Date: 2015-07-08
From: Fontana Dam Shelter- the 

To: Russell Field Shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: broken clouds

Side note: am I the only one who thinks of Rosanne Rosannadanna every time I hear "Fontana Dam"?I woke up at the Hilton having learned a good lesson: even if another hiker says it's fine to leave your food in a shelter, don't. The shelter mice chewed through my brand new drysack and got into my oatmeal. Then when I went to put on my shoes...there were dried apricots inside. The mice went into the oatmeal, selected out the dried apricots, and put them into my shoes. Go home mice, you're drunk.I enjoyed talking to K2, who was finishing the second hike that would complete the AT for him. I also met the two ladies and their dogs who had shared the Hilton the previous night, and we gushed about the view and the hot showers!Then I packed up and began my walk across Fontana Dam. I saw three hikers get out of a car, briefly chatted, heard they were also northbound. Little did I know how fortuitous this chance encounter would be!During the early morning I saw a turkey (looked surprisingly like the ones at my parents' house in a NorCal!) and what initially looked like a man's toupee, with curly dark brown hair. Except ...not human. Bear. (Why are bears leaving their toupees on the trail?)Side note to answer the perennial question -- does a bear sh*t in the woods? Answer: yes, but on the AT first. Bear scat looks like dog poop, but more reddish and pebbly.Bears are on everybody's minds in the Smokies, especially after the recent attack. Some hikers desperately want to see them. Others, myself included, would be completely happy to get through the Smokies without a single sighting. But man... The evidence of them is everywhere. The scat, the hair, the mud wallows, the stripped trees.I wasn't keen on spending my first night in the Smokies alone, so I was happy to meet up again with the three college students I met at the Dam - Optima Prima, She-Who-Does-Not-Wake-Easily, and City Guy. They turned out to be such great people! We had fun right off the bat.They were carrying a lot of weight between them, which was really taxing on the hot, strenuous climb out of Fontana Dam. Optima Prima even had a hatchet! (This was the cause of a lot of jokes , and references to the kids' book Hatchet , but to be fair, that thing really came in handy)I do think it's pretty funny that I spend most of my life surrounded by college kids...and even when I'm off in the wilderness...I'm still hanging out with college kids. :-) It truly is my calling.Another side note: I did not climb Shuckstack Tower. I'm petrified of heights . I basically went up one flight of the bee- infested rickety tower, and was like, yeah, I'm good. My body had been really good to me this trip, no need to traumatize it. I later heard from Optima that she had done the exact same thing, which made me feel better.We all crashed in and around the shelter, but they didn't sleep well, since it was their first night in bear country, where every single sound...sounds like a potential bear. I totally sympathize. I went through the exact same process my first few nights! I gave Optima some earplugs , just to take the edge off the scary noises. They help me immensely.Forgot to mention: saw my first tick today, crawling on my leg. No big deal, it hadn't attached, I flicked it away.