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!