Date: 2017-11-01
From: Derrick Knob shelter

To: Fontana Hilton
Miles today: 23.7

The Smokies are notorious on the AT for being a serious obstacle. Because of their height and the correspondingly bad weather, many sobos only become confident they will complete the trail once they emerge from the range. For nobos, it's their first big test.All this makes it curious that for us, the Smokies have been the scene of two of our longest days on our entire hike. The first was weather related, as we opted to do a marathon-plus day with a big-ass climb to avoid an incoming blizzard. Today also had an external focus, but of a different kind: the Fontana Hilton.The actual name is the Fontana Dam shelter, but such was its reputation for luxury -- with a solar-powered phone charging station, hot showers (!) and, most famously, the ability to order pizzas to the door -- that the Hilton tag has stuck. The pizza aspect in particular was a strong motivating factor, which became rather ironic in light of later events.This mileage didn't seem likely that morning, with Dirt complaining about a painful back and Happy Feet still suffering because her recent conversion to zero-drop Altra shoes had left her with distinctly unhappy feet. Along with Wizard, who just wasn't feeling up for a big day, they were all talking about stopping at a campsite after 18 miles.At first the trail rollercoasted steeply up and down along the ridge, making the miles seem even longer, but once we got past Mollies Ridge shelter, the trail began a long and nearly constant descent out of the Smokies towards Fontana Dam and our enthusiasm returned for reaching the Fontana Hilton.As we reached the campsite, all of us except for Wizard opted to continue. The last landmark before the dam was Shuckstack Mountain fire tower, which was open and had a commanding view over the most of the range we'd just traversed. I wasn't going to bother making the steep 0.1 detour up to it until the admonitions of the others persuaded me to change my mind and it was indeed an impressive view. The treads on the fire tower stairs had also been recently replaced, which improved my faith in them, but no such love had been lavished any time recently on the actual observation room itself. It would certainly be an entertaining place to sleep in strong winds.Just as I returned from that diversion, Tarzan -- a member of the Second Breakfast Club -- rocked up. He'd got off trail for a few days to visit his girlfriend and was now in the midst of a 32 mile day to catch up to his tramily, who I suspect are a couple of days ahead. He is one of the strongest hikers I know but he's aiming to do nearly 100 miles in three days to catch the Second Breakfast Club. That certainly put our supposed long day into perspective!After that, it was a slog down through yet more beautifully autumn-toned forests down to the dam, across it and then to the Hilton a little way beyond. Happy Feet and I arrived together right on dark. We were surprised to find there was nothing in the shelter to indicate how to order pizza. Usually there are menus in the hut register or a brochure pinned to the wall but here there was nothing, even though the pizza ordering capability is the number one reason why the Fontana Hilton is so well known. It was practically an article of faith.We tried googling it, thanks to having strong cellphone reception, but also to no avail. Maybe it's only during summer months when the dam's visitor center is open? Instead we were left wondering.Thanks to not being sure we'd get here tonight, most of us had been carrying an extra meal so the lack of pizza is an inconvenience rather than something serious.So instead we're concentrating on our luxurious accommodation, which is indeed definitely a step up on what we're used to.Life is good.AT fact of the day: Today's "last thing" should have been ordering a pizza at a shelter, but it turned out the last time we'd done that was back at Partnership Shelter before Damascus.