Date: 2013-10-12
From: Brown Fork Gap Shelter

To: Mollies Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 23.7
Weather: few clouds

Today was the day I planned on attempting to hike in the Smokies. All reports from thru hikers indicated that I would be just fine, though I received numerous pieces of unsolicited advice while packing up and hiking this morning informing me that just the opposite was true. I was told that there were a number of park rangers waiting at Fontana Dam to turn hikers away. I was told that if rangers caught you in the park, they gave you 48 hours to leave before they arrested you and put you in jail. I was told that all 48 Smoky Mountain rangers were on round-the-clock patrol at all of the entrances and main tourist sights. Great.Aside from this, however, my hike this morning was fantastic. I was out of the shelter by 7:20, and arrived at the next shelter 6 miles away before the people there had packed up and left. I spent the morning hiking above the clouds, which is one of my favorite mountain phenomenons. I arrived at Fontana Dam and caught a hitch into Fontana Village. My first stop was for lunch, a grill that, at this time of year, was only open on Fridays and Saturdays - nailed it! After lunch I went to find my resupply package and the package I had mailed from Neel Gap with my tent. It had been so nice these last couple of days hiking with a 1-day supply of food and no tent! When I finished packing it all up and hoisted my bag onto my back, I feared I had herniated myself, but felt for the damage and there was none. Onward!My last stop in Fontana Village was the General Store to buy some bread for lunches this weekend and ice cream to eat in the rocking chairs on the front porch. While checking out, the woman asked if I was heading south. "No, north, the Smokies are my last section of trail to do before I complete my thru hike." This was absolutely unacceptable to her - she went on to inform me I wouldn't be allowed in; thru hikers were being turned back; fines were being given!!! I nodded and smiled and was relieved when I got out onto the front porch where I could eat my ice cream in peace. She came out to smoke a cigarette and to tell me that by going into the park, I was disrespecting our government! Uh... no comment. She went inside and came out a few minutes later to inform me she had called the visitor's center at Fontana Dam and they had said hikers weren't allowed in, and that she had called her boss and that he had also said hikers weren't allowed in. Finally, she informed me that she "wouldn't lie for anyone, not even my own children," and that she would have to report me to the park rangers. By this point, I was completely bewildered! She was on some sort of extremely confusing power trip! This woman was, without a doubt, the most unlikeable person I have met on the trail so far!Customers came, and she went inside to help them. As I was finishing my ice cream, a man walked up and asked about my hiking. I explained, and he said he would give me a ride back to the trail. His name was Bill and he was a photographer for the resort, a job he had also held 50 years ago when the resort was new. He asked me what I would do if I were unable to head up the trail. I told him I would wait at the shelter at Fontana Dam as long as possible before my flight home. When we arrived at the trail, you'll never believe this, there was no firing squad. Hikers were not being tazered into submission. In fact, there was nobody there at all, and the only indication that the park was closed was a small, typed sign near the parking area that said, "Due to the government shutdown, park facilities will not be in operation," or something to that effect. Bill took my picture at the trailhead, then took another as I was walking away up the trail. I only walked about another 100 feet before I remembered the rip in the seat of my shorts and the loaf of bread bungee-corded to the back of my pack. Cute, Breitside, real cute.I ran into a group of 3 day hikers, and further on a couple. The couple asked if I had gone up to Smokestack fire tower - I hadn't, but both Bill the photographer and another friend had said it was worth the hike. I headed back the .5 miles with them, and learned that they had a weekend home in Sewanee! Such a small world.When I arrived at Mollies Ridge Shelter around 7, I was happy to find another hiker, Trouble, cooking his dinner. He thru hiked in 2006 and is out this year heading as far north as he can before winter becomes too harsh. His guidebook had a story about how the shelter got its name: "Legend says the area was named for a Cherokee maiden who froze to death looking for a lost hunter and that her ghost still haunts the ridge." I guess I'm glad there is someone else here to help fight off ole Mollie; on the other hand, if it weren't for Trouble, I wouldn't have ever known or worried about Mollie's ghost! Trouble filled me full of stories, everything from his very entertaining adventures during his thru hike to geological theories of the Appalachian Mountains - such a cool guy! Off the west side of the mountain (if we are actually hiking north), there is a large urban area that we decided must be Bryson City - it's a funny feeling to walk so far into the woods and yet to be within seeing-distance of a city.