Yes, today is my birthday and I celebrated with coffee rum, peanut M&Ms, and Welch’s fruit snacks.
The crew I was sleeping with got up early, so that was great. I was off and hiking by 7am with my headlamp. There is some running event going on because I passed some trail runners in the dark. I would pass by two or three more throughout the day.
I did not sleep well last night because I was in a shelter. The floors are hard and people make noise. I am in a shelter again tonight but with fewer people so hoping for better sleep.
I met another hiker early in the day on Rocky Top who is from Ocala and just about to finish her section hike of the AT as soon as she finishes the Smokies. They normally live in a motor home as she does sections up and down the trail. I hope we can connect later off the trail so I can pick her brain on the trailer life.
The day stayed cool and did not rain but fog always makes it feel like it just finished raining. My shoes did not get soaked, so I was in good spirits most of the day.
The mileage for the day was shorter than I was hoping for, but the shelters ahead are spaced further apart. Tomorrow I go up Clingmans Dome which is the high point on the AT and it will probably be in fog. But maybe I will get some sort of view. We shall see tomorrow.
It is time to leave the plush bed and porcelain plumbing. I rolled out of bed to take advantage of another shower and hotel coffee to go with my cold Pizza. I also thought I would try to summon an Uber or Lyft. No go on either one and verified with the front desk that the shuttle would not leave until 10 and I did not want to wait that long so I hit the pavement at 8. I was shocked to see only three cars in the parking lot.
The walk down to the marina took 40 minutes. A quick look around and I was off again. The walk up the lake towards the dam was steeper than I thought. It did not take long to get to the shelter they call the Fontana Hilton. It’s bigger and nicer than usual and now has a solar charging station. Just up the path is the bathroom and shower. I took a peek inside to see if they were open and they were.
Before long I was walking down towards the dam and soon walked across it. It looked just as I remembered it. The trailhead for the great Smoky Mountain National Park was about a mile from the dam.
I remembered from before the climb from the dam being a long climb and it was. It was not steep or rocky or rooty, just long. I started up about 11 and was hoping to hit the fire tower by 12:30 for lunch. I hit it exactly then and grabbed my lunch and headed up the tower. I got half way up and the wind was howling and I got a bit nervous because some of the railing was missing, so I stopped and took some pictures and headed back down again. I ate at the cabin ruins instead.
About half way up to the fire tower I saw my first bears. At first I thought I saw a squirrel but it was too big. Then I realized it was a cub. So looked around and saw the mother. Then another cub, and then another. They were only about 20 yards downslope and knew I was there but couldn’t care less if I was there or not.
The weather was cool all day and I sweated but not as much as previous days. I think washing the pack helped too because I did not stink too bad.
I hit the first shelter at about 4:30 and knew that I should keep going to the next one just three miles away. I hit that one just after 6 and it was about half full with a running club that were fun to talk to. It had been foggy the last Mile or so and the shelter was fully engulfed in fog. I made dinner and bedded down quickly because it is likely be a cold night tonight.
Today was a day of chores and it was a good pick of days to do chores because it rained nearly the entire day. But everything is done, everything is packed, and I’ll be ready to roll out tomorrow.
The first order of business was figuring out which stores were open and what the hours of operation were. Laundromat and post office for the two key items. The post office did not open until 11:45 so I started with laundry. I had to walk down the hill to the laundromat in the rain and wore my shoes because I wasn’t sure how my feet were going to feel.
I decided I wanted to wash everything. I had including the pack so I stripped it down and threw it in the wash with all my clothes and rain gear. While waiting for the wash cycle I walked down to the gas station at the corner and checked out what they had to offer. It was a typical convenience store but also had special items for motorcyclists and hikers. I didn’t really need anything so I was mainly just browsing.
By the time the wash cycle was done the post office was just opening, so I threw my clothes in the dryer and headed to the post office to pick up my resupply box. Since it would be another 45 minutes I went ahead and walked back to the lodge to open up the resupply box. I’m always amazed at how heavy food can actually be and this box was stuffed to the gills.
