Day 18

Steve shuttled us to Fontana Dam to start our 8.5 mile slack pack day back to Yellow Creek.  Right out of the gate we ran into trail magic.  Coffee, hot chocolate, scrambled eggs, Krispy Cream, muffins and the like.  It was a nice start to a cold day.

It was a wise decision to take a zero day yesterday and do our hike today.  It was heavy rain and snow yesterday and we are told they had to rescue people out of the Smokys last night.  The streams and rivers are roaring from the precipitation and the trail itself was a stream.

It’s cold to start.  I had four layers on, rain jacket, puffy, mid weight and t-shirt.  Hiking warms you up and I shed two of these quickly.  As it turned out it was  a day when the weather changed back and forth as we climbed the mountains.  Within an hour or so we had rain, rain with sleet, rain mixing with snow and skies that threatened to clear.  For the most part it just was a cold drizzle.

Not long into our hike we came to the “Fontana Hilton”.  It’s just another shelter but dubbed the Hilton as it has a bathroom with shower and charging stations for electronics.  The only shelter on the trail with these amenities I am told.

This is the inside of the shelter.  The bathrooms were a separate building about 30 yards to the East.


Before long we came across a group we had been leapfrogging.  We senior folk have labeled this youthful group “The Young and the Restless “.  We thought they had headed into the Smokys yesterday but had the good sense to layover at a hotel to let the storm pass.  They were headed northbound and we were doing this section southbound.  They are a good bunch and we got a group picture.  We may not see them again.



There were several other groups we crossed today and all had sought shelter from yesterday’s weather.

Came across this memorial near the end of today’s trek.  I’ll let it speak for itself.

It was another short hike day and we were done by 1:30.  Our pace was too fast for our shuttle pickup and we waited for 30 minutes.  We paced to stay warm as once you stop walking you get cold quickly and the temperature dropped enough for some mixed snow and drizzle.  The shuttle showed at the appointed time and before long we had stopped at the market for resupply and were back at the warm lodge with hot showers and food.  When we got back to the lodge we found that Will and Belinda were staying there that night as well.

Tomorrow we jump into the Smokys.  No more short slack packing days for awhile.  Mostly climbing about 12 to 13 miles a day for the next several days before we get off trail to Gatlinburg.

Time to pack and get some sleep 💤.