Fontana stop

I just booked a spot at a new hostel in Asheville from my tent, for when Ashley comes down this week. It's an example of how profoundly technology has changed the trail. I can't imagine thru-hiking in the early 1990s, having to use a payphone to reach out and touch people and being virtually unreachable. Much less hiking the AT in '48, Earl Shaffer's day.

I'll soon be taking a few days off the trail that coincide with Ashley's spring break. Then I'm meeting up with a friend from the class of '09 for the epic challenge presented by the Smokies. I'm thinking of the privy-less shelters, Clingman's Dome, the highest point on the AT, and horrible horrible weather, with cold long nights.

At the NOC I spent a tedious night in an Dutch oven of a little bunkroom. Somebody finally dialed down the thermostat and I slept a while. 

In the morning they were out of clean towels at the office so I did town stuff - pick up a maildrop, eat real food - while I waited. I spent a gorgeous day in the sun, studying the movements of kayakers negotiating a slalom course. Kayaking is one skill I'm keen to learn.

Last night I tented next to a rhododendron patch against the phenomenal wind blowing over the ridge at Sassafras Gap. I rebuilt a fire ring and got a fire going. It went out, and I pushed all the sticks and logs together so their still-glowing embers might generate enough heat to reignite flames. Nothing but a trickle of smoke emerged, but the wind's relentless energy eventually did the work for me. I had a good blaze going.

This southern trek has been blessed with campfires. I've started three so far myself.

Today I think I hiked the worst climb so far down here.  The trail went up hard from Stecoah Gap to the ridge just before Brown Fork Gap, with some rain thrown in for additional challenge.

The rain didn't stop me from breaking my tenting streak [I've slept in shelters on only three nights so far]. I set up in a gulch below the shelter. Raindrops fell on my footprint and then through the mesh tent before I was able to top it with the rain fly. I toweled the inside down with a handkerchief. It seems ok in here now, just moist around my sleeping pad.

Tomorrow I should make the Fontana "Hilton," a 22-person capacity shelter with developed water and hot showers. Then it's time to find a shuttle for the two-hour drive east to where I'm meeting my girlfriend.

Happy full moon,

Ink