Date: 2014-04-27
From: Fontana Hilton

To: Russel Field Shelter
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: clear sky

Today was the the day we finally hike the Smokies! Last night was a hot one, the shelter fits twenty four but thankfully most people tented and there was about six people in it, unfortunately the shelter heats up like an oven and you don't sleep too well.   I woke at 7:30 and slowly got my bag together, had an apple pastry from the bait shop and a few a granola bars for breakfast. I saw Delaware in the morning and let me know what shelter she was going for, it was about thirteen miles and looked like most of the gang was heading there as well. It was a beautiful morning and I had to hike across the Fontana Dam which is my first official walk adores a dam. It was picturesque with the lake and mountains surrounding the dam. Next you walk along a road that enters the Smokies and at the trailhead is a black box where you need to put your permit in and you keep a piece as well to show park rangers if they see you on the trail.   Once again, it started on an uphill and it was good one, it was also getting hot and it was only around 9:30 so I knew it was going to be one of those days. I huffed and puffed to the top and inhaled one of my two bottles of water, it was definitely going to be one of those days. I met up with Delaware, Inspector Gadget and few others up the trail. I hiked on and was going to meet everyone at the fire tower on too of the mountain which looked liked it provided some spectacular views. I turned on the jets and hauled my butt around the mountain and when I got to the trail that went up to the tower, someone scrawled the word 'bear' in the dirt with an arrow pointing towards the tower. Tim and James were coming down from that direction and said there was a mama bear with three cubs at the top to the trail. So, we slowly walked up the trail to take a peek and the cubs climbed up the tree while mama just sat there. She didn't seem phased by us at all and two of the cubs slid down the tree and stayed at the base while one hung out in the tree still. We tried to wait them out but they weren't budging so we moved on. Later on in the hike, a family of boar were in front of me and ran off to the bushes, I didn't see them but a pair of hikers saw it and said I was pretty close to them, it's been a crazy first day in the Smokies.The rest of the hike wasn't too bad, it was just hot and extremely buggy, I lost count of how many little flies I killed today.   We got to the shelter around five and there was a group of section hikers at the shelters. The shelter system in the Smokies works differently than the rest of the trail. Section hikers can reserve the shelters ahead of time and thru hikers have to get out and tent if they get there before the section hikers. The shelters are big and hold a lot of people so it usually isn't a problem but I didn't want to stay at the shelter and set my tent up. A few other thru hikers showed up and we all hung out for a bit while cooking dinner, tonight was a Knorr pasta side and soak hit chocolate along with some cookies. Finally got a signal on the phone and touched base with home plus upload these journal entries. The weather is suppose to get crappy for the next few days, it's already raining now so it's already a crappy morning, it sucks taking down and packing up a wet tent. Should be an interesting next few days, wish me luck.