Day 17 - Fontana Dam

It's slow going some days. I'm not as far along as I had originally estimated, but not too far behind either. Anyway, these are some of the most difficult miles on the trail, and I'm just finally getting comfortable out here, so it's no surprise. The good news is, I'm feeling good and loving it out here. I'm not in a hurry. Just happy I'm here. As they say, it's the smiles, not the miles.

Spending tonight at the Fontana Dam shelter - AKA the Fontana Hilton... This shelter sleeps up to 20 people inside, plus it has tons of tent sites and, luxury of luxuries, a shower! It even has hot water. There's also a fire pit, a view of the lake, and a $3 shuttle from the village until 7pm :-)

One strange thing in Fontana is that there is a big convention of Mini Coopers. People here are obsessed with their cars, and literally every car on the street is one. And they are all different. Some of the license plates are from as far away as Washington state, Michigan, and even Canada. Today we hitched a ride from the trail to the "downtown" in a tie-dye Mini Cooper covered in bumper stickers. The driver was wearing tie-dye too, of course.

I had some unreliable wifi in town while I did laundry and resupplied, but now I'm hoping this will post with the little bit of 4G I've got. I won't have cell service or electrical outlets for another few days, since I'm heading into the Great Smoky Mountains tomorrow morning. In a few days I'll get to Gatlinburg! In the meanwhile, I'll scale the A.T.'s highest peak, Clingman's Dome. Wish me luck!

I started reading a book by the first ever thru-hiker, Earl Schaffer. It's called Walking With Spring. It feels sort of funny reading about his rugged journey building fires and eating cornmeal mush from metal pans, with all leather boots and no tent, while I'm lying on my inflatable sleeping pad in my 4lb. tent reading by LED headlamp... Still, he talks about summits and creeks I've been traversing on my own two feet, so I do feel a connection.

Here are photos of some of the things I've been seeing along the way, and a photo of the mini coopers and one of me and my friend Honey (taken by her husband, Mooner). Enjoy!