I had so much extra food I didn’t even bother going to the restaurant for lunch I just snacked on extra food that I had. When it was time for the dryer cycle to be done I walked back down the hill but this time in my flip-flops to keep my shoes from getting any wetter.
When I got to my laundry I was in for a little surprise. My rain jacket did not like the heat of the dryer even though I selected warm temperature, not hot. It had shrunk and stuck together and was barely large enough to put on a toddler when I pulled it out of the dryer. It was still warm and soft so I tried to pull it apart to full size before it set but pulling it just tore a lot of the rainproofing away from the fabric. It’s a good thing the forecast for the next week is no rain and I don’t really use it as a rain jacket but it is part of my sleep system if I use the hammock. So even though it is ruined I still need to carry it with me just in case I need to sleep in the hammock. I have already ordered a new one and it will be waiting for me at Hot Springs in just under a week.
I was all packed and ready to go by 2:00 p.m. so I decided to take a nap before dinner. I couldn’t really sleep but it was nice just to lay in the bed and not do anything. I can’t stand watching TV so I just listened to music for about an hour.
When it was time for dinner I rolled down to the restaurant again and had a pizza, a really nice salad, and a couple of beers. It was not cheap but it was quite delicious. The food here at Fontana was way better than what I was expecting. It’s also surprising since they’re not at full capacity because of COVID.
So here I am again in the room all packed ready to go just waiting for morning to arrive. The hotel does run shuttles to the marina but they don’t start until 10:00 a.m. so I will probably get a much earlier start and just walk down to the marina again. The first shelter is 16 miles up the mountain so what’s another two downhill to the lake.
Time to try to get some real sleep tonight. I did not sleep well last night because my feet were sore and keeping me awake and my metabolism had my body temperature up so high I felt like I was in a furnace even though the air conditioner was freezing cold. Hoping tonight is a peaceful night. Will save the mayhem for tomorrow.
Barely is the operative word. I made it down to the marina at 7:00 like I was estimating but when I got there everything was closed. The signs indicated that the lodge would not accept hikers but I was determined to get a room so I made the two mile trek up Highway 28 in dwindling light and at the end of exhaustion. I made it about 8:00 p.m. and was able to get a room so all is well for now.
Most of the night camped out in the hammock was cool and breezy. The tarp to the hammock sags when you sit in it and the breeze was enough to make it flap all night long and for the first 30 minutes I kept thinking it was a bear stealing my food. Four or five times I stuck my flashlight out of the hammock, pointed at the bear bag, and every single time everything was fine. It took me a while to realize that it was just the tarp flapping in a particular way that made it sound like the bear bag.
I woke up about 6:00 and was able to get hiking at about a quarter till 7:00. It was dark enough that I needed to use my headlamp to illuminate the rocks that were hiding under the overgrowth of brush. I only needed to use the light for about 10 or 15 minutes though.
The way the mountains were arranged and the way I was climbing I actually got two sunrises this morning. They were not epic California sunrises but they were good nonetheless. The next mountain after my campsite, which was less than a mile away, there were two different groups of people camped on top. It was barely after 7:30 and they were already awake which is unusual for weekend campers even though this is in the middle of the week. They had a cool and breezy night as well.
Most of the day was pretty uneventful. The hiking was mainly ridge walking which means they take you up and down every little peak whether there’s a view or not. Some of them were pretty overgrown with rhododendron and it was pretty rocky. The combination of the two slows you down quite a bit. I did get some good views on a few of them though and it was a little bit cloudy but also sunny later in the day. The temperature was perfect for hiking.
I used the second shirt which was clean at the time because the first one was so smelly I just wanted a change. It stayed pretty fresh until 1:00 or 2:00 when it also was pretty saturated but being a thinner shirt it doesn’t retain as much sweat as the first shirt that I was wearing. I’m glad I bought the extra shirt in Wesser and may end up ditching the first shirt completely.
All of my stops were brief because I knew I wanted to still have the option to make Fontana tonight rather than tomorrow night. I was able to find picnic tables and trash cans to have lunch at 11:00 so that was a nice break. There was another weekend hiker there who was feeling some pain so he was trying to get a shuttle to take him back to Fontana.
