3.5 sumits in one day April 21st 2005

(see Brasstown Bald GA for start of day)
After tagging 3 sumits today I was ready to hit the 4th (thinking that it might be a record or at least matching one) after lots of driving around on back roads and asking diretions I found the parking lot on Elk Garden trail this is were I messed up some how I fallowed what I thought was the Elk Garden Trail that I thought would take me to the Mt Rogers sumit trail and since I still had 1 hour of day light I thought I could hit the sumit and if need be camp along the trail on the way back. Well It turned out I had more then and hour of light left and that was good till the rain came. After hiking about 2-3 miles I came to a clearing and a sign that siad that Elk Garden trail was 2.5 miles the other day and that MT rogers Trail was another 6 miles the way I had just come from. I saw some people and a dog and asked them where the sumit was. They were not helpfull but I managed to get out of them that I was on the White Tops and had hiked up the wrong mountain. ( I felt as though I had just turnd right insted of left on the south col of Everest and accidently climbed Lohste insted of Everets.
Well I went back to my car and it started raining pretty good and was getting very dark so I napped there for a while and thought about trying again but decided to leave for the next sumit since my maps and the trail markers seemed to be incorrect ( but im sure it was just me being stupid due to lack of sleep )
So off I went to get one more sumit before I had to be back in Atlanta with the rental car. (see TN Clingman’s Dome)

if anyone can knows what trail to take from the elk garden parking lot please let me know. Did I need to take the trail on the other side of the road or was it the one that looked like a road that was blocked off by a gate.

“Reaching the sumit is optional,getting back down isn’t” – Ed Viesturs