Day 11-15 Part 1 (165.9-241.8)

I started my day at the Fontana Hotel, it was still pretty early and I was excited to grab some breakfast. I stumbled my way out the door and down to the reception area to see what was on the menu…  individually wrapped muffins and a shot of orange juice. It’s not much, but I’ll take it! I finished eating, grabbed my backpack and made my way towards the shuttle that was provided by the Hotel. Yashua drove me back down to the Marina where I left off as to not miss an inch trail. I stepped off towards the dam, following the edge of the water for roughly two miles, eventually reaching the famous “Hilton” shelter that was erected next to the lake. Checking it out for a brief moment and taking a moment to talk to three other hikers Tink, Double Time and Mike (the dog guy). I ventured down the roadway towards the Dam that was currently under construction, gazing up into the Smoky’s where the peaks of the mountains were completely isolated by clouds. The rain had started to pick up and I knew it’d be a miserable, cold trek up the south end of the Smokys. I submitted my permit at the registration box and started upwards. By 5:15 I had finally made it to the intended shelter and so thankful to be out of the freezing rain. 

The next three days followed the same trend, freezing cold rain and wind speeds up to 50 miles an hour, the Smokys definitely testing my willingness to press on. I reached Newfound Gap by day 3 right around noon, the winds still howling and the rain blowing sideways, the parking lot was covered in a thick white cloud, you could hardly see across the road to get there. Having been there before I knew there was a bathroom where I could attempt to call for a ride as the parking lot looked nearly empty. As I reached the bathroom to get out of the rain, Dozer stumbled in behind me. We were both amazed with how the weather had been so sour. 

Thumbing through the shuttle numbers, we dialed the first one that looked promising, the phone rang and a gentleman answered. “Hello, two hikers looking to get down from Newfound Gap into Gatlinburg.” - The man laughed and said they had shut the road down earlier that morning due to the high winds and the dangers of falling trees onto the roadway… We were stuck until the rangers deemed the road was passible, which at the earliest was 8am, or we started walking the 15 miles down the mountain to get into town.

Just as we hung up a gentleman walked through the door. Before he could make his way to urinal Dozer asked “Do you have a car?” The man replied “yes my wife and I are just day hiking and we’re getting ready to leave.” Our faces lit up and we immediately explained our situation. The man agreed to drive us down the mountain. I texted Hiker 109 to ask where he was, he too was almost to the bathroom.

We all piled into the gentleman’s Chevy Cruze, smelling like 3 dirty hikers who haven’t showered in 3 days and made our way into Gatlinburg. 

To Be Continued…















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