I was snacking most of the afternoon and mixing energy drinks to try to keep my speed up. It worked pretty well. I had good energy most of the day even when I was tired. There were lots of ups and downs but the last three miles into Fontana was mostly down. It was a little bit rocky and had a few steps but nothing too bad so I guess it was about average.
I made it to the marina at 7:00 and started reading the signage that said you could get a shuttle from the marina but the marina closed at 4:00. It also said everything was shut down and they couldn’t offer rooms for hikers which I knew not to be the case because their website said they had reopened August 17th. So I was getting mixed signals and getting a little nervous but I was pretty sure if I walked up the road to the village that I would be able to get a room. What made it worse is there is no cell service and even though they offer Wi-Fi at the marina they don’t publish what the Wi-Fi password is so that was useless. I just had to trust my gut and hoof it up to the village before it got too dark.
Highway 28 is a twisty road in about 2 mi to Fontana village. I remember driving it many times in the Spider and I never once thought that I would want to walk it. But, well, good I did. The first half of the Walk was mostly downhill and still had enough light that I didn’t need to use my headlamp to signal oncoming traffic. But the second half it was dark enough that I did need to use my headlamp to let drivers know that I was there. I only saw four cars and five motorcycles the whole way so it’s not like there was a lot of traffic. If this was not a COVID effect, I would have easily seen a hundred cars.
it was completely dark by the time I got to Fontana village so I had to use my headlamp to illuminate the street signs to find the one that I knew went up to the lodge.despite them advertising their reopening it looks like they’re still struggling for business as they were only about five cars at the lodge. Normally there would be 70 to 100 cars.
I was able to check in with no problems. I went ahead and booked two nights since I’m so exhausted and I’m still expecting tomorrow to be pretty rainy. The long road walk was easily three miles worth including walking around the village and my feet are sore. I was checking in at 10 after 8:00 and she told me that the only open restaurant was down the hill and closed at 9:00. So I only had time to give a really quick sponge bath put on a clean shirt and hustle down to the restaurant before they closed. I got a cheeseburger with french fries and a side salad and it was quite delicious.
Tomorrow I will have to pick up my resupply and repack everything for the next 6 days through the Smokies. I will also have to do laundry tomorrow and other miscellaneous items. I think booking the room for two days was a good idea because on the way back from the restaurant it started to rain on me. Even though tomorrow will technically be zero miles I still bet I will get 15,000 steps in just doing chores around town. I need to be ready for the Smokies since it will be 6 days without any kind of resupply or civilization. The weather forecast for the rest of the week after tomorrow looks great so I’m hoping to have a nice trip to the Smokies. And I’m thankful for a soft bed tonight.
That about sums up the entire day. For this entire trip I’ve been looking forward to having Sherpa rice at the NOC…and I bust my ass to get there for lunch and they closed about 30 minutes before I arrived. They will be closed until tomorrow afternoon. And what was worse was that it wasn’t just the main restaurant that was closed but all of them were closed because they were having some sort of employee meeting. Ice cream and soda from the general store don’t make up for the loss.
I slept in about an extra hour since I disturbed the gentleman I was camping with at the shelter the night before by coming in late. But I made good time packing up and leaving still a little bit before sunrise, although it was hard to tell because there were so many clouds.
I was basically hopping from shelter to shelter stopping for brief periods to drink or snack. The entire strategy of the day was to make the town of Wesser for lunch. The descent was steeper than I had expected so it took me a little bit longer. I was hoping to get there before 2:00 but I got there about 2:30.
I set my pack on the stone wall, took off my shoes and socks and set them in the sun to dry, and then walked down to the river to wash my feet. It took me just a few minutes to buy an extra pair of socks, actually two pairs and an extra shirt since the one I have been wearing is really starting to stink.
I got over to the restaurant about 2:45 and noticed they had a sign on the door that said the restaurant would be closing at 2 and would not reopen until 11:00 the next day. My heart sank. I walked over to the general store and asked which restaurants were open and they told me that none of them were open – they were all closed at the same time. Now my soul has been crushed.
I bought a soda, a beef stick, and an ice cream bar to eat instead of my lunch and bought some M&M’s and another beef stick for hiking out of town. They wanted $100 for a room and after not being able to eat there’s no way I was going to spend $100 on a sleezy room.
