Date: 2010-04-10
From: Brown Fork Shelter

To: Fontana Dam
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: scattered clouds

The older couple who complained about Conan shining his reading light in their eyes woke us all up this morning before light. They were deflating their sleeping pads in the shelter. I think it's common courtesy to pack your things up away from the shelter. It really doesn't involve much thought and planning. Be considerate!McKinley woke up everyone that wasn't already awake. She was barking at my while I was retrieving my bear bag. I packed up away from the shelter. Played with McKinley for a while and still left before everyone else. I stopped about 4 miles into it to make breakfast by Yellow Creek Mtn. Rd. Fog came by me first. The Matt and McKinley right before I was about to leave. We hiked together the rest of the day. Took a break at Cable Gap shelter and saw turkey hunters. Today is the start of the season.Noticed more blooms and budding trees than any other time on the trail. The altitude makes a huge difference. McKinley was being picked up by the boarding kennel at 5pm in Fontana. Dogs aren't allowed in the Great Smokey Mountains Park. We could see the dam and lake the entire afternoon. We got to the marina and filled out our permits1 Hiked to the Fontana Hilton shelter and unloaded our packs to make room for our town run. We met "Spring Kat" and "Castaway" there. Spring Kat is a retiree from Ireland. He has a 6 month visa.We walked down to the dam to call the shuttle. No pay phones so we used my cellphone. The shuttle from town was there within minutes. The lady who drove the bus is the granddaughter of the man who navigated the Engola Gay. The nuclear bomb plane. She drove SOOOO slowly! She's obviously being payed by the hour. She told us the history of Fontana and the TVA. When we got to the lodge I picked up my mail! Holy Cow! Lish made macadamian nut cookies! She sent FLIP FLOPS! I wasn't excited initially about the weight of carrying those, but I'm a freakin disciple now! It's so great to get my shoes off! She sent bagels, colby cheese and summer sausage! A pair of socks! And two stamped envelopes! Thank you Lish! You're wonderful!My mail drop had to much food in it. So I shared some with Matt. I ate the rest right there. I don't need batteries because my Steripen is a piece of crap. I don't need hand sanitizer because I get it from bathrooms along the way. I ate Queso with Tortilla shells. Ate all the chocolate while my clothes washed and I shared with Matt, Moose, and Casual.I almost forgot my hat again! Matt said, "You wouldn't be Skippy without that hat!"The boarding company came to pick up McKinley. It was sad seeing her go!Casual, Moose and Matt went to the restaurant while I tried updating my journal at the lodge computer. What a fiasco! I couldn't do the updates because there was a Volkswagen convention there. When I finally got to the computer these two couples came up and breathed down my neck as I typed. I couldn't take it anymore so I gave it up.We took the shuttle back to the Hilton at 9:30pm. Stood on the Dam and talked to Lish about her new bee hive! She just got them! She didn't get a single stink putting them in the box! Incredible! She's so excited. I'm so glad I don't have to cut the grass around them! Scary. I talked with my Dad for a little while. He kept blowing his nose into the phone. He's the captain of snot rockets! We bickered about whether he was going to send a whole roll of toilet paper or a partial roll. I eventually gave up the argument and accepted the fact that he was going to send the whole thing. Anyways.Matt, Casual and Moose were by the bathrooms talking. They were telling funny life stories about trips to Vegas, spray painting friends head's yellow, and tornado's! We hung bear bags and hunkered down in the Hilton.