Start: Fontana Dam Road (AT mi 164.3). Stop: Stecoah Gap (AT mi 150.6). Today’s miles: 13.7 miles. Total AT mileage: 2042.5 miles.
I slept in some today. And honestly, I had no qualms with it. My bed was comfortable, I was warm, and I slept well. Eventually I’ll be back on an actual schedule and the idea of that stinks.. and I’ve realized I’ve never really let go of the “schedule” while out here. I’ve always had somewhere to be by this date, miles to hike by this time.. and while it sounds stressful, it’s actually somewhat comforting to have control over it.. and know that if I don’t technically keep control over it, nothing bad will happen.. weird, right?
So, I got up around 8.. the shuttle driver couldn’t drive me back to the trail until 9 anyway, so why rush? I was going to pack, and did pack a few things, but then decided to walk upstairs in my warm sleep clothes for breakfast instead. It was a buffet, and I ended up sitting there until 9:30.. haha. I ate four biscuits and gravy, along with eggs, bacon, sausage links (I don’t even like those, not sure why I got them or ate them), and hashbrowns. I also had several cups of coffee and orange juice. The sweet waitress sat me at a window table so I had a beautiful view of the lodge with the mountains behind it.. and I could feel the cold coming off the window panes. Yep. I took my sweet time eating, prolonging the inevitable return to the cold. I tried to use the WiFi to upload some pictures, which worked, and I saw that my Braves won the first game of the World Series last night! Wahoo! My watching some didn’t jinx them!
It was in the high 30s outside, but warming semi quickly, and it was sunny. It would eventually get into the 60s and be gorgeous, but knowing it was that cold right now, I just couldn’t be motivated to get a move on. After eating, I went back to my room and took forever to pack.. I sat and blankly stared awhile before finally pushing myself to get it done and check out of my room. I returned my room keys and asked for the shuttle around 10.
The driver was there in minutes and had me back at the trailhead by the marina. I had a 3+ mile climb right out of the Fontana Dam Marina. I’ve learned I like to call it quits for the day right before another huge climb.. yesterday was clearly no different. Ha. I didn’t get started until 10:15, and minutes after I started huffing and puffing in all my rain gear (put on for warmth, not rain today) I ran into Ox doing trail maintenance!
We laughed about my late departure this morning and talked a minute before I trudged upwards. He was making the steep lunge like steps smaller, easier, to get up. Sadly for me, he had only recently started so only the bottom several steps were done. He still had a whole lot to do-and I had to lunge my way up the rest.. I’m amazed at the work trail maintainers put in, volunteering most of the time no less. He was doing some very labor intensive work.. I was and still am very impressed and grateful.
After the big lunge steps came smaller stone steps.. all of which were still steeply climbing to Walker Gap. Which was strange, because gaps are usually low spots, not at almost tops of mountains. A mile or so from the top I got a good chuckle at myself when I realized that this is the climb I had thought I would do yesterday afternoon, before I snapped and decided I needed a hot shower to warm up my cold toes. How silly was I to think I would have climbed this 3 plus miles, soaked to the bone and cold as ever, and then slept in the shelter I was now passing. I’m forever thankful my toes protested that plan by 11am yesterday.
The rest of the day was rolling, ups and downs, deep in the woods without many views. At some point I had a hunting dog run up on me and follow along with me a mile or so, continuously whining but wouldn’t let me pet her.. she’d flatten to the ground and then cry so I quit trying to love on her. She’d follow at my heels, several times stepping on my feet, making me worry I’d somehow trip over her and accidentally hurt her. Strangely enough, as quick as she appeared, she vanished off the side of the mountain in full chase of something she saw that I didn’t.. and she didn’t return to me.
I had big intentions of hiking to a campsite, a climb out of a road crossing that was steep but not horrible. The campsite was on the way up to Cheoah Bald. Before I settled on the campsite, I had thought I might push forward and camp on the bald or even go a little farther to the shelter past that.. but that all quickly went out of the window when I took so long to leave the lodge this morning. Just after 2pm, I was stepping over a huge downed tree in the middle of the trail and some how double bounced my right knee on the log and skinned it. Blood started to trickle and the bottom scrape started to swell. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t spew a buttload of explicatives. It hurt!
I took my time attempting to walk it off, letting my brain realize I’d be fine after all. But, I was walking slower now and decided maybe I should try to stealth camp near the road crossing instead of attempting to push across and up to the campsite. I even went so far as to filter extra water when I crossed a stream so I’d have plenty to stealth camp. I was thinking I’d get up at 6am and leave packed and ready by 7, when the rain was supposed to hit.. not ideal, since I hate waking up, but a decent plan to not have to pack a wet tent.
And then, as it started to inch towards 5pm, I decided I was silly. I called Lonnie at Wolf Creek Hostel and asked him if he had a bed for me tonight. He said he did, I told him I’d be at the road crossing in 20 minutes, he said he’d be there. I dumped my extra water while passing a pristine stealth site, laughing to myself. Not even 14 miles today, but I got a great breakfast and a warm bed for the night. No regrets.
Lonnie met me at Stecoah Gap and drove me to the hostel. Roundhouse was there! I asked about Finch, but Roundhouse seemed to think he was behind him. I was shocked at our meeting up, honestly. And come to find out, we had both been dropped off at Clingmans Dome the same day, he had gotten off trail with his girlfriend for a few days.. ahhh. Now it clicks.
Shadow is the caretaker here, so he gave me a quick tour after Lonnie left to head back to work. I walked next door to the gas station and got a pizza and a Gatorade, then sat it on the kitchen table before hopping in the shower and getting clean. My knee burned in the water. Once out and in loaner clothes, I gave my clothes to Shadow who started the wash. I bandaged my knee so it wouldn’t get stuck to the loaner pants I was wearing, and then took my food to the fire pit out back and ate dinner while chatting with Shadow and Roundhouse all while sitting around a perfect campfire.
I hung out awhile, then when I was too cold to stand it, and the fire wasn’t keeping me warm enough, I headed back inside. I turned on the tv to find the World Series.. the Braves and Astros were literally tied 1-1 and I turned it on right as the Astros knocked in 3 runs and had the bases loaded. I immediately yelled and turned off the tv-mad I jinxed my Braves like that. I sadly walked to my room, which was a private room with a double sized bed! Not sure how I lucked out there, but I was happy about it, quickly forgetting my sadness over the game.
I laid down to type this up, snuggled in the quilt I found on the dresser. I’m pretty tired, and honestly frustrated with the lack of service and decent WiFi.. I’m still not able to get any of my posts up. It was a thing of being too cold to type the journals out, now that I have, I don’t have the service to post them. Oh well, if things continue in this fashion, I’ll hopefully be able to do a mass upload when mom comes this weekend and I take a zero in Franklin. We shall see! Sorry about the inconsistency with posts, but such is life on the trail. If you have great service, your fingers are frozen and it’s raining and you just can’t type it out, or you’re so tired you fall asleep before you can.. when you’re wide awake and ready to knock it all out and get things up to date-service is non existent. Haha! Love y’all. Sweet dreams.