet boots and trudge through? Speed called for trudging through so we did. Thankfully it was mostly down the mountain. We hit 8 miles by 11:00 and came into a beautiful waterfall area called Pigeon River. The beauty of the river took our minds off the discomfort and we began to enjoy the hike. We were thrilled to arrive at the hostile.

For 20 per person you get a bed, hot shower (I would've paid 20 for by itself!), a washboard with a sink, and a dryer. The best I could describe this place is like Woodstock without the music. Although, Treepiper played music on his native American flute, a beautiful sound. The cabin we are in with our roommate, Rovious, has a river flowing under it. I will always remember this place! Tonight we are warm, somewhat clean, and best of all, DRY. Sweet dreams from Standing Bear Hostile in Tennessee. We are at mile 264 and heading to Hot Springs.

This last 24 hours I have been overjoyed, exhausted, ready to cry, laughed, relieved.....roller coaster.