May 13: Derrick Knob Shelter to Double Spring Gap Shelter. GSMNP

37 degrees was the low for the night, the sky stayed clear and the wind dropped, sleeping was good. The sun was warming us nicely as we ate breakfast. More good conversation was made. Today will be a short day, just 7.2 miles. We lounged around talking with Phexen making it out of the shelter around 10AM.
The day was warming quickly and CC felt it on every hill. Most of the day was spent climbing as the park portion of the trail climbs towards Clingman’s Dome then drops towards the Pigeon River and I40. We made quite good time and covered the distance by 2:15PM. We saw a large number of Southbound Park hikers and played leap-frog with our pod of Northbounders.
Arriving at the shelter we found one woman, Tina a park hiker, doing some reading and resting for the push up Clingman’s tomorrow. This was one of the shelters that has chain link fence across the front to protect the hikers from bears and wild hogs that roam the park. The interior was quite run down and CC asked for a tent night again. This tenting around the shelters is against the rules unless the shelter space is completely filled. Rules are rules and marital bliss is another matter altogether, so the tent went up. Hikers started filtering in by ones and twos. Soon the shelter was full and we were safe. One of the hikers who has been in our pod for the last two days is "Kitchen Sink." This refers to his pack which had everything but the sink, some 75lbs to start out with. He is a chef who had been down in New Orleans working in a relief kitchen for the past two years and is now walking back to Virginia and home. He is quite the story teller and then his walking partner "Hans," a German national here on vacation, prepare real meals at every meal. Kitchen Sink's food bag weighs over 25lbs alone. A fine time was had by all. Just before dark "Zek” the carpenter and his wife “Happy Camper" came into camp. They are an older couple and Zek resembled ZZ Top. Just before everyone
hit the sack, Zek asked permission to play his mouth harp. All agreed it would be nice so he played taps as the headlamps flickered out.

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

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