Fontana dam to gatlinburg to hot springs

It's been a while since my last post so I won't give a day by day report. There's way too much to tell and the days have started to run together. I'll make up for it with more pictures though.

Fontana dam is the beginning of the great smoky mountians and the first day is one long hike up onto the ridge. The smokies are governed a little differently then the rest of the trail, as they are part of a national park. We are required to obtain permits for 20 dollars at fontana dam and have to carry them with us whenever we are in the park. During my hike through I was stopped by a ranger twice to see my permit. The rumor is if you don't have it the ranger will fine you and hike you to the nearest border of the park. By the rules of the permit we must sleep in a shelter every night and tenting is only permitted if the shelter is overfull. Every night we are in the smokies the shelters are overfilled. Additional section hikers can reserve shelter spots and can force thru hikers out if there is no room. So my initial imprison of the smokies is less then stellar.

The southern half of the smokies is, for the most part, very similar to the rest of the AT so far in terms of views and flora. The day we go into Gatlinburg ( the approximate halfway of the smokies) we summit clingmans dome. The highest point on the entire AT. At the elevation the trees change from mostly deciduous to entirely coniferous and are even stunted making clingmans dome seem much more mountian like.

After clingmans we hitch into Gatlinburg in the back of a pickup ( on a nice day there is no better way to travel, especially in the mountians, I highly recommend it.) If you've never heard of gatlinburg it would suffice to say it was like a mini Vegas ( at least to us coming out of the woods). It has the reputation of being a huge tourist trap and sometimes traps thru hikers for several days. It's not exactly my type of place but we manage to have a good time.

We catch a shuttle back to new found gap and start the northern. Have of the smokies. The north en half of the smokies is almost one entire ridge walk and it is absolutely gorgeous. We have perfect weather 70 degrees and cloudless. The mountians here are much more daatic and one could easily mistake the area for the rockies. These are easily my favorite days at least in terms of hiking so far. The shelters are crowded though and all in all not as nice as the shelters we are used to. We have decided to pick up our miles again as well and hike two 15 mile days to get to the edge of the smokies, Davenport Gap.

We camp just inside the border and hear of bad weather coming in the next few days. Hot Springs has a reputation as a lot of people's favorite town on the whole trail and it is 37 miles away. We decide to try for in two days.

The next day is cloudy but still warm and it starts raining around one oclock. By the time I max patch it is stormy and pouring. Max patch is the top of a mountian that was once farmed and is now a giant grassy field on the top of this huge mountian. It has a reputation of being a lot of fun in the sun and summer but I am miserable when I get there in the wind and rain so I take a quick picture and leave. By the time I get to the shelter it is full and I am drechned. Luckily I am able to hang my hammock from the rafters and discover a new awesome way to camp at night. There is rumors of snow the next day and we all decide to try for hot springs.

The next day turns out to be the hardest day on the trail and physically one of the hardest things I've done in my life. The day starts with rain and about 45 degrees. We have to got straight up two mountians and cover just over 18 miles. By the time I reach to top of bluff mountian the rain us starting to freeze and the wind is literally pushing me side ways. The switch backs off the mountian alternate between the windward and leeward sides of the mountian.  Every time I go back into the wind I am sure I am going to freeze to death and the hike is less then half way done. By the end of the day it has snowed, rained, frozen rained, sleeted and hailed. All in huge gusts of wind. I get to hot springs by two o'clock, 6 hours exactly a steady 3 miles per hour up and down mountians.  I am the last to arrive in our little group; bones does the hike in just under 5 hours, insane.

Within a half an hour of arriving in hot springs I have a hot shower a beer and a large hamburger, worth it.

Today we 0 in hot springs and the day is beautiful but freezing cold. Hot Springs is everything I'd hoped. A tiny mountian town nestled between two rivers and many large mountians. There is a welcome center for hikers with an awesome porch on the river (where I am now) and free fresh baked cookies all day. The town has an outfitter and two taverns. Everybody has the southern mountian friendliness and all love hikers. We eat breakfast at a tiny convince store/grill and it may have been the best breakfast I have ever had. I never knew what real grits with cheese was, but here they are amazing. We are checking out the actual springs later today to soak and tonight I get to see my parents!

NOC to Fontana Dam

Day 13 NOC (again)

Took a 0 day. There was a thru hiker festival in town, the weather was calling for thunder storms and we were all still pretty beat up. Can't say we did too much all day.

Day 14 NOC to locust Cove campsite.

The hike out of the NOC is the reverse of what we did downhill into the NOC so I am going up hills pretty much all day. In total there was more then 2500 feet of elevation gain to reach cheoah bald. The campsite was crowded as the first shelter was too close and the next was too far.

Day 15 locust Cove campsite to cable gap shelter.

Not much to say. Hiked 12 or so miles today...it kind of all starts to run together.  It poured rain on that night so I slept in the shelter.

As an after thought Jacobs ladder was today which is just a really steep uphill.

Day 16 cable gap shelter to Fontana dam.

