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- Hiked Today: 11.8 miles
- Appalachian Trail (166.2 – 178)
- Total Hiked: 2,102.5 miles
- Total Paddled: 99.5 miles
Weather: 45 – 60°F, cloudy, some off and on rain, some sun, a hail/thunderstorm, a rainbow, we had it all today
Elevation: 1,685 – 4,585 feet
To kick things off today, I decided to backtrack a mile or so to visit the marina. It was a pleasant walk. Once there, I purchased a few last minute items, chatted with the staff, enjoyed some complimentary coffee, and hung out on the floating dock.
Hiking back via the same path, I’d now covered this little trail between the marina and shelter three times. At the tenting area, I opted to have second breakfast, which today was the last of my granola and coconut milk and cherries. We’d all stored our food bags inside the metal garbage box since there wasn’t an actual bear box. Mike and Miles were there and we packed up together and then walked down to the Fontana Dam Visitor Center. These guys hung out for a bit checking out the dam sites, but then hoped to find their way to the restaurant again. I believe they planned to zero hanging around Fontana.
Why such a leisurely morning? Well, today I’d enter into Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but I wouldn’t be traveling alone… my buddy Luke planned to join for the expedition! Yessir. We’d concocted a plan to meet right here at The Fontana Dam Visitor Center at 10:30 am.
Before I even set foot on the Eastern Continental Trail, Luke and I had started scheming to join forces for a section. Having grown up together in Michigan, he’s now a true local East Tennessee’ian. So, this was logistically the spot that made the most sense to meet. That being said, it’s also a very challenging section to hike even with trail legs let alone starting fresh. No big deal for this guy though, or so we hoped. Leading up to the main event, he’d been training…
Plus, he’d been the one guiding me 7 years ago when we hiked up Mt. Leconte together with our comrade Joe…
Younger Stevie and younger Luke in the Smokies 7 years ago, pre-thru-hiking era. Notice my jeans, work boots, giant external frame pack, and the yoga mat for a sleeping pad 🤦
Across the Dam
Luke arrived right on time. He’d parked his truck at the opposite end of the section at Newfound Gap and then got a shuttle over here. It was all coming together! After a big hug, we gathered at a table and made some final touches to our packing. To add to the excitement of reuniting, he’d brought me some stuff. I had a few packages sent to his house including new dirty girl gaiters and a box of goodies from the nice folks at The Trek! It was wonderful and filled with all kinds of tasty and fun things; a big boost to my spirits!
Just a small portion of the fun stuff from The Trek… Thanks!!!
The cookies were actually a birthday present from Luke and his fam and they were lemony delicious! Yeppers, you read that right, big birthday extravaganza on the AT 😊. Amazing timing for all this, right!?
All strapped up and buckled up, we veered over for a view of Fontana Dam, and then set our eyes on crossing over the top of it. In my pre-hike dreams of thru-hiking the AT, this spot was one of those iconic ones that stood out in my mind. I knew the trail went right along the top and imagined myself up there peering over the sides. Now, it was happening!
We got a little bit of flat before some gradual uphill started. Then, after dropping our permits into the National Park Service Dropbox, we started on single track trail. That’s where it got real. Today’s theme would be simple… “going up.” Starting there below 1,700 feet elevation, we aimed to get up to above 4,500 at the Mollies Ridge Shelter.
I’d expected today to be raining all day, but we were fortunate that it started off alright. There was some off and on light rain that got us putting on waterproof layers, but surprisingly, things seemed to clear up in the afternoon. We made it all the way up to the top of a mountain called Shuckstack where we took a short side trail and then climbed an old fire tower. I was stoked we did because these were the best views of the AT yet! I will admit, this thing was tall and rickety looking and activated both of our slight fears of heights.
Onward to Mollies Ridge Shelter
Wow wow wow. It was a pretty incredible spot. After getting down to the bottom, we had a snack, looked ahead at the map, and then kept tromping forward. A few more miles and we’d reach the North Carolina/Tennessee border. At that point the trail turned in a more easterly direction following along the the boundary line between the states.
We couldn’t believe the clear skies and sun!
At one point, we started noticing little white-ish flowers all across the forest floor. It was beautiful and almost looked like a fresh coating of snow. We were happy it wasn’t though. We’ll take the pretty flowers…
Another sight we were into was the different forest types and tree species we were noticing. There was a unique quality I couldn’t pin point that was different from anything so far. Things sort of felt gnarly and old. We were sure what kind of tree this was, but were guessing Birch…
And then there was this beautiful scene too…
It was after 5:00 pm when we made it to the shelter. We’d crushed it today making it to our furthest potential stopping point for day 1 together. The sky above was darkening fast though and so we quickly got to setting up our tents. Success there. We’d briefly contemplated sleeping in the shelter, but looked like it was full already.
Next, we decided to get water and that’s when things took a dramatic change. As we made our way down the side trail to the piped spring, it started hailing with lighting flashing and thunder a rolling. It was a bit stressful trying to be speedy about the task, but not slip and break our bones.
It was pretty wild and got cold quickly. Having the shelter to cook and eat dinner underneath was super nice. We ate with Sparrow, a ridge runner with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, George, Kanga, and three guys we learned were from Michigan. It was a really fun time despite the fact that I was quite chilled.
Sumi was happy for the birthday beers I’d packed out! This was the main reason for visiting the marina this morning 😎.
A full day of activities for the team today. We were in good spirits heading into the tents and happy to be warm in the sleeping bags once finally in there!
A bit of hail built up on the tents!
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