My third section of the AT has officially begun! Wooot! After yesterday's long drive (which culminated in a hellish traffic jam in the not-so-lovely burgs of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg), Cindy, Monika, and I spent the night at a hotel and got up bright and early this morning to leave the civilized world behind for six days. We parked my car at Clingman’s Dome at 8:30 a.m. and got shuttled to NOC at Wesser. We were all pretty charged up and couldn’t wait to get within sight of the white blazes!
After hiking all day, all I can say is, there must have been some kind of miscalculation on the map. What felt like 20 miles was actually a mere 6.9. But it was all—and I do mean all—uphill. And steep. They don't seem to believe in switchbacks here. I am astonished that it took us over four and a half hiking hours to go under seven miles.
Remind me again why I do this? I’ve concluded that backpacking is like childbirth: once you reach the end, you feel so triumphant and giddy that you tend to forget the pain involved in getting there.
Day 1 of any hiking trip almost always feels like a kick in the shorts, but the hiking today cannot be described in any other way than brutal. Funny, because yesterday as we were driving into Gatlinburg and I caught site of “my” Smokies, I was feeling all cozy inside, like it was some kind of homecoming. I actually sensed a bit of kinship with these mountains, after all we’ve been through together. Well, if yesterday was like coming home, today was like getting slapped by your grandma and spat upon by your cousins. It didn’t help that (once again) I’m trying to beat a nasty head cold, which developed in full form just two days before we left Michigan. I brought cold medicine with me but am hoping to avoid using it. It makes me feel so loopy. And loopiness doesn't go well with overexertion.
I am so impressed with Monika and Cindy, who hung tough through every mile today. (Though I do believe I heard the word "sucks," along with some disgruntled murmuring, from behind me as we were fighting our way up the side of Swim Bald.) Here's a shot of Monika resting as we took a break from our ascent.
Hiking with others is definitely a different experience than hiking solo. For one thing, I spend a lot less time thinking about quitting. Or worrying about dying. Instead, I spend way too much time fretting about my pace. 
Am I going too fast? Too slow? Gasping and grunting too loudly as I struggle up the steep incline? On the plus side though, the companionship is nice, especially because these two both love the trees and the trail as much as I do. And hiking with friends means you always have a lookout person to guard the trail while you pee in the woods. You never know when a gaggle of Boy Scouts will come trudging around the bend.
Speaking of pace, and hiking with others—I knew from the get-go that this would be an issue for me, and I am putting a good deal of effort into slowing down instead of constantly charging ahead. It is difficult, because I am usually a push-through-as-efficiently-as-your-legs-will-carry-you kind of hiker. I actually think I tire more easily when I go slowly, because it takes longer. But I don’t want to make this trip all about me, so I’m trying hard to match the pace of the others. I don’t know if I’m doing a very good job of it.
I am beat and it’s not quite seven o’clock. I need to go to bed. A young couple named Sarah and Price are sharing our shelter (which is pictured below with Monika sitting at the "bar"), plus another guy who arrived later, and a group of four men are tenting nearby. Hopefully the mice around the shelter will leave us alone. And since there’s no bear cable here, hopefully the bears will follow suit.
Hiking time: 4 hours, 40 minutes (6:15 with breaks)
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