Date: 2023-07-14
From: Fontana

To: Mollies Ridge
Miles today: 13.4

Day 20.  Climbing into the Smokies13.4 milesToday was a big day for us. Probably the biggest in terms of elevation gain and miles hiked with full packs. We had a big breakfast at 7am in the Fontana Lodge and then got a ride from ¢Shua¢ down to the marina where we¢d been picked up the day before. We set off across the parking lot into the woods and up another set of endless ups and downs.  We had some nice lake views for a few minutes and then arrived at a shelter known as the ¢Fontana Hilton¢.  It earned the nickname because it¢s the only shelter along the entire 2100 miles of AT that has hot showers, electrical outlets and a lake view. It doesn¢t take much to win the best shelter award. From there we hiked on a paved road to the surprisingly interesting Fontana Dam visitor center. The woman at the help desk was possibly the world¢s friendliest person. She had file cabinets full of treats and supplies for AT hikers. She tried to give our kids every treat known to man. She tried to give me a travel size shaving cream. Erin used her phone charger. The kids all took some cheese crackers and a pack of famous dams trading cards and we politely declined the rest. After filling our water bottles in the bathroom sinks we set off. We hiked a half mile or so across the dam itself, enjoying great views on both sides. This was our only truly flat segment of the AT and the kids were all moving painfully slow for some reason.  I think they were sad to leave the pool and lazy river they barely had time to explore the night before.  (Side note to our Texas readers, the kids had the lazy river to themselves so they played ¢Schlitterbahn¢. They acted like they worked there, stacking all the inner tubes and sending giant towers of them down the empty lazy river.) We passed one last picnic area on the paved road.  This is where we stuffed our mouths full of left over hamburgers and chicken fingers we had brought with us, knowing there would be a trash bin we could use. After that it was up into the smokies. Miles and miles of up. We hiked quietly for a change. Everyone had a sense of the challenge before us. With fully laden packs weighing us down we climbed from 1,500 ft to 4,583ft. With all the ups and downs it always feels like a 2 step forward, 1 step back hike.  We also took a short but steep side trail to Shuckstack tower, which felt more like a tower of doom. It is an incredibly rickety and unsafe (as in one misstep and you fall to your death) old fire tower with expansive views. About 2 miles into the hike we had to break out the speaker. Normally reserved for the end of the day, we had to DJ most of this day¢s hike. ¢Eye of the Tiger¢, ¢We are the Champions¢ and ¢The Final Countdown¢ rotated with our Weird Al playlist to keep the kids motivated and our minds off the tough climb. We even broke out The Hobbit audiobook when we really needed distraction. It all worked. We hiked an incredibly tough climb with full packs and made it to a gorgeous shelter about 6pm.  We set up camp, fixed a hot dinner, took cold showers and crawled into sleeping bags. It was a beautiful twilight as we drifted off to a peaceful sleep knowing that most likely our toughest hiking day was behind us.