Spring in Appalachia is no joke!
Nothing like following a cold rainy day with a 18 degree night. It’s the occasional night like this that worries me with my 30 degree sleeping bag. Perhaps I will bring my sleeping bag liner for the first couple weeks and test its claim of adding 20 degrees of warmth !

In the first 2.5 weeks the AT climbs over the highest point East of the Rockies, Clingmans Dome (~6700′).
About 75 miles of trail through the Smokies hovers around 5000′ or higher which means serious mountain weather on the East Coast.

This is a link to the weather forecast at 5000′ in the Smokies: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=35.5629&lon=-83.4985#.VwJHYkVOKnM

This is a cool link to weather forecasts all over the AT by state…then you can choose a specific location with the elevation in parentheses: http://www.atweather.org/forecast?myState=GA&myShelter=10