So I got out the map, figured out how far it was and what time I would need to leave to hit the shelter. It was 7 miles away and if I left before 4:00 I could probably get there just before dark. So that’s what I did – I left at 4:00.
The climb out of Wesser was not steep but it was very long, nearly all seven miles was up. It was over 5,000 ft of climbing. That’s normally the amount of climbing I do in an entire day, not just an afternoon beginning at 4:00. I tried to make frequent stops to eat and drink to keep my energy up and not waste time and keep climbing. When I was about 2 miles away it wasevident that I would get there literally just before dark about a quarter to 8:00.
And my timing was perfect because I did arrive at just about a quarter to 8:00. There were three or four hikers already asleep there and I asked one of them if there were bear cables. He said “no” so there was no point in staying there. I decided to go back to the trail when I saw a good campsite and pitched a hammock and probably got a better night of sleep.
So now I am 21 miles away from Fontana and not sure if I should try to push to get there just before dark or go easy and slide in tomorrow morning. I will probably get an early start, at least leave the first option open and then see how the weather plays out tomorrow. All services in Fontana are supposed to be open but their communications line has been cut so their telephones are down and I can’t call to verify until I get there. Heck I may not even be able to verify it after I get there. I may just have to hitch the 2 mi up to the village from the marina. But that’s a story for another day.
Taking a day off in Franklin ended up being a good call. The feet are still not in great shape but in the afternoon they started to warm up a bit and make the hiking easier. Moderate terrain also helped.
I had to wait a little bit for the hostel owner to get rolling, but got off at a decent time. We stopped by Burger King for some chicken biscuit sandwiches. One for the car and one for the trail. The hostel owner was really fun to talk with but it was time to head north again.
I got up trail about 9 am. It was a cool morning with a gentle breeze and no rain. The sun was out but the trees kept it filtered.
Within an hour or two I was at Silers Bald, the spot where Karen and I came a few years ago to watch the total solar eclipse. The place looked the same except the brush had grown up a bit. I had dry shoes and the weeds looked wet so I did not bother to hike up to the top.
I kept going and stopped for lunch before getting to Wayah Bald. A quick tuna wrap and some chips.
It took another hour to get to the watch tower but it was a great time to be there. The visibility was at least thirty miles but clouds were rolling in. Over the town of Andrews I could see a huge sheet of rain coming. I had a quick snack and headed on down the trail because I knew that rain was coming for me.
Sure enough about thirty minutes before getting to the shelter it started to rain but not badly. But by the time I got to the shelter it was coming down hard for over thirty minutes. About the time it ended, Senor showed up. He is a thru hiker that shuttled out with me but had to start 3 miles further than where I started. He is doing about 15 miles in the same amount of time that I am doing 12. I am not going my full speed yet because of my feet and the terrain today was made for flying.
Senor was totally drenched and decided to stay at that shelter, but it was barely 5 pm and the next shelter was only five more miles. I decided it was worth it to keep going and get closer to Wesser so I could resupply and leave and not get stuck in another town for a night. Senor is getting off there to go to a wedding so I won’t see him again until north of the Smokies.
I knew if I left then that my feet would get wet from the vegetation but the same thing would happen in the morning anyway. So I set off for Cold Spring shelter hoping to arrive with about an hour of daylight and did. There was a gentleman already there about to go to sleep when I arrived. I asked if he knew where the bear cables were and he did not know. I asked where he was storing his food and he said in the corner of the shelter. That’s no good. I offered to hang his food with mine and set off to hang the bear rope before it got dark.
I made dinner of spaghetti and pepperoni and tried to eat quietly as he had already fallen asleep and started snoring. I cleaned quietly and hung the bear bag. Even setting my gear out did not disturb his sleep and those compactor bags make a lot of noise. This guy is planning on going through the Smokies, and if he is, he had better get a little bit more bear training. I hope to be miles ahead of him at all times.
The feet are still super tender, so I decided to spend the night at the hostel again. I wore my shoes and walked a mile and a half to the only diner open in town on Sunday. It was an opportunity to try to get some heat into the shoes to dry them out.