Short day ( 6 miles) into re-supply. It is still pouring when I get up so I start the hike in the rain. The hills bring us above the clouds and I race a cloud bank for a while. The steep downhill to Fontana Dam is slippery and treacherous. By the time I reach the road I have fallen a few times and am covered in mud. The store to resupply is a tourist trap and expensive so I only get enough to reach Gatlinburg in three days. The word is that a few groups took zeros here and that the shelter is full so I split a cheap room with my friends for 15 bucks. Finally doing laundry and taking a shower is nice also. Tomorrow we head into the smokies. We plan to resupply in Gatlinburg but not stay the night so it may be a week or so before I have a chance to update again in hot springs nc. The smokies also means I will be entering the third state, Tennessee. The appalachian trail is the border between NC and TN so I will still be in the second state as well. The next state is Virginia which contains more then a quarter of the trail and by the time I am done the state I will be halfway to katahdin.

Franklin NC to Nantahala outdoor center.

Day 10 franklin to silar bald

We all decide to start taking it a bit easier at least until we reach the mid Atlantic states. I still have Resupplying to do so I miss the 11 o'clock shuttle back to the trail head. I hitch a ride from a local who has retired in the area. When we get to the trailhead he turns around and heads back to town. He has driven 10 miles each way out of his way to drop me off. Since we get a late start we only do 5 miles but it is all uphill to silar bald which is a large grassy area on top of a mountian. From the top I can see the smokies; they are still snow covered. We stay at silar bald shelter which is .5 miles off the trail bit it is the nicest camping area yet with a large grass lawn for tenting. The night is clear so I leave my tarp off and fall asleep to the stars.

Day 11 silar bald to cold spring shelter.

12 miles today not to tough. As usual we decide on a place to stop but hike seperarely. I leave first and spend the first part of the day walking alone. We summit wayah mountian which is famous in the area and I run into tortoise who I had met before franklin. She is yellow blazing a bit and has skipped ahead to this section to rejoin her friends. A 1930's CCC stone tower is at the top and we can see all the way to Albert mountian, which we climbed about 20 moles ago. The day is hot and dry and ends on a steep up hill. The campsite is on top of a ridge though and we have more great views.

Day 12 silar bald to NOC

They call for rain tonight so we decide to sleep at the bunkhouse at the Nantahala outdoor center. The day is tough with a strenuous uphill in the morning and then 6 miles of continuous ous steep downhill to get to the Nantahala river. We dexlscwnd from 5040 feet to 1760 feet and my knees are killing me. The NOC is a large complex with all sorts of outdoor activities; kayak in rafting zip lining and training of all sorts. This one of the main training centers for white water rafting guides. We buy beers and ice cream and sit by the river until we can check in at the hostel. The hostel is actually a series of buildings built into the hill each containing 4-5 rooms for 4-6 people. Inside it is simply painted particle boards and wooden bunks with plastic matresses. There is a festival for thru hikers starting tomorrow and we are considering taking our first 0 day.

Hiawassee to Franklin Nc

Day 7 Hiawassee to muskrat gap shelter

We start the day with a complimentary breakfast at the hotel. After lolly gagging around we start trying to hitchhike back to the trailhead. Luckily tigger ( who we had met at Gooch gap, and had come off the trail at different spot then us) had parents in town and spotted us with our thumbs out and gave us a ride back to the trailhead.  It has been raining all day and is only worse in the mountians. Visibility is only around 20 feet and makes climbing mountains a chore. After about 8 miles we reach the ga/Nc border and by now it's a steady downpour. After a quick picture we all hurray on. At this point my knees are killing me and I am cold and wet so I stop at muskrat Creek Shelter after 12 miles. My friends have all gone on to standing Indian shelter 4.5 more miles away. The shelter is jammed full so I have to set up in the rain and everything is damp. That night a storm rolls through and I hear later that wind gusts reached 60 mph. It also snows that night.

Day 8 muskrat gap shelter to Carter gap shelter.

We wake up to an inch of snow and everything including my boots are frozen solid. Luckily it is sunny so I hike on with wet things. I stop at a sunny clearing to dry things out and take a nap. It reaches sixty degrees in the afternoon. I consider doing a 20 mile day to catch my friend but by carter gap my knees hurt so I stop for the night. Here I meet southbound (his trail name not direction).

Day 9 carter gap to Franklin Nc

The day is absolutely gorgeous and reaches a balmy 68 degrees. We climb Albert mountian today which is famous for its steep incline and scrambling as well as being exactly 100 miles into the trail. On top we meet lefty over drive downhill and their dog dobby. Over drive has done the trail in 2012 but this year they are all doing just a section. I mention my knee problems and overdrive suggests I slow down and worry about miles in the mid Atlantic states. I originally plan on doing only twelve miles but my spirits are lifted with the sunshine and I crank out four more miles to get to town. I finally reunite with my friends at the budget it where they already have a room. Southbound and I split a room. A trail angel takes us  to a bbq restaurant and end up paying for all 11 of us. We buy beers and hang around outside drinking till midnight.