Date: 2005-04-14
From: N.C. 28

To: Fontana Dam Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

7:30I woke up at 6 and laid around and watched the clock until 7:30.When I got up, I turned the hot water on as hot as I could. It was the first bathtub I had come across on the Trail so far. So I filled that tub and got into it. Took a real good soak and took a shower as well and scrubbed down real good. I got down to the breakfast buffet at about 9 o'clock, they had all the usual breakfast fare. I'm sure I ate enough for 3 people, about a dozen scrambled eggs. There were a bunch of hikers there. I went back to my room, got my pack which was all ready to go, and I cleared out of the room.I ran down to the post office to get my mail drop. Ray was there getting his mail drop. I told him Eddie was open on April 24th to take people caving and we would meet at Hot Springs. Everyone's looking forward to that. Sam I Am and Origami popped up at about 10:30 or 11 o'clock. They were actually sitting at Stecoah Gap when Chris dropped Cold Feet off to go slack packing. So he took them into Robinsville and they did some food shopping and even brought some back for me. They hiked all the way up to the last shelter, only to find that I had left them my food. They ended up going quite a day yesterday too, like 22 miles. They booked it all the way to Fontana Dam Shelter. They are going to be hiking out today, they said.Next to the post Office, there's a general store here, that doesn't have a lot of stuff, but they have candy bars and cigars and I got a package of ham. I went ahead and I fixed up my food bag and set everything up. I walked over to the registration building where they had inter-net access, which by the way, totally sucks. It costs about 20 cents a minute and takes about 2 minutes to get to your sign on screen for your email - never use it. It sucks!I hiked up there and on the way back there was this little side road on the left hand side and this car with a little old lady was making a right hand turn. She never bothered to look to the right and ran into me. I was about 5 feet from her when she stepped on the gas to make her turn. I dove onto her hood and landed on my right knee which is already screwed up from yesterday, and now it's really swollen. I went to the general store and told whoever was outside what happened. They told the store clerk who called a paramedic to make a report and I sat here with a bag of ice for awhile. Eddie is going to be here any minute. Then we are going to help this German guy named Reiner, his Trail name is Rhino. He needs a ride into Robinsville because he has a dog. Dogs are not allowed in the Smokies. So he has to leave his dog at the kennel. I volunteered Eddie. I knew he wouldn't be too upset about it.So, now we're waiting for Eddie to get here with the Long Island iced teas and the Coronas. We are going to go to Fontana Dam Shelter today.Tomorrow we hike into the Smokies.Eddie got in at about 2 o'clock. We took Rhino down to drop his dog off. This other gal went hiking with us and she was quite entertaining to Eddie because she was talking about her days of being a dominatrix and various implements of the trade she had used. He got a real kick out of that. Poor Rhino's dog, when we took him to the kennel he knew what was happening, it was heartbreaking, he did NOT want to go in there.We got back and Eddie dropped the car off. We went up to the Fontana Hilton, the nicest shelter on the Trail, which sits on the south side of the Fontana Dam. It's a very cool place. It has 2 sides with a hall you walk through with double layers of bunks. You can probably fit 40 people in it. However, around it is a really nice tenting area too, with gravel and it's pretty flat. Most of the people actually tented. I set my tent up in a really nice area. We brought a 2 liter bottle full of Long Island iced tea and Coronas up to the shelter and passed them around.   That lasted about 15 minutes. Sam I Am and Origami were there, they had some. They were planning on hiking out, but after the Long Island iced teas they figured it wasn't to their benefit. Au Ma and Au Pa, who I had promised the iced tea to, got there just in time.Lefty, and a guy he was hiking with, and another hiker that I had met last year were there. Albert showed up later in the evening. It was nice being around people I already knew and could call friends.Eddie and I stayed up pretty late. I think we were the last ones to go to bed.One of the guys had build a small fire we sat around and talked for a while.Somewhere around 10:30 or 11 o'clock we went to bed.