Date: 2019-04-20
From: Fontana

To: Russel Field Shelter 
Miles today: 16.1

Day 19 Snowstorm Today marked another major milestone for my walk being that I entered the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It¢s one of the most visited and iconic parks in the USA, being established in the 1930s by all sorts of private and public entities and then formally authorised by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940. It¢s history of course goes way back before then when it was the lands of the Native Americans. When white settlements came there was forced removal of tribes and the Smokies became a great place to hide. In fact some Cherokee still live in the vicinity. During the 1930s and the depression many out of work men were used to establish and build fire towers, trails, huts and the like and it is these facilities that I was to appreciate over the next few days. The weather was also to play a significant part of my walk. It had been showering on and off during my time in Fontana but then a major cold front moved in overnight. It reduced the temperature a bit where I was. However at the higher elevations the temperatures really dropped below freezing turning those showers into snow, some of it quite heavy at times. I wasn¢t to really know this and coming from tropical hot sunny Australia had no idea what really was in store. I had already purchased 6-7days supplies of food from the Fontana Store ready for my time in the Smokies. The shuttle was due at 8:30am and I was ready to go with a very heavily laden pack. It didn¢t actually show up until way past 9 and by that time there was a throng of hikers anxious to get going. The shuttle dropped me off back at my last exit point and I headed off skirting around the Franklin reservoir until I came to the dam wall. Here there was the ¢Fontana Hilton¢, a very spacious 24 person 2 tier hiker shelter and lots more hikers. There were also about 6 or more pavilion shelters with all manner of Trail Magic goodies. I¢d already eaten but couldn¢t resist a donut and with my hiker hunger now kicking in, it was scrumptious.The first part of the walk was along a road. It was dead flat and my legs loved that. But then the path took off away from the road and uphill. My legs really didn¢t appreciate that. I lodged my permit in the hiker box and I¢d officially entered the Smokies!It was pretty much raining lightly all the time and I noticed that as I steeply climbed higher the droplets were starting to float down. It was snowing. At first there was no accumulation but getting over 4,000 feet it was sticking to the trees and as I got even higher there was more and more of it. I was having to brush it off my clothes but was warm and generally dry. My shoes though were a sodden mess as the trail had become a sloppy, slushy swamp of mud mixed with ice. Coming from Australia where I don¢t usually experience this I was having fun!When I got to the first shelter it was full and hikers were having to pitch their tents in the snow. I thought about this for a second or less then decided to push on to the next shelter Russel Field. A good choice for although I got in late there was space for me and I got to sleep warm and dry. It had been another great day.