Date: 2004-05-11
From: Cody Gao

To: Birch Spring Tentsite
Miles today: 15.8

On the morning of May 11th the trail led me through several more little gaps, each with a name. It may have been in one of these that I met BlackBird. It was late, maybe 10am, but she appeared to have just gotten up. Water was on my mind since I had gotten none at Cody Gap last night. She pointed to a little spring just 15 feet from her tent. As I was getting my water bottle from my pack, she, having finished brushing her teeth, went over to the spring and spat her tooth paste in it. I was dumbfounded. Unable to find the words to be tactful this time, I just turned and left in disbelief. This is not meant as an attack on BlackBird. She simply didn¢t know. Leave-No-Trace:There were plenty of thru-hikers out here with no Leave-No-Trace knowledge. How does that get fixed. Do we require all hikers to take a test. This wasn¢t the first transgression encountered. Nor would it be the last. Further up the trail there would be fewer. Was this because people were getting educated along the way or were there just fewer folks on the trail. Who knows. Just keep trying to spread the word.On the morning of May 11th the trail led me through several more little gaps, each with a name. It may have been in one of these that I met BlackBird. It was late, maybe 10am, but she appeared to have just gotten up. Water was on my mind since I had gotten none at Cody Gap last night. She pointed to a little spring just 15 feet from her tent. As I was getting my water bottle from my pack, she, having finished brushing her teeth, went over to the spring and spat her tooth paste in it. I was dumbfounded. Unable to find the words to be tactful this time, I just turned and left in disbelief. This is not meant as an attack on BlackBird. She simply didn¢t know. It wasn¢t long before the trail delivered me to N.C. 28. Across the road there was a kiosk in a parking lot near a boat launch. The kiosk had a phone with instructions to dial an extension to call for a shuttle into The Village. I didn¢t really need anything but was hoping to find an Internet connection for email and a phone to call the folks who made my solar battery charger.Solar Charger:That¢s right, I had bought a solar battery charger from Aurora Solar on the web. It folded up into a little clear plastic case. They marketed it with adapter cables to go to all sorts of devices including Palm Handheld Computers. I also created an adapter that would allow it to charge AA and AAA batteries. By adding some Velcro to the outside of the charger case and the top of my pack it could be mounted to the top of the pack and charge while hiking, in theory. There was an LED on each half of the case that lit when it saw the sun. It worked great during the test at home but now the LEDs would not light in the brightest sun. My hope was that the company would ship me a replacement but that would mean hitching to some specific place to pick it up.At any rate, after a short phone call, the shuttle, a mini-van, showed up and dropped me at the visitor¢s center. There was a pay phone outside and a pay as you go Internet booth inside. After finding the phone number on the Internet I called Aurora Solar but only got to voice mail. How unfulfilling. Then it was time to write my First AT Update Email to send to all my friends and family. But first of course there was email to be read. There was so much to write and yet my credit card was being debited by the minute. What a horrible feeling. On top of that there were no miles passing under my feet. I was really getting antsy. After about an hour at the keyboard it was just time to go. Fortunately the shuttle came back. There were other hikers. Some were staying at the resort and got dropped up the hill. We got dropped at the little convenience store. The place had almost nothing to offer to a hiker. It was really amazingly disappointing.The shuttle dropped me back at the trail but not without some internal conflict. It seemed that the trail crossed the road at two different places where the shuttle stops. There was the place where it had originally picked me up and a mile and a half further north at the actual Fontana Dam Visitor¢s Center. The driver made the offer with the added comment that this piece of the trail wasn¢t very interesting. What a terrible consideration. Just how "pure" would this hike be. The concept hadn't really crossed my mind yet. No, I want to hike the whole trail. Drop me where you picked me up. Argh. The walk continued. The shuttle had only cost a dollar or two and the conversations with the driver were nice but it was better to be back on the trail.It was still