Unfortunately, the shoes did not dry. I stuffed them with newspaper and put them on the air conditioning vent and that helped a little, but they are still wet. I was not able to get any more socks, so I’ll have to venture into the rain tomorrow with my two pairs and pray for some sunshine. But the forecast looks awful for most of the upcoming week.
But I was able to resupply, so now I have all the food I need to get to Wesser and beyond.
The evening was dominated by fog, the morning and nearly all of the day consumed with rain. I’ve been soaking wet for about 24 hours. The forecast is for five more days of rain.
Last night was a miserable night camped high on Standing Indian Mountain. The site I found was good; I was able to hang a bear bag, and it was breezy. The problem was that I was in the clouds most of the night. And clouds mean water… an endless supply of it.
Just after dark, the fog started to roll in and it got ice cold. I had to get into my bag quickly. But I soon noticed that the fog was descending on the netting of the hammock and it started dripping down on me. Between the fog blasting the left side of the hammock and wetting everything on that side and the netting dripping down on me, I was soaking wet in no time flat. After about an hour of that, the coolness turned warm.
It took me several hours to even fall asleep and then it was damp, hot, and sticky. I probably slept maybe four hours all night. I woke up at 6:15 and got rolling by 7:00. I really had my sights set on hitting Franklin now just to dry out.
It wasn’t 15 minutes into the day before the fog turned to rain. It was light at first, but within 30 minutes my feet were soaking wet. The entire day was a cycle of thirty minutes of rain followed by an hour of fog. Nothing dried out. Especially my feet.
I was basically hopping from shelter to shelter all day to have dry space to make something to eat. I did not have the time to actually cook so it was all cold food. I had very little walking snacks left. Tuna packed in oil with mayo on a tortilla was the highlight. Oreos and peanut M&Ms rounded out the rest of the day.
By three o’clock my feet were pruned and killing me. I had no dry socks and even changing socks would last three minutes tops. It was to be a day of miserable feet for the rest of the day.
At a shelter about six miles out, I found the business card for a local hostel in Franklin and took down the number. When I got to the first peak where I had a signal, I called and made a reservation. It would be my first day over 20 miles and only possible due to the rain. Hiking in the rain keeps you cool so you need less water and want to stop less. But it kills your feet.
I made arrangements to be picked up at the trailhead at 7 pm. That would give me 15 minutes to spare. The last 3.5 miles were the hardest of the day because of my feet, but the actual hardest part of the day was going up Albert Mountain. It’s only a short 0.3 miles but it’s a huge vertical climb and it started raining just after I began my ascent.
I met two brothers earlier in the day and we bounced from shelter to shelter hiding from the rain. They were parked at the Gap where I was being picked up, so we chatted some more while I waited for the shuttle to arrive.
The hostel is a welcome break from the rain. I am showered, my clothes are drying, my gear is laid out to dry, and there is a pizza in my belly. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Today I hit the milestone of leaving Georgia behind and entering North Carolina. I took a quick picture of the real border but went another few tenths of a mile to the accepted border that has a very twisted tree which is very recognizable. The tree still pretty much looks the same as it did 30 years ago but it looks like it’s a little closer to the ground now. One thing that does look very different is the area around it has grown up with trees where I remember it being an open field.
I was able to get up and get going before 7:00 and the clouds kept sunrise from happening even later than it seems like it should have. It didn’t take too long for the clouds to separate in the sun to start peeking out. I was expecting rain on and off all day long but it didn’t rain once.
I got to Bly Gap a little bit after noon so I stopped and stocked up on water and then had lunch. I had one deli tuna pack that I picked up at Mountain Crossings so I made a tuna wrap.
I kept running into another hiker on and off all morning who was out for about a week at a time with his wife meeting him at the major intersections. Normally this is called slack packing and you don’t carry a full pack since you don’t need to camp and you only need one day’s worth of food. But this guy looked like he was carrying a full pack. He was keeping up a very good pace though and would have enjoyed hiking with him except for he was carrying a radio playing music the entire time and wouldn’t turn it off.
