Date: 2007-04-30
From: Brown Fork Gap Shelter

To: Fontana Dam Shelter
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: clear sky

The going was pretty easy today. Again I was trying to hurry up and get to Fontana as early as possible, but my toe was giving me problems and slowing me down. Hiking primarily on a ridge, I could see Fontana Lake off and on for most of the morning. This lake was made by damming up three rivers, and is extremely long. This is also the area the movie Deliverance was based on. Comforting thought, huh?There was an extremely steep decent heading into Fontana Dam. As my foot was essentially numb at this point, I let gravity do its part and essentially jogged down the trail to the base. First you come upon a small marina at Fontana Dam. While there, I filled out the permit to hike through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. As the 2nd most visited national park, there are plenty of rules and regulations to follow. For instance, you can only stay in the shelters along the trail. If they are full, you can tent within site of a shelter. If you're a thru-hiker and you're in a full shelter, you have to give your space up for a non thru-hiker. The rules go on. Anyway, I figured now that I was at the marina, it would be an easy walk to the shelter. Nope. While there was a very nice paved road that wound around a large hill/small mountain, the trail had to go over this hill/mountain. If there was an uphill, the trail would go out if its way to go over it. This was my first introduction to PUD's, or Pointless Ups and Downs. There was absolutely no reason the trail had to go over these hills. It was frustrating, but a mile later I finally made it to the shelter, called the Fontana Hilton. This is probably the nicest shelter on the trail. DogMan, Sizzerz and Joker had already moved on, though they did leave me another note encouraging me to take advantage of the lake and take a swim.Instead, I first took off my boots, and the tape around my hurting toe. Something is definately wrong. When I took the tape off, the toe hurt more than it ever had, and for longer than it ever had. That quick jolt of pain I got when I stepped wrong was back - for about 15 minutes. I was limping for the rest of the day. Eventually I got a ride up to Fontana Village, a little resort town not quite open for the season. There I met up with Lion, another thru-hiker I met a day or so ago. After buying some needed supplies, taking others from hiker boxes (these boxes are communal boxes located at places hikers frequent. If you need something in the box, take it. If there's something you don't need, leave it there), we headed down to the gas station/bar (it's that kind of place), had some food and a pitcher of beer, and back to the shelter. I also spent a few hours soaking my feet in the lake while reading, enjoying the day. I quickly realized that I had way too much food, so I found a little picnic grill you see in many parks, made a fire in it, and made some quesadillas with the flour tortillas, summer sausage and block of cheddar cheese I had. Lion also took a few off my hands. A walk down to the visitor center to use the pay phone to make a few calls, then back up and off to bed.