Date: 2009-07-06
From: Yellow Creek Gap

To: Fontana Dam Visitor Center NC
Miles today: 7.8

Bugsy and Burly Girl are back down South, this time just below Great Smoky Mt. National Park (we skipped the park and hope to return to 'conquer' it in the Fall).Access:We are accessing this week's worth of hikes from Nantahala Outdoor Center in Wesser, NC. This is a great location for whitewater rafters, kayakers and hikers. The AT goes right through the center of the NOC and passes over the Nantahala River on a footbridge.Northern end: It couldn't have been any easier. There is a huge parking lot at the visitors center of Fontana Dam which is accessed off of Rt 28. Yellow Creek Gap: Easy also...it is accessed off of Rt 28 by taking (State Rte 1242) Upper Tuskeegee Road for about 2 miles. There is a gravel road leading to a gated Forest Service road and you can park right there.The Hike:We got a late start (10am) because we had to drive to Sylva to pick up our Enterpirse rental car (they were closed yesterday).We chose to hike south to north today because of the big downhill going into Fontana Dam.The early trail was slightly uphill, then a long downhill, and about a mile into the hike we came to Cable Gap Shelter. This was a small log structure built out of 1' diameter logs. Much nicer than the cinder block shelters we have been seeing recently. After the shelter, it was 2 miles uphill and then uphill some more. The trail was nice except for a few rocky areas. It had rained very hard last night and all of the rocks today were slippery. We proceeded with caution!At the top of the hill we once again met one of the section hikers (Kim? from NH) that we had seen last week. She was hiking alone as her sister had left to fly home. They both loved the Smokies (we are now interviewing everyone we meet re hiking in the Smokies as we do not wish to become a 'bear buffet'). She only saw one bear there and it ran from her. This is good!   Aside from a short steep spot, the long downhill into Fontana Dam was easy on the knees and well-graded. We then met a father and two sons from AZ. We asked them how they were enjoying the humidity here! They asked if we had passed Kim (?) and said that she had left her license and credit cards behind at the 'Fontana Hilton' and they were trying to catch her. They will probably all be staying at the same shelter tonight. If they don't catch her, we will leave a sign at the hiker area in Wesser tomorrow night to let her know that they will mail the items to her home. Communication up and down the trail is amazing! After we reached Rt 28, we were once again deceived by the profile map. The profile shows it all downhill to the dam, but it left out a significant uphill through the woods which easily could be avoided by 'yellow blazing' down the dam access road. But being purists, we hoofed it up the hill...At any rate, when we got off that hill, we came to a parking lot with a sign to the Fontana 'Hilton', a huge (sleeps 24) beautiful shelter overlooking Fontana Lake (it would overlook the lake better if they would cut some trees down!). The shelter has running water and flush toilets just a short walk away. There are shower for hikers at the visitor center. Nothing like entering the Smokies clean and fresh! The dam complex and the lake (25 miles long) are amazing and beautiful and date to 1941. Great history...see the link below. http://www.tva.gov/sites/fontana.htmBut...in studying the history of the TVA in junior high, the emphasis was more on the generation of electricity and the provision of recreation and less on the fact that it was being built at the time to ramp up the production of aluminum for airplanes at the nearby Alcoa plant(for the war effort) and also for the production of uranium for use in the atomic bomb project. What an 8th grader doesn't know is a good thing!After our hike we drove into Fontana Village and had a delicious buffet dinner in the lodge. We hope to stay here after we finish the Smokies in the Fall. The original Fontana Village, built for the workers in the early 1940s is all gone except for the post office. It has been replaced by a luxury resort complete with pool, $500/night houseboat rentals (we will be staying at the more reasonable $75/night cabins, thank you) and a frisbee golf course.Wildlife: None.Bugsy and Burly Girl...doing the AT one day at a time...