Date: 2006-04-19
From: Fontana Dam - Hwy 28

To: Spence Field Shelter
Miles today: 29.4
Weather: overcast clouds

(two day mileage total) Yesterday¢s hike to Fontana Dam was smooth and quick where a shuttle for The Fontana Village Resort picked me up. I hadn¢t thought about getting a room at first, but since I needed to get my mail drop coupled with the fact Damp Dan said he was, I opted in for a room at The AT hiker rate. We learned the whole village has been bought and is in the middle of significant and welcome upgrades. So a short 11.6 miles yesterday to a bed. By the time Damp Dan got to the Post Office, I learned all the other rooms were taken, so I invited him to bunk with me, which brought a big grin to his face. Besides, The Peppercorn Restaurant was 100 feet from my room. Sweet!The funniest part of the day was bearing witness to Master Plan¢s mail drop. To set the stage properly, he doesn¢t carry any excess. I mean nothing. Everything is well thought out and this allows him to only shoulder about fifteen (15) pounds. So Master Plan was surprised when the Postmaster brought out not one, not two, not three, but FOUR boxes of food from loved ones. Maybe 30 pounds of love from home. What a riot!! He had more cookies than he knew what to do with (all the other thru-hikers were the recipients of the bountiful goodies).This morning we said so long to Damp Dan who is taking his first zero and we walked across the dam by moonlight at 5:45 a.m. It was pretty cool. By six we crossed over the southern boundary of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and started up the arduous 2000-foot ascent of Shuckstack Mountain.Two Doe¢s who never moved any farther than about 20 feet greeted me. It was a warm welcome that would change in a hurry. A gathering dark mass caught us at the ridgeline up at 4500 feet. What little light there was, got quickly swallowed up by the wind, hail, rain and Oh Yes, lightening. Oh Joy, Oh joy, I love lightening! Especially when my head is sticking up in the cloud. The hail, about the size of corn niblets (you¢ll notice how thru-hikers describe things relative to food objects, the hungrier they get). Fell only shortly. With every FLASH, I counted ¢ 1¢¦ 2¢¦ 3¢¦ 4¢¦¢ BoomBoomBoom went the thunder. With no place to hide you just keep going and hold your faith close. FLASH and then I¢d count ¢ 1¢¦ 2¢¦ 3¢¦4¢¦ 5¢¦¢ BoomBoomBoom. Good, that was one second longer. FLASH ¢ 1¢¦ 2¢¦ 3¢¦ 4¢¦ 5¢¦ 6¢¦ ¢ BoomBoomBoom. All right, moving in the right direction.By this point I was pretty tired, but the safety of shelter was still about two miles, at least the storm was moving quickly. FLASH¢¦ ¢1¢¦ 2¢¦ 3¢¦ ¢ BoomBoomBoom. Oops, spoke too soon. The shelter finally emerged out of the fog and rain, and surprisingly, smoke from its rustic chimney. Mystic and Master Plan had a fire going which I sorely needed. I was freezzzzing!!After about an hour the AT did what it always does, it brought the sun and blue sky out. Glorious. What a day of contrast. Only on The Appalachian Trail can you go from ducking hail and lightening to walking sun drenched meadows of wild flowers in the shortest swing of a clocks hands. It never fails to surprise me. Note: Miles is a two day total... and great drawings go with the next several entries, however the TJ website is not letting them be put in right now.