Don’t You Wanta Fonta? (ECT Day 99)

“Lost and alone on some forgotten highway

Travelled by many, remembered by few

Lookin’ for something that I can believe in

Lookin’ for something that I’d like to do with my life

There’s nothin’ behind me and nothin’ that ties me

To somethin’ that might have been true yesterday

Tomorrow is open and right now it seems to be more

Than enough to just be here today”

– “Sweet Surrender” (1974) – John Denver 

• Hiked Today: 17.4 miles
  • Appalachian Trail (148.8 – 166.2)
• Total Hiked: 2,090.7 miles
• Total Paddled: 99.5 miles

Weather: 30 – 63 °F, sunny and clear

Elevation: 1,736 – 3,973 feet

North of Simp Gap to Fontana Dam Shelter

It was cold again overnight, but not colder than the night before as advertised. I imagine my higher elevation and the rain build up the previous night added to that being slightly more extreme. I remembered to bring Sawyer (my filter) in with me this time too!

There was a short time staying up high on a ridge, but then it was winding down to Stecoah Gap. Nearing the bottom, I discovered a fairly good-sized highway although it was under some serious construction at the moment. I threw out my trash in a bin near the picnic tables, delayered, then made my way across to start some uphill.

Like yesterday morning, I had to keep moving to stay warm. The sunshine was brilliant though whenever I wasn’t in shadow. I met Just Doug and chatted briefly. He was having trouble keeping his hands warm. I invited him to a coffee break, but sounded like he’d just done that. When I did end up stopping, I took a long break, maybe an hour and a half.

I was cruising during the next section. I put tunes on, but this time I just put a playlist I’d made on shuffle rather than my norm of musing to a specific album. This meant it was all my favs, so I was singing and doing this thing I sometimes do where I spread my arms out and soar like a bird. Like in a previous post when I described hugging trees along the trail, this is another telltale sign that I’m in really good spirits… just soaring down the mountain on a winding trail (p.s. of you think the time lapse vid below seems slightly distorted, it is… I clicked the “stabilize” button when editing. I felt it really captured my soaring feelings though haha)

Filling up and filtering water at a little stream, Barefoot caught up to me and we walked together for a bit. He’s another one who’s part of the Warrior Expeditions group. I was in front when I got startled by this big fella…

Barefoot is a snake guy. Telling me right away it’s a rat snake, he proceeded to move it off trail. He then told me that when he previously hiked on the AT, he had heard of folks catching and bringing them to the shelters to eat the mice! He mentioned too though that they release a nasty smell when provoked or handled, so he wasn’t about to do any transporting this time. And I will never be partaking in such scary acts of danger!

I had lunch around 1:00 pm at a high point where I got my first view of Fontana Lake…

Then, it was down, down, down! There were lots of folks along the way that I passed, all focused on their footing and reaching the bottom safely. And again, it got really green as I got lower in elevation. I enjoyed searching for new plant life and flowers!

Slow-motion butterfly take off

Quite lovely, right!? It was rather steep coming down causing me to feel it in my knees some. I popped out to a road, and then a parking lot with a restroom. There, Mike and Miles were hanging strategizing their plans for the Fontana Dam area. They hoped to get into the small “town”/resort village to try and find a restaurant, but the shuttle system was a little confusing. I planned to go to the marina right there and see if I could find food and hang so off I went…

Checking the marina out, it didn’t take me long to see there really wasn’t much of a selection for a full resupply, mainly snacks and cold drinks. Thus, I walked right back up to figure out a way to the Fontana Dam resort village where there was supposed to be a general store. As I made my way back up, a shuttle van arrived right on time. Along with my new pals, Mike and Miles from Texas, I got dropped off at the restaurant where we all had an “early dinner” (it was around 4:00 pm) together. It was great chatting with them, hearing some of their stories and sharing some of mine, and splurging on a greasy thin-crust crispy pepperoni pizza!

After our feast, it was down to the the general store to get our food supplies for the next stretch. Things were a tad pricey, but I only needed to supplement what I already had. And generally, they had a nice selection catered towards backpackers.

The timing of things worked out incredibly well for me today. This was in large part thanks to Mike who chatted with our shuttle driver Shua and arranged for him to make a trip back at the end of his work day. Other hikers, Rocket, and Barefoot were also in the van with us. Everyone but me got off at the Fontana Dam Shelter, whereas I kept going to be dropped off at the restroom/parking area where I’d been picked up. Wanting to keep my continuous path, I had a little over a mile to walk to get to the shelter still. It was a very pleasant evening winding around a bluff with occasional views of the lake and surrounding mountains…

On the way, I devoured the remaining slices of my pizza. That’s right, I ate that whole thing in just a few hours! And, it was scrumptious. 

The Fontana Dam Shelter gets the nickname The Fontana Hilton because it’s quite large and has some special amenities including a restroom with outlets for charging and a shower! There are also numerous concrete pads for tenting, garbage cans, picnic tables, and a water bottle fill station. Very deluxe! The place was full of AT hikers this evening, which I imagine has been and will be the case for several more weeks during this peak of hiking season…

I set up, hung out, and relaxed. There was a giant fire ring and I sat on one of the benches nearby perusing on my phone. We were pretty high above the water, so the views looking out over the lake were rather stunning.

I hoped someone might come and start a fire (my understanding is that the ban had been lifted), but I guess it was up to me to be that someone and initiate the social gathering. Truthfully, I felt we were all pretty tired and each prepping in our own way for the upcoming daunting task of the Smokies!

Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. I’m very excited for the upcoming stretch and will have a fun announcement in tomorrow’s post about taking on the first half of Great Smoky Mountain National Park!