Date: 2020-06-14
From: Sassafras Gap Shelter

To: Fontana Marina, NC 28
Miles today: 20.9

Up at bird o' clock, as David would say. The rising sun pointed directly at Sassafras Gap Shelter but the trees filtered the warm rays. Had a notion at the Franklin resupply the other day I should make protein shakes for breakfast, since I am now stoveless, so I picked up Slimfast powder. It has lots of protein and fiber for the weight. The taste and texture, unfortunately, is what you'd expect mixing cocoa powder in cold water. Only eleven more servings to go! <shudder>We extended a long day by hiking out of the NOC yesterday so today we could shoot for Fontana Dam at the foot of the Smokies. I started out with lots of energy. The pack felt nice and light - until I started climbing.Nice views up at Cheoah Bald, today's high point at 5100 feet. Has a perfect tenting spot for future reference. By now we are practically spoiled for views.Good weather and mild temperatures in the green tunnel. Sunshine hiked well ahead of me all morning. Sometimes we leapfrog when he stops to filter water. I just fill my smartwater bottle and screw on the Sawyer filter. Takes less than a minute. It filters as I drink and gets me back on trail faster. But Sunshine always passes me eventually.At the highway in Stecoah Gap an extended family was visiting partly to celebrate their newly-minted Georgia Tech grad. I took their picture after several minutes of herding cats. Resting at a picnic table was a woman finishing a weekend section hike. She gets out as often as she can from Friday evening to Sunday to piece together parts of North Carolina. A pair of cyclists stood nearby resting their backsides from biking up to the 3100 foot Gap from Cherokee, many miles to the west. They're training for a circuit of Washington State that will include heights like Mt Rainier and the North Cascades. Sunshine disappeared to find a spring that was marked as being nearby. When he returned he had a broken trekking pole from slipping to get down a steep slope to the water. Carbon fiber poles don't bend, they snap. It was Sunday, so a call to order a replacement segment would have to wait.It was blue skies all morning, but after 1 the sky darkened and wind picked up. Sure enough a shower came through as I chugged along the Cheoah Mountains. I threw on my dollar-store poncho - a more effective way to keep me and my pack dry than any raincoat or pack cover. It "breathes" much better.Stopped for water at a beautiful little fall in the side of the mountain. The shower had long passed so I doffed the poncho. Sure enough, a minute later a new shower began, lightly at first. Pulled out the poncho again.I ducked into Cable Gap Shelter to wait out the shower as it intensified. Sunshine and a crowd of five had the same idea. Among them Sockbrush, Mamma Africa, Aboo-ee, and Crackin'. Sockbrush, a guy out for a month or so with no destination, lost his toothbrush and started using his sock. I don't understand it either. He had a swollen area the size of a softball behind his knee. Waved off ibuprofen to bring down the swelling, he was just going to rest it. Momma Africa is from South Africa, hiking until she "decides to stop". The other three girls are finishing a section at Fontana tomorrow. They told us the General Store there was permanently closed when they dropped off their car.This presented a problem. That was our resupply point. We can't hike into the remote Smokies without a resupply. Fontana is the jump off point for almost all thruhikers. We needed to get to a supermarket in another town. Robbinsville was the only option, and calling a hostel seemed the best approach. We decided to hike to the next road, which happened to be Fontana Marina, and call one. The shower had abated and we booked. The others seemed content to stay the night. It was 3:45.Six miles to Fontana Marina. The sun came out and humidity rose as we descended 2000 feet. All that way I fantasized about cold drinks from the Marina store. But alas! The Marina store was closed. The soda machine was busted, the bathrooms were boarded up, even the picnic table was gone. The phone to call for the village shuttle to run us the 3 miles to the convenience store was inoperable. And we had no cell service. A sign said the resort in the village wasn't taking guests, and that the AT shelter on the lake (known as the Fontana Hilton for its deck, showers, electricity, and wifi) was closed! We learned from passers-by that the entire Fontana Resort had permanently closed, ostensibly because of the state's lockdown. The shuttle didn't even run anymore, because no one was in the village. The village had become a ghost town!We couldn't call a hostel. We had nowhere to stay, and no resupply option outside a gas station that required walking 3 miles off trail. Resigned, we headed for the shelter formerly known as the Fontana Hilton, hoping either for cell reception or, at a minimum, a place to sleep. At the trailhead was a pair of boots full of pebbles. A sign from his widow explained that the owner had hiked the AT to this point before he succumbed to cancer while on trail (at least he died doing something he loved) and that taking one of these stones up the trail would symbolically along him to hike the trail as well. Last year I carried one of these pebbles to Damascus. Now I pocketed one to hopefully place on Katahdin.Halfway to the shelter we got service again and called Wolfcreek hostel for a pickup. We backtracked to the marina and minutes later Lonnie pulled up in a minivan. He ran us to Robbinsville for resupply at the Ingles and fast food takeout. It must have been fifteen or twenty miles away. Nothing is close around here.Lonnie's house was full with other hikers, so he took us to his second property, a doublewide trailer with two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, wifi, and washer/dryer. Luxury! Spent the even watching Smokey and the Bandit and McClintock, the best things on. Remembered why I no longer pay for cable.Tomorrow, into the Smokies!Note: more pictures can be found at the linked Instagram account, valleyforge78.