Date: 2012-04-08
From: Double Island

To: Fontana Dam
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: few clouds

We set an alarm last night to wake us up at 5:00 AM so we could beat the sun and the wind. As we settled in to camp last night we could see white caps on the lake and knew we did not want to mess around with the wind the next day. But, you know me... when the alarm went off at 5, I quickly turned it off and reset it for 5:30. I didn't want to risk DO IT hearing it, but lucky for me, he's practically deaf. It went off again at 5:30 and I quickly reset it again for 6:00. But not quick enough because he was wide awake, shining his head lamp on my tent. We quickly packed up camp, had coffee and fry bread for breakfast, and were on our way just as the sun came up. We were sick of paddling in no time at all and DO IT kept critizing my paddling! I decided that if he is going to complain that I don't paddle then I will simply stop paddling all together. I laid back on my pack and closed my eyes. That reeaaallly ticked him off. So of course I kept on paddling and we really did some major miles quickly. Before we knew it, we thought we might be near the dam from looking at the map we had. We were a little fearful of the dam since we had no idea if it would be like a waterfall or a wall. So we kept on paddling, wondering where we were and then we stood up in the canoe and about 100 feet in front of us, arounda bend was a giant wall. We made it!! And we damn near paddled right into it! Now since the water level is controlled by the dam, there are giant drop offs on all sides of the lake. So to get the canoe ashore we would have to do WORK. We pulled it up on a rock and I went to go find cell service so we could call the guy who rented it to us to let him know we were there so he could come pick us up. Problem was there was no cell service anywhere. I walked all around the dam and climbed up a giant hill, completely off trail. Then I came sliding down the same hill into thorn bushes, completely on my butt where DO IT was laying down, reading his book. DO IT had engineered a system to pull the canoe up the hill so we got to work on that. He went down the hill and pushed the canoe up, while I walked backwards with a strap around my waist. I was walking into a road with a canoe on a rope when the cars started to drive by... out for a nice Sunday drive. From there I hitched into town alone to call the canoe guy while DO IT watched the canoe. I got into a Prius with an older couple that had 3 dogs with people names. They sat on the lady's lap and growled at me the whole time. In conversation, we discovered that they had been to Bill's, or, um DO IT's Truck Service before to buy tires! They used to live right near my parents. They drove me to a gas station where texts from the canoe guy started to come through on my phone. Texts like, "I didn't think about how much gas would cost so if you guys can afford to give me gas money, I might be able to come get you" and "You could call my Mom or my Brother and maybe they'll come get you". This was not good. I was supposed to get him to pick up my Dad and the canoe while I worked on getting a place to stay for the night. I called the guy's Mother and Brother who both had no knowledge that they were supposed to pick the canoe up and couldn't believe he had made such arrangements. Now I would have to go back out to the dam to tell my Dad no one was coming to get us and then get back into town to find a hotel room. Luckily, the couple had waited for me to use the phone and said they could drive me back out to the dam, after they finished their slooooow Sunday drive through town. Eventually, they took me back out to the dam where we left the canoe and started walking into town. Now we're at the Fontana Village Resort, a neat little place with pools and a lazy river. They had pretty nice rooms with a hiker discount so it's going to be difficult for us not to zero here tomorrow. We have to get to the post office though, Des sent us our whole food resupply from Whole Foods and I am so excited! And Mom sent DO IT his own Ipod so we can both rock out while we hike. PS: It kind of sucks to not be with family on Easter.