Date: 2012-03-23
From: Fontana Dam Shelter (The Hilton)

To: Russell Field Shelter
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Well I almost earned myself a new trail name today. I was saved by the fact that they couldn't come up with a good one though. whew okay, let's go back to the beginning and then get to that part shall we. I slept fitfully last night because of all the snoring and late midnight arrivals. It was so hot that I ended up sleeping with my bag wide open and using my extra down blanket as a pillow. I still dream about switching to a hammock and night's like this certainly make me eye greener pastures all the more. Got packed up, used the beautiful modern indoor plumbing supplied restrooms before heading down to cross over the dam and into the Smokies. My love of modern conveniences pretty well tells me I was born in the right time period. This morning the mountains looked particularly inviting with the sun shining on them. This week and last week are like night and day. I feel so strong hiking now and my pace is catching up too. The three miles up to the fire tower felt easy. Views from the tower came briefly between the clouds moving in around us, but what we could see was certainly worth the climb up that rickety old thing. boy was that soooo not safe, all the wood steps looked ready to collapse and there were no real hand rails. That part of your mind that tries to keep you alive and continuing the human race was going "whoop whoop DANGER DANGER, abort abort" so I only climbed up halfway to get a good view of the lake created by the dam and made Boxhead (who was climbing on this thing as if he were strapped in a wrapped in pillows) take pictures for me. He also got one of my clenched teeth smile, the whites of my teeth almost match the color of my knuckles. So there's my bit of freak out. Clumsiness and heights do not go well together. The next 7-8 miles were more tiring but I'm still feeling strong so it's nice to know my hiker legs have come in. Coach would be so proud of my tree trunk thighs. By afternoon it started to rain really hard soaking all of us and eliminating any views we might have had. luckily the wind was blowing so hard that by the time it stopped raining that dried us out for the most part. nothing like a cold mountain breeze to do laundry service for you. (insert chattering teeth here). of course what's really funny is we all build up and put off so much heat from hiking that we all put of steam so we quite literally look like we're on fire. I will give the smokies this, they at least live up to their name. I really hope I don't end up hiking in a cloud for the next few days as the highest point on the AT is coming up and I would like to get some views from it. I got to the first shelter just as Motown was taking off her shoes for a quick break. There was a ridge runner there (paid educators who roam the park informing everyone of best backpacking/camping practices). He was really pushing us all along to the next shelter so we all kept going despite sore feet from the big climb back to high elevations. I pushed hard for the next 2.5 miles and got there in an hour. Man was I starved, not sure how that even happens because I ate all day but hiker appetite just hit me full force and I was ready to consume giant portions of food. Once at the shelter we were all joking about how pushy the ridge runner had been and how he must have wanted the place to himself. A whole big group of us are here. In the Smokies you are required to stay at shelters as they are trying to limit human and bear interaction. Some die hard campers were put out by this but given how nice these stone shelters are I find no problem with this. They have two tiers of sleeping, indoor fireplaces (that don't draft well so I recommend avoiding fires), plastic roofs that let light in and tarps strung up across the front making them almost completely enclosed. I'm sleeping on a top tier tonight so I'm hoping not to need to go to the bathroom all night. (Okay you will have to forgive me how often I talk about this subject. It's such a big part of the trail though). This shelter didn't have a privy just a toilet area that I dubbed the toilet paper graveyard. EW let's just say not everyone (or anyone) has been properly digging holes. again ew. Oh right how I almost got a new trail name. As it was getting dark, I decided to clean and treat a little wound left over from the poison ivy when I couldn't find my first aid bag. or my gear repair bag. I looked and looked for it digging around in my pack and proceeded to freak out. Everyone told me later that i didn't seem to be freaking out all that badly so maybe I was just exploding on the inside. But anyway STRESS, search, Stress. I figured it must have fell underneath the bench I packed up on back down that long hill at the dam. At first I was just majorly bummed because all my spare batteries were in that bag, and my expensive poison ivy treatment. man I would have to make a new first aid kit. so i moped for awhile stressing and contemplating hiking the 15 miles back down to get it. My hiker friends were all strongly opposed to this as they all understood just how much that would suck. Then it hit me that I had stored some of my spare cash (enough to hike back for) in one of the bags as well as my prescription. Argh now i was set on going back. So you do the only thing you can think of when you are all stress and looking at the barrel of a very unpleasant gun, you call your mother. and your father, and your Aunt. And when you can't get through to all of them you just kind of sit there with a lead feeling in your belly and jittery unhappiness of having lost something when you're already caring the bare essentials. And then finally resigned to the extra 28 miles you've just added to your trip you mope off to bed were you unrole your sleeping bag to find your missing bag role out of it. You then precede to laugh hysterically with pure relief. I love the people I'm hiking with, they all let out a cheer/ laugh and command that I owe them all a beer for this little bit of drama. Which I do. HA. Boxhead yells out, "new trailname." but then it was bedtime.