Date: 2008-03-04
From: Cable Gap Shelter

To: Fontana Dam Shelter aka the Fontana Hilton
Miles today: 6.6
Weather: moderate rain

From my experiences so far, I have found that there are two distinctly and very different types of hikers with respect to how they plan a thru-hike. The first type is the one to which Amanda and I belong. It is the type of hiker that does little to no planning on a day-to-day basis, aside from knowing where the next resupply town is and how much food to carry until them. Now I am not referring to preparing. Amanda and I spent a lot of time deciding which gear to buy. Instead, I am referring to planning the trip all the way from Georgia to Maine. Before leaving Chapel Hill, I had only looked at the first 10 miles of the Thru-Hiker's Companion. Each night Amanda and I pull out our little printed pages of the companion and spend about 5 minutes looking at the upcoming miles and landmarks for the upcoming day. Even then we don't plan to hike a certain number of miles. If we know it's going to rain, we will try to make it to a shelter, but other than that we stop when we get tired.The second type of planner is the group to which Grasshopper and Breakman belong. They are on a bit of a different schedule than Amanda and I. They tent just outside the shelters and appear to go to bed by 5:30 PM and are gone by the time we wake up. Due to our different schedules they were usually heading to bed just as Amanda and I arrived at the shelter. We had a chance to talk with them for a little while outside of Cable Gap Shelter. They are such a wonderfully nice couple. I hope we see them often in our journey. Grasshopper and Breakman have done a lot of planning. They have maildrops as their primary food source for their entire trip. This means they had to sit down and estimate roughly where they would be each day. Their ability to do this (and all other hikers who plan the whole hike) amazes me! Amanda and I tried to plan this way, but with little long distance backpacking experience we gave up since we had no idea how many miles we would do each day.The reason I discussed planning is because I wanted to emphasize that today Amanda and I had no plan. We both barely slept at all last night because the shelter was very low to the ground and every time the wind blew (which was often) it sounded like a large animal was crawling into the shelter with you. You couldn't help but wake up and look around because each time you were just absolutely sure there was a bear ready to snuggle up next to you. Anyway, the rain and fierce wind began around 6 AM. With no motivation to get out of our sleeping bags, we didn't set out until 9 AM. It was still pouring with wind gusts up to 25 mph or so. My rain pants kept sliding down and my pack kept causing my rain coat to ride up. I was thoroughly soaked. The night before, we noticed we would cross a road after about 4.5 miles of hiking. The general store lay 5 miles east down the road. Amanda and I need to resupply if we want to make it through the Smokies and to Hot Springs. Our plan was to hitchhike to the general store and back. So there we were, two soggy hikers standing on the side of the road with our thumbs out. Who in their right mind is going to pick up soggy, muddy, smelly hikers in the pouring down rain? The answer is no one. After 35 minutes we gave up and decided to hike to the Fontana Shelter to regroup (1 mile farther).Here is something you should know about hiking the AT. Just like life, it has its ups and downs. When I think about the ups and downs of life, I think of them as typically being slow and gradual. Good things happen and you grow more positive and optimistic; bad things happen and they knock you down for a while until you get over them. The ups and downs of hiking the AT come at you a lot faster, like a roller coaster. This morning even before heading out into the cold rain, Amanda and I were on top of the world. We left the shelter ready for another amazing day. Three hours later, after being battered by ferocious winds and rain, we were down. Standing beside a road with cold streams of water trickling down your arm as you reach out to raise your thumb I was at my lowest point thus far. Little did we know that 30 minutes later we would be 7 miles west down the road in Fontana Village's General Store warm, buying supplies, and drying out. Little did we know that just 3 hours later we would be full off of hot dogs and nachos, the skies would be blue, we would have all our supplies, and we would be completely dry. I would have scoffed at someone had they told me that in only 7 hours I would be writing a journal entry in the Hilton of shelters with a spectacular view having had a hot shower and having seen a great sunset from the top of Fontana Dam. Yet here I am.So to all you future thru-hikers as well as a note to self remember that downs will be rapidly followed by ups. So hang there. In the words of Tater, "Take a couple of days off before deciding to quit the trail." Tater knows that after a couple of days you will be back on top of the world.If you want to know how all this happened, keep reading. I will include it in a future entry as I am too tired to include it in this one.And by the way, the shelter actually has a sign on it that says "The Fontana Hilton."-Josh