Date: 2012-04-23
From: NC 28, Fontana 28 Crossing Fontana Dam, (NC)

To: Birch Spring Gap (campsite #113) (NC)
Miles today: 7.1

Day 13: Strong winds on the Shuckstack fire tower (Or how we adjusted our schedule to fit the services available at Fontana Village)We thought we did a fine piece of hiking yesterday coming into Fontana Village, but the sad truth is we needed to have arrived at 4pm rather than at 6. There just wasn't enough time to get our town chores done before shops closed down for the day: food resupply and laundry at the top of the list. We did get two long hot showers and two great steaks at the Inn restaurant, which put us to bed early in a pleasant frame of mind. But this morning it was time to reevaluate our schedule. Studying our map and Guide, we decided to take our time and add one more day to get to Gatlinburg. We had a great breakfast, were the first customers to wash our clothes, then while we waited, hit the post office and store. Both Shock & Awe chuckled when they saw us walk back up the hill to our room with some breakfast items to add to the resupply box we'd sent ourselves at the Inn. With some overall physical fatigue from our early weeks, this was our toughest day mentally. The unique experience of crossing the Fontana Dam helped some, and the trail itself was as nice a section as we'd been on, with frequent views through the early green-up down to the lake, but the unrelenting uphill climb was just steep enough to keep us asking the same two questions over and over: "Do you really think you can do this?" and "Do you really want to be out here?" This mid-day funk was worse when we were without sunlight and in the strong wind we saw all day, but improved when we were on the lee side of a hill and feeling the sun's rays. (So, as the day's hike continued and our spirits slowly improved, we wrote it all down to having "sunlight deficiency blahs on Day 13".A word about Shuckstack firetower: we first saw it from about a mile away and it seemed so high we said, "Wow!". Then after a long switchback we got to the short detour where we dropped our packs and said, "Wow!" again at the ease of walking without them, even on the steep climb to the tower. We had two more "Wow's" at the foot of the tower and then swaying in the sharp wind on top. We might not have climbed the rickety old tower but three southbound section hikers were just coming down when we got there and they didn't appear especially foolish. Yesterday we'd complained about no clear picture taking view of the dam. Well! Today we could look back down to the dam without a single twig or leaf in the way. And then in the opposite direction we could see last night's snow on the high Smoky peaks. "Wow!" After descending the tower steps & walking back to the junction of the trail where Shock and Awe were waiting, we had a wide fire road to walk for a third of a mile, giving us a good rhythm for the last mile to our campsite. We arrive at 5, by far our earliest stop of the trip. We finish dinner by 7 and are in our tent before sunset and feeling ourselves nodding off by 8, as the wind was still howling and tonight's temperatures will test our 40° sleeping bags. At 11pm, our little thermometer says 39.7, so we'll see...