Date: 2016-03-16
From: Cable Gap Shelter

To: Fontana Dam
Miles today: 8.2
Weather: few clouds

Day 24 - Cable Gap Shelter to Fontana Dam 3/16/16 8.2 milesToday was a weird day for me. I think it's bc I've been out here for almost 25 days bc my emotions are weird. We woke up at Cable Gap Shelter at 7:45am. My body was killing me from the previous day of 15 miles. Both feet were swollen and my lower body ached everywhere. I awoke to the sound of trees creaking in the wind. It took us a while to get going which makes me anxious. I enjoy getting out of the shelters by 8 or 8:30am. Left at 10am, ugh. Had about 2 miles of uphill before the long descent to Fontana Road. We could see the dam as we descended and all the water and boats made me crave sunny days on the lake...I am dirty and grimy from the long sweaty day.Once at the road we called the Fontana Village Shelter. $3 in to what can only be called a tiny resort town. There was a post office, general store and lodge. We went to the lodge for lunch first. It was a fancy place and I immediately felt more smelly than usual. There were also a ton of luxury vehicles in the parking lot with decals all over them. Lamborghinis, Porsches, Ferraris, Bentleys. Really strange for a mountain resort but I guess the surrounding curvy roads were to blame. Apparently it was an extremely wealthy car club from NYC. There were also lots of very skimpily dressed ladies with them. Per our shuttle driver, there was a van with an escort service decal that showed up and that's where all the women came from. Very interesting stuff!After lunch we printed off our Great Smoky Mountain National Park permits ($20 each) and headed down to the post office to retrieve our bounce boxes. I am most excited for the homemade granola bars Margaret Burke and her family sent me in Franklin. I ate all the Stingers that John Carlin sent me. I've found Stinger Gels and the Stinger Waffles and love them as well. Oh, also Cheetah was feeling like she was coming down with a cold yesterday so she tried two of the Oil of Oregano pills that John sent and she said she felt great today. Thanks John! I've also been using the New Skin from the Dillahuntys like crazy. So much so that I have turned fellow hikers on to it. And the sweet tarts were gone within 2 days, you're the best Truitt!Re-stocked at the General Store a tiny bit and then we took the 5pm shuttle back to Fontana Road. From there we hiked 2.5 miles. We bypassed the nicest shelter on the trail bc it had Norovirus there. One of our fellow hikers actually got it from staying there the other day. These last 2.5 miles were very weird for me. I was uncomfortable with stealth camping and the lack of people did not calm me. Also, the sun was setting which makes me anxious bc we didn't (we being Rhodo, Corncob and Cheetah) know where we were camping yet. Luckily right before crossing the dam we ran into 2 ppl who said they camp a lot on a fall away road right across the dam. We got to the road and were immediately me with a "Do Not Disturb" sign saying it is an out of use firing range. We went in anyway I was very uneasy at this point but this seemed to be our only option with daylight running out fast. Everything got spookier when we passed a large animal trap (large enough for me to fit in) and a creepy shed. Did not like this at all!We set up our tents and hung our food far away. Ate far away from our tents and no camp fire. We eventually went back to the dam to see it all lit up at night. We laid in the middle of the road and stargazed. All of a sudden i started feeling very nauseous. Like I could vomit or... This got me very emotional for some reason. I think all of the unease, fatigue and anxiety were wearing on me. Also the idea of feeling so sick in the woods really caught me off guard. I asked if anyone wanted to go back and no one was feeling like they wanted to. I started to feel worse. I started silently crying and of course Cheetah noticed. I told her everything and we walked back to the camp site together. I was feeling exceptionally nauseous at this point. I broke down and Cheetah held me while I cried. What an amazing friend. I can't imagine doing any of this without her. I chugged water and started feeling a bit better. Finally bed.