Newfound Gapt to Clingmans Dome (AT 7.9 + .5 mi)

We left Food Lion at 8:00. Mike Miller drove; Anne, David, and I were passengers. At SVC we met up with Bill Broome, BZ, and Bob. A few others were going to do a slight modification of our hike led by Tom; David went with them. To facilitate transportation, BZ offered to hike from NG to CD if someone joined him; Bob and I did. Bill, Anne, and Mike dropped us off at NG and drove BZ’s truck to CD and started from there. Three other hikers from our group also started at CD, but got a later start.

We got on the AT at NG ~9:40; we met Bill, Anne and Mike fairly close to noon. The spot was not ideal for lunch so we kept on going and stopped later. Going up as we did is ~1600 feet differential; however, the total climb was more for we also had a few descents. We arrived at the base of the observation tower at CD ~1:10. After I took a pic of BZ & Bob, a friendly tourist took a picture of the three of us. Because it was quite a bit cooler there we put on our rain jackets there prior to our 0.5 mi. walk to the CD parking lot and BZ’s car. We picked up Bill, Anne, and Mike at NG; they had eaten lunch at Indian Gap and then it really started to rain, so they walked back to NG via the road.