Day 17: 4/19/16

We’re officially in the Smokies as of today. We did an 11.3 mile day, bringing us to mile 171.9 on the trail. We had a beautiful 4.5 mile walk down into Fontana Dam this morning. The wild flowers are all starting to come up, making the forest floor come alive.

Right around 9:30am, we arrived at an info booth with a phone to call for a shuttle to the village. A nice older woman was there to pick us up within 7 minutes of calling… very efficient. We picked up a few more hikers, then we all got dropped off at a little general store. Fontana Dam is kind of a strange place… it seems like the whole village is part of the Fontana Lodge, a resort in town. There are all these little cabins and rooms… and honestly the only people we saw in town on a Tuesday morning were other hikers. However, it is a very hiker friendly place.

After figuring out that we could print our Smokey Mountain thru-hiker permits up at the lodge, we took a walk up the the hill. Since it was about 10:45, and the restaurant at the lodge re-opened at 11:30 for lunch, we decided to hang out and have a nice filling lunch. I even got a beer (a nice golden ale, quite refreshing). After lunch, we chilled in the lobby, and chatted with a few other hikers who were just arriving. Many had decided that they were going to spend at least the one night at the lodge. Not us though… we were ready to begin the climb into the smokies.

We hopped back on the shuttle and got dropped off where we had been picked up previously. Before crossing over the dam and into the national park, we had a little 1.6 mile section to the visitors center. We probably should have done it earlier, since the shuttle will come get you at the visitors center too. But it was a pretty easy section. We even ran into a Clarkson alumni who we had met yesterday. He goes by the trail name Rocketman. A bit further up, we finally hit the famous Fontana Hilton shelter. It’s called the Hilton because right up the path from the shelter is a building with flush toilets, and hot showers… quite a luxury for a shelter.

Just a bit further up the path, as we hit the parking area for one of the overlooks, we noticed some people having a picnic… then on closer inspection, we knew the people there… Google, Tater, Calorie, Nick (or saint, or Rudy… he’s got a few trail names), and Mass Cat were all enjoying some trail magic! It was being put on by the parents of another thru-hiker named Phil who we hung out with at the NOC. Even though we had just ate lunch, I had a hot dog and a soda, and we snagged a few goodies for later. All those other hikers are spending the night down in Fontana Dam, so we’ll need to slow down if we want to let them catch up.

After sitting around and chatting for a bit, it was time to move on. The climb into the Smokies is no joke, and is made even more difficult by the amount of water we were carrying. We had been warned that some of the sources were just seasonal, so we carried enough water for the 4.5 mile climb, plus dinner, plus a little extra for the next day. All that water equals a very heavy pack…on top of the additional food that we just bought to get us through the next 3 days.

About 3.3 miles up we visited a fire tower which afforded us excellent views of the Dam, the mountains to the south east that we’d been climbing the last few days, and the mountains to the north that would be our next challenge.

We’re camped out in the only actual designated tenting site on the AT within the Smokies. We’ll more than likely need to spend at least one of the next few nights in a shelter, since tenting is only permitted if the shelters are full. It’s supposed to rain the next few days, so that may slow us down a bit, but it’s supposed to get very nice again by Saturday. We’re still enjoying ourselves out here… as tough as some parts are, it’s all been worth it, and it’s rewarding to rise to the challenge.