Date: 2019-04-11
From: NC 28/The Hike Inn

To: Fontana Dam Shelter
Miles today: 1.2
Weather: few clouds

Today was a beautiful day. The sun was out and there was a nice breeze. I originally planned on going into the Smokey¢s today, but didn¢t follow the plan. I¢ve been frustrated when plans change, but I had to listen to my body today. I got a shuttle from my Inn back to the same place and sat there having my breakfast. Some people came down from the trail and were pumped about the vending machine, only to find out there was nothing left in it but Diet Coke, no calories there! Guess I¢m glad I didn¢t try wasting my money on it yesterday. I met a man who is headed back to Boston today to run in the marathon. He spent 12 days on the trail and told me it was ¢the best training¢ and that after the trail, I could run a marathon. Maybe! Lol running with no weight on my back does sound rather amazing right now. He told me he ran the Chicago Marathon 4 times and Boston 10. What a champ! I¢m sad I won¢t be in the scream tunnel this year at Wellesley; that was always such a blast. I saw Two Fingers and an older man, who had absolutely no weight in that pack. He said it weighed 15 pounds, no food or water. Yeesh. He already hiked the AT last year and didn¢t know what to do with himself after so he¢s hiking it again. I have heard the adjustment back is hard. But he also had some hard stories of people quitting, even after they made it to CT! This trail is such a challenge and sometimes I don¢t give myself enough credit for being out here and doing this. Even just waking up, taking down my tent, and stepping foot onto the trail is an accomplishment. It is really hard work and I just did two 14-mile days. I get why people quit and obviously I don¢t want to ever do that, but it is a tough journey I¢ve set out on. I¢m not sitting here with rose-colored glasses and honestly I don¢t think I ever did. I got slammed with the difficulty of the trail on day one and have experienced many challenges since. So when experienced hikers tell me the rose-color will fade, I don¢t think I ever felt it. I¢ve felt the hard reality of the trail every day, while having a blast too.Anyway, I was chatting with everyone and decided to push on. My pack was heavy and my body just felt wiped. I started hiking and the view was gorgeous. I was walking right by the lake and it was lovely. I arrived at the ¢Fontana Hilton¢ or basically a shelter with a bathroom and solar-charging station. Everyone had been talking about it for days because it had a shower. Since I stayed at my Inn, I didn¢t need a shower, but it was a really beautiful spot. It had a view of the lake and was spacious and clean. I sat there, feeling mentally like I just didn¢t want to hike today and physically beat. And then my friends showed up! Red Wiggler, Green Slouch, Hermione, Ringer, Honey Buns, and Lexi. And I finally found out the name of Buck¢s owner haha. It¢s ¢Tits on the Ritz¢. Hmm. Unfortunately, he had to send Buck away for the week because you can¢t bring dogs into the Smokey¢s unless they¢re service dogs. I miss that pup! The best doggo. Most of the people from my two trail families were here and I just didn¢t want to leave. I really sat and debated for so long. I always feel bad when people help me think out my decisions, but everyone was helping me process what I should do. I even flipped a coin haha. I did this with the NOC cabin situation too and it just kills me to have to sit there debating. I¢ve gotten better at decision making, but it¢s hard with the trail because if I dump more mileage onto tomorrow, I don¢t know how I¢ll feel, and if I push on today, I don¢t know how I¢ll feel after. I decided to stay. It was getting late by that point anyway to push on. I decided to take a zero and just rest my body and mind. I haven¢t actually taken a zero yet and I¢ve been out here almost three weeks. I¢ve done some low mileage days, but nothing where I can just sit and relax. I was really against zeros for a while because I thought they¢d take me too much off trail mentally, but as the terrain gets tougher, I realize that they may be necessary.Unfortunately, my ankle is really in pain and so are my feet. A lot of hikers have this thing called K-tape or something, but I don¢t have that. I don¢t know what to do, but I need to press on. It¢s not debilitating and I don¢t find it hard to walk on, just sore. I really pushed on that downhill yesterday. Luckily, a wonderful act of trail magic today left me with a bucket of ice at the shelter! I put some into a plastic bag and iced my ankle. I put sunscreen on and brought my sleeping pad out and just relaxed by the lake view, icing my feet. It was wonderful. I did get a bit burned, but I put sunscreen on so ugh! I tried to eat through some of my food because my bag is heavy. It¢s not too bad, but I had leftover food from last time, mainly peanut butter! This morning another hiker at the Inn and I were discussing food and he was telling me I didn¢t need any of the food I had and that I had too much water. I really disagree. Hike your own hike! But seriously, we¢re all burning so many calories per day out here and we should be having at least 4 liters of water a day. He said he got by on 1 and a half. Yeah you save water weight, but that¢s not enough water at all! And the thing is, I do need all the food I have. My body needs those calories and protein and the fact that I haven¢t been eating it has put my body in a worse position. It needs those nutrients and nourishment. Honestly hike your own hike. I am fine carrying extra weight if it means I¢m being healthy and smart with what I¢m feeding my body. I need to give it the power to do this trail. Anyway, I ate and iced and chatted and it was nice! I had a great zero day. Everyone went into town to resupply and I was just relaxing. I needed that so badly. They all came back with a ton of food and the resupply had been quite pricey. That¢s the kind of effort I don¢t want to put in sometimes, which is why mail drops are my way of doing food. I love grocery shopping at home, but here it feels like a chore. Sitting by the lake made me realize how much I miss that. It¢s another dream of mine to have a house on a lake someday. I know I¢m super frugal, but maybe it will help me make that dream come true too! Someday! One guy made a fire and we all sat around and chatted. Ringer helped me bear bag. He offered, so I took him up on it. We got my rope up on a good branch and I waited to hang my bag since I still had food I wanted to eat. I hung out around the fire with Red Wiggler and Hermione and Slouch. We again had some deep convos. I enjoy these peeps! I went to put my bear bag up and got to that last part with the stick and managed to get my finger stuck in the knot I was trying to make. Lol that was some serious pain. I let the whole bag fall because I couldn¢t get my finger out. Red Wiggler said I need to be named ¢Bear Bag¢. Never! Haha. I will conquer it eventually. Maybe I¢ll have a few fingers left and five feet of rope, but I will do it! Man. There was a snake in the bathroom and everyone named it the Chamber of Secrets and I really enjoyed that reference. The snake, not so much. Also the only place to charge phones was a power strip in the men¢s room because the solar charger didn¢t work! Not fair lol. I walked in there to plug my phone in. No shame. I went to Wellesley, where the men¢s rooms were the cleanest and least used, so we used them. No fear! Haha. I did warn said men, but they can deal unless they want to give us girls the power strip! I am sleeping in the shelter tonight. It isn¢t always my first choice because there are mice and snorers. I really can¢t sleep when someone is snoring and I am not a fan of hearing mice. But it is dry and it¢s supposed to rain tonight, so it¢s the best option! Update: slept through the snoring, but Honey Buns had a bad dream and woke up screaming ¢hello, hello!¢, so that was interesting! I totally thought there was a bear. Thank goodness there wasn¢t. He said he was dreaming about a tree falling on the shelter. Yikes!Song of the day: ¢I still haven¢t found what I¢m looking for¢ by U2. Little Debbie... NOT Bear Bag