Date: 2005-03-28
From: Cable Gap Shelter

To: Fontana Dam Village
Miles today: 6.9
Weather: light rain

Miles hiked today : 6.9I woke up around 6:30 a.m. and filtered half a liter of water before the rain set back in. It had actually been raining off and on all night long, which helped to drop the temperature even lower. I spent the morning hiking in the lower 40s, which was great compared to the mid 80s I'd been hiking in a couple days before.I tend to really heat up while hiking, so I prefer cooler temperatures. I really don't even mind the rain, unless I have to stop moving. Then I quickly become cold. That's part of the reason I take so few breaks during the day.Last night, the shelter was full and I was sleeping in between Rainbow, a female hiker, and Yard Sale. At some point during the night, in my sleep, I came to semi-consciousness because I realized my hand was touching something that I didn't recognize. It turns out that my whole hand was on Rainbow's face and it somewhat freaked me out. I quickly withdrew my hand and fell back asleep. In the morning, Rainbow was talking about a dream she had where a monster had ahold of her face. I embarrassedly said, "That was me!" and offered my apologies. It seems like there were no hard feelings.I left camp around 7:40 and began an 800 foot uphill climb, though it didn't really seem to phase me, as I knew this was a short day and I had visions of a shower and a hostel. I figure that staying in a hostel once a week is a nice treat and so I plan to try to maintain that average.I hiked with Joe for about five miles this morning and we took a break when we arrived at the Fontana Dam marina. I called the Fontana Dam Village switchboard operator to verify the time the shuttle would be at the Fontana Dam visitor center, then we each enjoyed a cherry coke before hiking the 1.1 mile further to check out the Fontana Dam shelter.Wow! I've heard it referred to as "The Fontana Hilton" before, but I was amazed at this shelter. It was two stories of bunks on either side of the room and looked like it was big enough to comfortably sleep 24 people. The words "Fontana Hilton" were even present on a large exterior wooden sign.As Joe and I walked in, we saw a couple bags of goodies hanging from a hook on the ceiling. Joe pointed out the marshmallows and I suggested that we take a snack break. I got the bags down with my trusty trekking poles and was totally shocked. Both bags had my name on them and labeled "From Hepzibah and friends."Hepzibah was one of the first people to contact me on trailjournals.com and right before I flew to Atlanta, she sent me an e-mail to contact her sometime between Springer Mountain and the Smokys. I had gotten that range of travel mixed up and didn't realize my mistake until I was re-reading her e-mail in Franklin.The day after Franklin, I called her on my lunch break at Byrne tower, though I only reahched her voicemail. I left a message saying that I'd be at Fontana Dam on Sunday and that it would be great if she could come out and meet me.Even with the 23 mile day into the NOC, the combination of the weather and the long series of climbs out of the NOC, I didn't make it to Fontana Dam today (Monday) until noon. Nonetheless, Hepzibah had come with some friends and left many treats, which I shared with Joe and a couple other hikers.The goods included: a quart of fresh strawberries, which lasted no longer than five minutes, home-made banana muffins with huge chunks of bananas, which also quickly disappeared, though I managed to save a couple for tomorrow's breakfast. There was a bag of Easter candy, and fixings for smores (graham crackers, marshmallows, and gnutella). There were also some small bottles of shampoo and body wash for the showers at Fontana Dam. Last but not least, there was a very nice note from Hepzibah.Among other things, she said that one of the bottles of body wash was somewhat girly smelling and that I might want to pass it on to a female hiker. I offered it to Rainbow when I saw her later, though she politely declined. From her note, I saw that she left at 2 p.m. which meant that I missed her by nearly 24 hours.Hepzibah, I'm so sorry that I missed you and I certainly hope you make it to Trail Days so that we can meet in person. Thank you so much for the treats, they made me feel very fortunate.After the Fontana Hilton, Joe and I hiked the remaining 0.3 miles to the actual Fontana Dam. Walking up to dam, the view of the water and surrounding hills was astounding. We expected to wait until 1:00 p.m. for the shuttle, but when it hadn't arrived by 1:15 p.m., I called the Fontana Dam Village operator to see whether it was coming and she said that the driver had just departed. When the shuttle hadn't arrived by 1:45 p.m., we called again and the operator said she'd send the shuttle out again.Fontana Village is only 2 miles away by road and after being outside for nearly two hours, we were fairly chiled, especially with the wind coming off of the lake. When the driver arrived, I asked whether he'd forgotten us and he apologized, saying he'd cruised by the dam, but hadn't seen anybody. Apparently he didn't come close enough to the visitor center, as he would have seen a group of five hikers, three of them with backpacks. The driver was nice though, taking us by the post office and registration office before dropping Joe and I off at the hostel.I tried the key, but it just wouldn't work. So Joe and I stashed our packs on the side patio and began walking toward the registration office, though we stopped by the Adventure Center first. Unfortunately, they were unable to replace my broken tent pole, but they were able to have someone bring me a new key, which saved a long walk in the rain. Amusingly, I'll hike for miles in the rain with a backpack to get to a shelter, but I really don't want to walk in the rain, sans backpack, to pick up a replacement key.Cathy, the lady working in the Adventure Center, was very kind. First she helped me with my key, then when I asked if the hostel had towels in it, she said she wasn't sure, so gave me a couple, as well as a washcloth and a bar of soap. On top of this, the Adventure Center offered a 10% thru-hiker discount on all purchases and Cathy even offered to let me use the office phone for the calling card I purchased so that I wouldn't have to pay the pay-phone connection fee. These may seem like little things to the casual observer, bbut they're very big when you've just spent a week in the woods. I told Cathy how much her kindness meant to me and we were on our way.Joe and I returned to the hostel and had a litle trouble with the new key, but it finally worked. Talk about a huge hotel. With two bathrooms and sixteen bunks spread across three rooms, we had the place to ourselves. We had to wait a couple hours until the restaurant at the inn opened up so I got my dirty laundry ready and took a long shower. For the record, I used the girly smelling body wash because I wanted to smell really nice, if only for tonight.After showering and miscelaneous chores, we walked to the restaurant and found Snuffalupagus in the lobby with Swamp Fox. I asked Snuffy if he was ready for the Smokys tomorrow and he said that he had to get off the trail. I was shocked, as this was his third attempt and he told me that he'd injured his knee and was having great difficult with the downhills. Appaently, he's already had a couple knee surgeries. I'm sad to see him get off the trail. He seems to ave a lot of heart, what with this being his third attempt. I'm sure he'll soon be back out again.The four of us sat together for dinner and hit the salad bar hard while waiting for our orders. I had two plats of salad and a bowl of soup before eating my sandwich and fries. If I'd known that the soup and salad was going to fill me up so much, I wouldn't have ordered the sandwich. During dinner, I was talking about the treats at the Fontana Hilton and Snuffy said that he was there when Hepzibah came by with her friends. She had put him in charge of my goodies and he joked about what would have happened if the bags had fallen.When our checks came and Snuffalupagus asked to pay for us. I was genuinely touched, as he knew that he was leaving the trail and was doing a bit of trail magic before he left. Today has been a very fortunate day for me.After dinner, Swamp Fox let me use the telephone in his room and I briefly called my Mom. Among other things, she let me know that Sierra Designs was sending me a replacement tent pole to Hot Springs, NC, no questions asked. Great!After using the phone, I did laundry and I journaled while waiting for laundry to finish. I've got to re-pack my foodbag with my most recent maildrop and hopefully I'll be in bed by 10:00 p.m. I want to get up early so that I can use the internet kiosk at the registration office before the 9:00 a.m. shuttle back to the AT.Bedtime at 11:00 p.m.