Later in the day I stopped at Muskrat Creek shelter to make coffee and a family with four boys came rolling up to set up camp. The youngest one looked to be about 5 years old and this shelter is 5 miles from the nearest road. It looked like the little one was having trouble with the hiking. I hope they’re able to have a nice time. It seems like a bit of a large endeavor for such a young child.
The rest of the day went pretty much as planned. I started hiking up Standing Indian Mountain knowing that I would go at least to the top and camp somewhere afterward. When I got to the top it had several campers up top so I didn’t bother to go to the summit. I just kept walking down the other side of the mountain knowing that in less than a mile there was a flat spot that should probably have camping. About halfway there I found a camping site a few hundred feet higher than I intended but it looked good so I stopped and made camp.
I tried the other expensive dehydrated dinner that I bought at Mountain Crossings. I followed the directions which were quite vague and let it sit the appropriate amount of time to rehydrate but when I went to eat it many of the noodles were still crunchy. It tasted good but the texture was off putting so I doubt I will buy any more of these in the future. But it definitely tasted better than mashed potatoes so maybe I will.
As I lay in the hammock writing this blog I am realizing how different tonight is than last night. Last night was hot and muggy and miserable but tonight I’m very high up. There’s a strong breeze and it’s very, very cold. Normally I would like this just fine but fog is rolling in with the wind and everything is getting damp. I hope tomorrow that I don’t regret camping so high tonight.
Looking at the maps it’s 50 miles to Wesser. I only have enough food for 2 days (maybe 2 1/2) so it will be a stretch to try and reach there without resupply. The road to Franklin is 22 miles which is also a little too long to make in one day. So I will probably try to go ahead and make it all the way to Wesser but that will be dependent on the weather. Also depends on how long I can tolerate my own stench.
Today I finally got real rain for the first time. I wasn’t expecting the rain to start until tomorrow but it went ahead and started today.
I didn’t sleep that well in the shelter last night. I tossed and turned quite a bit. I didn’t think I was sleeping but the time was passing faster than my brain is telling me, so I must have been sleeping. I woke up 45 minutes later than I wanted to but since I was sleeping in a shelter I was able to pack up and leave about 15 minutes faster than normal. I didn’t leave the shelter till after 7:30.
The morning went by quickly. The temperature was nice and cool. There was a little bit of fog and clouds so everything got a little damp. I was able to make it to Tray Mountain shelter for lunch about 12:45. I passed the caretaker on the way to the shelter. He was clearing the brush by the side of a trail with hand hedge clippers. I stopped and chatted with him for about 5 minutes. He was mentioning that in the peak hiker season a lot of betrayal shuttles were closing down because of COVID. I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t want a stranger from who knows where in my car for 30 minutes driving into town especially if they stink like a hiker.
I finished my lunch and moved on in about 30 minutes. After I left the shelter it began raining. It wasn’t a very hard rain but I did get my umbrella out and use it for about 15 minutes. Dwayne finally stopped and not very much got wet. The pack was a little damp. My feet were a tiny bit damp but not soaking wet. About an hour later it rained the same way again for about 10 or 15 minutes but this time I didn’t bother to use the umbrella.
At about 5:00 it finally did rain and it rained hard. It rained for over 45 minutes and it rained so hard that everything got soaking wet. The trail was a river and I had to step right through it. In less than 5 minutes my shoes were sloshing wet.
My coffee kept me fueled but I needed a little extra kick so I made an energy drink as well at about 6:00 after the rain stopped. I had to keep my pace up to get to the spot where I wanted to camp before dark. I was cutting it very close. I found a ridgeline that had some big trees that I could hang from. It was just before 8:00 when I got there and it was a little bit darker than I really wanted. I had to use the light to set up the hammock and cook my food.
Now that I’m finally in the hammock I’m still a bit miserable because there’s zero breeze at all and it is very very hot. I cleaned myself as best I could before I got in the hammock but I’m still so sticky and clammy from all the sweating today. It’s not very comfortable laying here with no breeze. I’m just hoping that one picks up soon so I can cool off and go to bed. I haven’t figured out how far I want to go tomorrow but I guess I’ve got to figure that out now.
Recent Comments