way too early when I reached the shelter at Fontana Dam. This place was dubbed the Fontana Hilton and with good reason. It was beautiful with a fantastic view overlooking the reservoir. It was surrounded by gravel walks and patios lined with landscape timbers. There were concrete picnic tables and a water fountain, of course. Not far away there was a rest room with running water and flush toilets. Supposedly there was even a shower nearby. There was a surprise to be found in the shelter log. Bud had been there the night before. How could that be when he hadn¢t passed me. Surely he hadn¢t gotten an earlier start out of NOC. Or maybe that girl we hitched to Bryson City with had dropped him at Fontana Dam. That¢s got to be it. An ego can be a silly thing Scott. Hike your own hike, right. This place felt way too civilized. It was time to move on. The only problem was that this was where Adam was to catch up to me. Oh well, I just couldn¢t stay.The skies were overcast for the traverse across Fontana Dam by the power plant. On the other side the trail entered Great Smokey Mountain National Park. That was exciting, but not really. The anticlimax was that here, finally, the trail enters this great National Park but it follows a road for the first mile or so. It was just a narrow little road with no lines but still. There was a park service truck with two guys trying to coax a snake off the road. Eventually at the end of the road there was a kiosk and the trail entered the forest.After climbing steadily for a couple of miles, the thought of finding a flat spot off the trail crept into my mind. Of course the Park rules were pretty clear about only camping at designated sites but tiredness can cloud judgment. Shortly my judgment became abruptly unclouded. The trail had just skirted around a shoulder and was slabbing around a little ravine through an open hardwood forest. Out of the corner of my eye there was something black moving. This drew my attention from the tread way beneath my feet. Oh, there¢s a bear crossing the trail on the other side of the ravine. Hmm, he¢s heading this way. All the stuff I have ever read about bear encounters is racing through my brain as I pull the camera from the pouch on my hip belt. Fortunately, when he gets to the bottom of the ravine he heads down stream rather than continuing his traverse. The slow to react shutter of the camera waits till the bear slips behind a clump of trees of course. That¢s ok. Maybe the designated camp site at Birch Spring Gap is a good idea after all. Who¢s tired anyway. Especially now with all that adrenalin pumping.The trail climbed for 4 miles from an elevation of 1,700 feet at the dam to just over 4,000 feet at Shuckstack. As the trail approached the pointy peak of Shuckstack, a fire tower appeared perched up there. The trail seemed to spiral more than 360 degrees up and around this peak. Of course it couldn't because it would have to cross itself on the way back down the other side. It was strange. Then there was the sign to the side trail up to the tower. Leave the pack or take it, so many decisions. I took it up the steep little trail. It's tough to leave all your possessions behind. It was late after noon, maybe 5 or 6pm. The tower was old and rickety. Climbing this many stairs this late in the day is always a struggle. There were bolts missing from the steps and hunks of railing were missing too. The shack on top had broken windows and a loose ladder leading to a trap door to the roof. Well, of course, I had to go up there. The roof was weak but the views were great. Surprisingly this thing had not been torn down as a safety hazard.Did I mention the views from Shuckstack. They were great. Fontana Dam and Reservoir were clearly visible. It's so nice to be able to see where you came from. It was for certain that I recognized nothing ahead. That's how it is without a map. But it's nice that way too. Everything is a surprise.The camp site a Birch Spring Gap was just over a mile from the tower. The hike was pleasantly down. The sight of bear hoist cables was comforting at 7:30pm. There was another hiker sleeping in a tent pitched at the old site of a shelter. This was not one of the designated tent sites. Oh well. There was a good piped spring.Returning from the spring to my designated campsite I found a deer nibbling on some vegetation right beside my tent. While dealing with dinner other deer passed by seemingly unconcerned with my presence. That was cool. I chatted with the other guy a bit when he climbed out of his tent. This had only been a 15.8 mile day but included a town stop. Besides, Adam needed to catch up. It was another fine night in my tent.