Smokey Mountains & Rain

Fontana Dam was great. Tons of hikers at the shelter that night hanging out, roasting hot dogs, and drinking beer. We went into the little resort down the road earlier in the day and had some southwest egg rolls, fries, V8, and a patty melt in the main building. The rest of the resort had cabins, condos, hotel rooms, pools, a lazy river, putt putt golf, a general store, jet skis, boats, and a ton of other things. The best perk is its hiker friendly.

We left from there Tuesday morning, crossed over the dam (pic below), and headed into the Smokey Mountains for a 14 mile hike that was pretty much all uphill. Tinkerbell, Roadkill, Banjo, Hump, Nothing Man, Night Train, and I made it to the fire tower around noon for lunch. That tower was sketchy. It was missing hand rails, rivets in the foot boards, had rotting wood, and was a tetanus shot waiting to happen. But, I got some good photos at the top.

From the tower we walked about another seven miles and camped. I spent my first night in a shelter since that's the rules up here unless they're full. I didn't get great sleep but at least no rodents chewed into my stuff.

I woke up the next morning all sluggish for the first half of the day, but I was awake enough for the amazing cold and windy views. We made it 10 miles to a shelter by 1pm only for it to rain worse than expected for the rest of the day. We talked about going another five miles to the next shelter but it started raining every time we were about to head on. Not long after we decided to just hunker down for the night, the shelter started bustling with people coming in from the rain. As of right now is say 6 are camped outside and about 15-20 are scrunched up in the shelter (pic below). You might say the rain days are the most fun because they bring everyone together for memorable group moments.

Until tomorrow....