Date: 2004-04-18
From: Fontana Dam Resort

To: Fontana Dam Resort
Miles today: 1.4
Weather: clear sky

Near-o day in Fontana. Healing is Fun!Trail magic, con't: On signing in yesterday the clerk said my expected resupply package was not in the store room. No maps or guides or food for the Smokies!As I unpacked I also realized I had left my note pad and address book back somewhere along the trail, probably at my tent site under the leaves. A major loss! As I sorted out the ramifications, the room phone rang. The desk clerk said she had located my box under the pile. As I then walked over to the registration building, a pickup with two fellow hikers in back drove up looking for directions. One hiker handed me my address book!! Someone found it back at the shelter and knew the owner was heading to this place. Two hits of magic in five minutes!Add to that an unexpected package of trail snacks and a good-luck note from AWOL (David Miller, GA-ME 2003), who I met last fall on the 100-mile hike in Maine, and who introduced me to Trailjournals.com. Many thanks for the encouragement, Dave, both mental and intestinal!That experience plus the delicious food offered by Old Man and Burger that afternoon coming off the Trail really shows how much everybody looks after one another in the trail community.Many former through-hikers set up trail magic spots, to return the favor by passing it on to the next needy bunch on the march.Today, Sunday, was an easy day. A big buffet breakfast followed by poking around the sprawling Fontana Inn campus, to the outfitter, the store, and the central office for e-mail.Then came a visit to Fontana Dam, the highest in the east at over 400 feet. It is truly gigantic, and the camera can't do it justice.We then walked over to the fancy trail shelter nicknamed the "Fontana Hilton." Here we chanced upon "One-Leg," a man in his 40's with an above-knee prosthesis with electric and hydraulic power assist. He'd started two weeks ahead and was doing better than his leg, which had its share of mechanical problems.His family was keeping up with him in an RV, meeting him at crossings like this one. We wished him luck then walked the 1.4 miles of AT from there back toward the Inn, making tomorrow's walk that much shorter. Gorge below Fontana DamTried to call my daughter Sarah on her cell phone in Germany, where Gloria and my son James are visiting now. No contact, but just connecting would have dropped me from over 500 calling card minutes to barely over 200!!!!!Card users beware.A quiet evening awaits. Time to enter a partial listing of people I've enjoyed meeting along the trail:Happy To Be: semiretired Los Alamos scientistFrosty: his partner, also a scientist at L.A.Southern Boy: Young, full of fun, walks stifflegged from a bad knee.Fast Ox (Curt), a mechanical engineer. Saffron (Jody),Curt's friend, also a mechanical engineer.Kinnickinick (Steve) A partner of Curt and Jody. All three are hiking for a medical foundation.Southernman: Wildlife photographer and landscaper from FLGarcia: A Jerry Garcia lookalike, good trail company. Giggles (Sylvia), former Texas housewife. Travels with Garcia and Southernman. Tiny but rugged. CaterpillarE-Z Does It: Retired businessman from North Jersey, lightweight, fast hikerT-Bone Mr. T: A girl! Named for her titanium hip prosthesis.Jake-Brake: named for his loud snoring. Generous. Gave me a spoon when I lost mine on the trail.John Goldsworthy: met early then moved on, good company.David Coupland (Raven after his interest in that bird), from Ann Arbor. Thoughtful and wise, good company and hiking partner.Jan M., musician from Rochester MN pondering a career change. Pickwick: named after a huge Dickens tome he brought along on an earlier trip. Enters his shelter register notes in rhyme.Half Moon, grad student from NY Alice(Java), a photographer from Portland ME who's had work appear in Nat'l. Geo. Adventure magazine and hopes to do a photo article on this trip.Java's sister AngelaDenise: Disenchanted cubicle jockey from NY.Denny and Martina, nurses from Tasmania hiking with their boxer dog. They had to send home by the Smokies.Bone SpurLoon.Skippy and PoppinsBurger and Old Man, Trail Angels from Atlanta.Wild ManMother Nature and Smokestack (pipe smoker), an older married couple.Timex, named because she kept hiking after suffering fractured ribs in a fall.One-Leg: hiking on his prosthesis.Kirk from NV and Julia from NY,a couple I met early, then remet in Fontana.Dream Weaver, one of a group of five "Bandana Girls" who originally met on the web.This list will keep growing. It's tough to meet nice people only to part ways a day or two later. Not like anything I've experienced before.This trip seems to bring out the best in everybody. No competition or workplace strife, everyone looking out for each other. It's a different world, not the real world maybe, but one I'm glad to be a part of for this brief time.The sun's setting on the patio here. There's a bush in full bloom one patio over and the smell is driving me nuts. Hope the bees are doing well at home. Time to turn in, for the long uphill climb into the Smokies tomorrow.