Date: 2016-03-15
From: Brown Fork Gap Shelter

To: Fontana Village
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: clear sky

In the wake of yesterday's frustration, I took a little extra time this morning. Everyone left the shelter by 8:30, and I kicked around until 10:30. I slept in until around 9 and then threw on Abbey Road while I cooked my breakfast. I made some strawberries and cream oatmeal packets that Broken Hammock had given me back in Franklin.As the sun came up over the hill, its warmth only made me want to spend more time relaxing. The shelters are incredibly peaceful once the ruckus of the morning shuffle files out. There was no crinkling of gear, zipping of tents or chatter about the day's plans. This was replaced with the chirping of the birds and the occasional rustle of the leaves as the wind blew through the valley. Before I packed up, I made a few finishing touches to my sewing job that I had done the night before. After that, I trimmed my extra large Tyvek tarp that I had been carrying, into a smaller, more manageable piece.I finally packed out and began the hike to the legendary Fontana Dam. Halfway into the hike I stopped at the Cable Gap shelter to make lunch. I heated up my Uncle Ben's rice and beans, threw in some taco seasoning and beef jerky, then wrapped it up in a whole wheat tortilla. Kind of a deluxe trail lunch.At the shelter, I met Journey Man and his friend Pete. Journey Man is an older guy from Ashville, NC. He has short white hair and a matching trimmed beard. He speaks with a slow, precise southern accent. Every word that he speaks seems well thought out and perfectly picked. He explained to me that his trail name comes from his belief that the trail is not about finishing and getting to Khatadin, but rather the journey that occurs in the process. Journey Man and I had a nice conversation about the events that had happened to me the night before. I told him that I was deciding to take more time with everything and be more conscious of hike, rather than blowing through it. His perception of the trail reinforced this. As he and his friend left to continuing hiking, Northstar and Weatherman came down the hill into the shelter. Northstar is a fellow New Englander, from Vermont specifically. I had met him a few days earlier at a diner back in Franklin. He was having an issue with a few blisters. The day before, I had lunch with him and gave him a few tips to try to dry the blisters out. He told me that they were healing up nicely since he had lanced them. We parted ways as I continued on for the day. We met up later down the trail as I was refilling my water at a stream. The three of us made the steep descent hiked down to Fontana together. As we hiked, we talked about our lives back home, why we were out here and what we expected from the trip. I found out that Northstar used to work as a group leader for Outward Bound and was on a search and rescue team in the White's. He was also a Hutsman, a job that carries a ton of prestige among hikers in the north. He told me a couple of search and rescue stories from Mt. Washington and how they all played out. I welcomed the opportunity to pick his brain a little bit about the particularly interesting work. Finally, we came into the marina. We phoned for a ride to the lodge. As we waited I saw the dog I had sat with the night before at Brown Fork Gap. His name was Theo and he was a service dog for Sojo, an older hiker. We all talked about Fontana and how iconic of a location it was. Sojo and Northstar said that they had dreamed about it for 30 years. It's one of those spots that's purely AT and represents an achievement; we made it this far. The shuttle picked us up 20 minutes later and we headed down the winding road into Fontana Village. The village was small and was built around a resort. Most of the groceries in the store were overpriced, but this was the last stop before we head up into the smokies. After filling up, I went and put a few clothes in the wash. I waited on the porch in a rocking chair, drinking cold beer and talking to hikers as they passed by. I retired for the night not much later. Weatherman was kind enough to give me the other bed in the hotel room. We fell asleep with the coverage of the primaries on local news. Every time I come into a town seems to be a Tuesday. With the media circus swirling around all of the primaries, I'm more and more appreciative to be out here and displaced from it all.