Tuesday 13th May - Tuesday 20th May

Distance Covered: 56.9 miles
Miles to Finish: 1996.9 miles

We headed to Sassafras gap where we met ‘rewind’, ‘bearbait’ and ‘homewardbound’ – a tough hike after the food the day before. Charlie woke up to a mouse in his hair in the middle of the night and some people claim he cried – Charlie will later deny this. We then embarked on a 22 mile marathon hike to Fontana dam shelter (nicknamed the Hilton if a shelter ever can be!) in monsoon conditions.

Here we meet the famous ‘snakegripper’ (who had no food early in the hike so casually killed a snake and ate it!). One older American hiker told of his resentment towards Europeans after his 17yr old daughter missed her coach to the airport when on study abroad in Spain. She was kissing a local and this resulted in him having to pay a 500 euro cab fare for him over the phone in the middle of the night.

After drying out our packs Charlie and Michael arrived early at the little shop at the dam. They ended up having coffee outside with Lucy, who studied spiritualism under a medium for several years. Lucy was outrageously accurate in her assessment of them.

We now enter the famous Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is reknowned for being one of the most beautiful parts of the trail. It is also one of the most diverse ecosystems along the trail. The team split for the first time staying at different shelters, unfortunately this was not due to a fist fight but mere weather conditions and also because Paul and Tom are struggling to get out of bed. Surprised anyone?!

Above: The underneath of an upturned tree.

Below is Rocky Top mountain, one of the most picturesue views we've seen yet.

Charlie couldn't resist going 'au naturel'.

We arrived at Cligman's Dome, the highest point of the trail, instead of being treated to stunning views across the Smoky Mountains we could only see as far as about 100 metres due to the fog.

At the moment we are well behind the required rate, slightly by accident but also deliberately as we ease ourselves into the swing of things. We then meet a fireman who's doing the 70 miles of the Smoky Mountains national park in 3 days, putting us to shame with our average mileage of about 10 miles a day.

He did find our stories highly amusing however, mainly the ones of how we set off at 2 p.m. due to lie ins. He said he hadn't woken up after 8 for years, oh dear think we need to change our mindset as he's obviously more successful than we are!