Date: 2005-02-26
From: Fontana Inn

To: Hike Inn
Miles today: 1.9

It was time for a twist in this hike. Stay tuned. Read on... I had a nice breakfast this morning. Talked about hiking the trail with some of the other guests and gave them my TJ link. Then I went to do laundry and picked up my maildrop. Belcher and Navigator had sent me a great package. Belcher had included this great light weight pillow she had hand sewn. I'm definitely carrying that. Thank you guys!!!Unfortunately I didn't receive the new MP3 chip I'd been looking forward to but the postmistress said she would keep an eye out for it and forward it to Hot Springs if she would get it.I then went back to the Inn and packed up my stuff. Boy, was my pack big! I walked to the registration desk and checked my e-mail at the computer kiosk. Very inconvenient thing but I got to read some new guestbook entries. Keep writing people, I really appreciate it! Oh, how I love attention ; )I learnt that lunch was served at the Inn and headed back there. I couldn't have timed my stay better. Since they have a group this weekend they have opened the restaurant. It will be closed again tomorrow and won't open til March 14th. I had three good meals. So lucky!The lady at the restaurant offered me a ride back to the trail and we had a great talk about travel and hiking. Turns out she had wanted to climb/hike the only mountain I've ever climbed in Japan (Yari Ga Take) but there had been too much snow. She had done some great traveling. Very cool.Finally I started hiking. The little piece of trail between the dam and Hwy 28 was in surprisingly bad shape. Lots of downed trees. You'd think that being so close to civilization it would have been better maintained.At the dam there were lots of people. I asked a couple if they could mail a postcard for me (which I had forgotten to do in the morning) and chatted for a while with another couple. They were very impressed that I was doing this all by myself.After hiking over the dam I entered the Smokies. The weather was so much better than last year. I took a funny picture of myself and the sign, we'll see if it turns out.So I start hiking the long but gradual uphill, meet two dayhikers and when I'm almost at the top I see Chasing Amy come my way. What? What's she doing going downhill? Turns out Mallrat's knees aren't up to the task of hiking the AT and he got off the trail at Fontana. Chasing Amy had decided to go on by herself but wasn't very happy with that decision. She came to the conclusion that she didn't want to hike by herself for the months to come. She was now hiking down to get off for a while and maybe wait for some friends to catch up. Now let's review this. Chasing Amy wants to hike but not by herself. I want to hike but I prefer company. Bingo!!! It's decided, we're hiking together. No more solo hiking for either of us. We'll see how it works out but on the downhill (yes, we hiked back down so Amy could reassure her parents) we had a great time. She hiked about 18 miles today and I did about 8 but we'll have to start over again at the trailhead tomorrow. We're both very excited though. They say everything happens for a reason. We'll see what we can learn from each other. Back at the dam Amy leaves a message for her parents and checks if Mallrat is still at the Hike Inn. He is and we decide to stay at the Inn for another night. They pick us up and now I'm in a warm bed again.I'm so excited!!!