4/4/01
Twenty-one people in a shelter means someone is going to snore, and "Marine One" sure did a first class job last night! I'm a light sleeper anyway, and with him snoring and 'Yolo" talking in his sleep it was a major adjustment not being in my tent! For the record, here's the thru-hikers I can remember in the Fontana Shelter last night: "Pop Pop", "Oz", "Yolo", "Marine One", "Jeffrey", "Brodie", "Rob", and "Kristen", and a bunch more. I hiked from the shelter to the dam early this morning, called Paula at work (she was bright and cheery...NOT! She's having a rough time having been sick so long yet having to handle so many things in my absence). Keep the faith, Sweetie! While I was on the phone with her, "Dimples" and "Firebird" showed up. I hadn't seen them since Neel's Gap in GA. It's a really neat thing when you see thru-hikers after you haven't seen them for 50 or a hundred miles. It feels like you're seeing a member of your family that you've been apart from for a long time and you're really happy to see them. I think it's the challenge of the trail and the uncertainty knowing that 50% of the thru-hikers quit before they cross Fontana Dam (which I will do tomorrow, by the way) and 90% never make it the whole way. They had spent last night at the Hike Inn with Creeper and were heading into the Smokies today.
Speaking of the Smokies, the talk amongst the trail community today was about bears, preparation for dealing with food, "smellables" such as toothpaste, camera film, medicine, etc, the fact that so many bears are in the park, and the effect of the drought making the bears have to search harder and farther for food. It's a difficult challenge facing the rangers in the park keeping people educated about the bears and allowing bears and humans to co-exist in the park. The key to remember is "don't feed the bears...ever!" and show respect for their habitat. I was advised today to bark like a dog (a big one!) if confronted by a bear. We'll see if I get to try it out!
Jeff and Nancy at the Hike Inn were great hosts today. Jeff took us (Creeper, "Buzzard" from Illinois, and me) to Robbinsville, NC for lunch at Popeye's Chicken. He and Nancy handled my laundry, and I dried out my wet gear then relaxed on their front porch sunning myself this afternoon. Nancy took us back to Robbinsville for dinner, then we paid our tab, called it a night, came back to the room, and packed our gear. "Creeper" has 3 options tomorrow...he can 1) go with me into the Smokies, 2) quit and go home, or 3) go back to NOC for 3 nights at their bunkhouse at $14.00/night then get a ride to Newfound Gap Monday morning and meet me there for the second half of the Smokies. He's getting better, slowly, so we won't know until tomorrow morning what he's going to do.
I need to share some trail lingo with you so you'll know it in case I use it in future journal entries. Cottons are day hikers. They are referred to as such because they normally wear cotton shirts and/or jeans. Cotton is a real no-no in the backcountry in cold weather because when it absorbs moisture it actually cools the skin rather than warm it. Yogi-ing or "to yogi" means to get food for free from people, usually unsuspecting day hikers or picnickers who have an abundance of tasty morsels and just might be willing to share if you tell them some thru-hiker stuff! The key to 'yogi-ing" is not to actually ask for food, but to coax the "victim" into offering a charitable donation. This technique will become more important as I tick off the miles and get hungrier. It also requires great skill and technique. "Creeper" and I already practiced yogi-ing back at Standing Indian Mtn. and didn't even know it...hey, maybe we're naturals at this! Remember the day hikers that shared their garlic chicken with us? Well, I did a pretty good job letting them know how wonderful the garlic smelled when I met them at the top before they made the offer! One more for tonight: PUDS - this stands for "pointless up's and down's". For all you guys back home in the scout troop, you know what this means. North Carolina has lots of these. Basically, it means when you get to the mountain the trail takes you straight up and over, then right back down to the bottom, only to go up another one, instead of crossing the side at a nice grade of hiking. In all cases, a PUD involves climbing to the top only to find NO VIEW!
Here's a quick plug for the Hike Inn...great place to stop and rest and get cleaned up and Jeff and Nancy will treat you like family! Nancy makes homemade salsa from their summer garden so I'll be sure to return and visit after I summit Mt. Katahdin, which is ONLY 2,005 miles from here. Gulp!! Still a long way to go. One step at a time! As my new adopted trail philosophy states: "Tomorrow I think I'll take a walk." Today's stats: Lo 38 degrees, high 65. Foggy A.M., partly sunny P.M. Mileage: 0.3 Cumulative mileage: 163.1
