State Highpoint Number Six:

TENNESSEE (6)

Date: Friday, November 5, 1999
Peak: Clingmans Dome
Height: 6,643 feet
Vertical Climb: 330 feet
Round-trip Mileage: 1 mile
Peak Class: #2
Height Rank: #17 of 50
Difficulty Rank: #27 of 50

Entered the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at almost exactly noon and drove to the Visitor’s Center and stamped my book and got a day hiking map. Drove to Smokemont and picked out campsite A7---an excellent site kind of secluded and across the road from a babbling brook and the whole site was just scenic. Set up the tent and arranged my campsite and drove to Clingman’s Dome.
Roads were sanded and the ranger at the campground said it had snowed the past Tuesday but it was short-sleeve shirt weather this afternoon. Drove up the seven miles to the dome---which looks like a flying saucer. Sheer icicles hanging on the bluffs and show everywhere on the ground.
The dome walk was a one-mile strenuous climb and took 20 minutes. Took pictures at the top and climbed the spiraling walkway to the observation point. Took picture of a couple and they took a picture of me at the base.
When I got to the bottom I ate half the sandwich and drank some water while sitting on a bluff and looking out over a valley which was “smoky” and beautiful. Drove over to Newfound Gap and returned back toward the campsite.
That night I ate over a campfire and the temperature started dropping---and I mean it really started dropping. I climbed into the tent and my sleeping bag and could not get warm. Basically I spent the night shivering and shaking and was too cold to get out and get in the truck and run the heater. It was one of the coldest nights I've spent since I was in the army in Germany and on bivouac in the Black Forest in the middle of winter. As soon as it was daylight, I got up and threw my gear in the back of the camper shell--didn't even fold up the tent---and got the hell out of Dodge.