The Smokies

So leaving the NOC was an 8 mile climb uphill. Overall I didn't think it was really that bad, I think my hiking legs are starting to come in. At the first shelter we decided that we had some in us so we pushed to Locus cove gap to camp, about a 12 mile day. While there some of the wolf pack caught up to us. The wolf pack is a large hiker bubble that has been traveling up the trail. Their attitude seems to semi-mimic a really friendly fraternity. They seem nice enough but they tend to stay up later then me so it is a bit of a change of pace.

The next day we did almost 11 miles to cable gap shelter. This set us up for a nice, easy 6 mile day into Fontana. More of the wolf pack caught us here, Atlas played his guitar into the night and they would all howl every time someone else rolled into camp. I think there was roughly 20-25 members there by the time everyone was there.

The next day was foggy but once I climbed out of the fog it made for a pretty amazing view (photo below). Besides that it was an easy 6 miles to fontana. Once at the road we called a shuttle and got a ride to the village. Fontana village is a created resort town thing for tourists, which is odd since they also cater to hikers. Almost every car there was some sort of sports car but there were a ton of oddly clad hikers wandering around. I was walking around in just long underwear because everything else was in the wash. Definitely an odd dynamic. Fontana was good though, two boxes of food from the parents (thanks!), showers, laundry and dinner I didn't have to cook. After time in the woods it doesn't take much to make one happy.

Today we found Peach! She pulled some miles and caught up to us. It didn't last long though cause she didn't make the shelter we are at. We hiked across the dam (photo below) and headed into the smokies! Today was a rough 15 miles of climbing up into the mountains. At the first peak we hiked .1 miles to a tower for an amazing view down at the dam. (photo below plus a random view with me in it) Looks like quite a distance to do in 2-3 hours but my legs felt great.

At the first shelter we stopped for dinner and saw a dragon. After dinner we decided to keep going and made it to Rufus field shelter. The thing about the smokies is there is no camping except at the shelters. This really restricts the options for distance. Another thing is all the shelters used to have cages across the front so bears couldn't get in. Hikers were feeding bears through the cages so they were all taken off. In the short term this means the bears think the shelters mean food and they don't have a barrier. Hopefully they will learn to stop associating shelters with food but for now it seems "interesting." We are planning on doing the smokies in 4 nights so we are pushing some miles now but I think we can do it. My hands are freezing so I apologize for any mistypes, I never proofread these things.