Day 14, 6-28

So, today was the day we met April and had the conversation with her. I'm getting a wee bit confused on the time, but I do know that it was a long day. I'll have to revisit my journal to make sure everything is accurate, in the meantime, I'll say what I know actually factually happened. We started out about halfway between Wesser/The NOC/The Hot Bike Shop Girl, and Fontana Dam. We had purchased the Thru-Hiker Handbook thing from the ATC, it gives you waypoints and distances to all sorts of important stuff, like shelters, towns, water, stuff like that. The first section is measured from Springer to Fontana. So getting there would be a huge deal. It was 163 miles into the trail, so also a very good point to finally arrive at.
*Gross Alert* I'm going to talk about a blister I got. Its pretty disgusting, so skip down a bit if you don't want to read.
Alright, so I don't get blisters normally. If my feet stay dry, I can stay blister free ad infinitum. But we had been rained on fairly consistently over the last few days, and I developed a rather impressive blister, but not where anyone ever expects a blister to blossom. It was on my left foot. It started in between the bases of my big toe and pointer toe, and moved up between them. I don't know how it showed up between by toes, but there it was. I was kinda glad about that part, because the fluid could move when I weighted my foot. Speaking of fluid, it wasn't clear. I must have burst a blood vessel in there at some point, and so it was a nasty mix of blister-water and blood. So I had this bloody looking blister of death wrapping from the base of my toes to between them. It was very nasty, but never really bothered me...just kinda fascinating. Didn't know you could get blisters there.
*End Gross Alert*
Hee hee...so, we are trucking down the mountain, and Caleb's shin starts to hurt again. This was problematic, so we find a road crossing with benches and decide to take a few. He takes some vitamin I (ibuprofen, we munched it consistently early on, but gradually, as our bodies dealt with the punishment and adjusted, we no longer needed it), and we're sitting. There's this old guy at the intersection, and he starts talking to us. No particular reason, I think that's what you do when you're old: talk to random people about yourself, and assume they're interested. Anyway, we're having sporadic conversation, C and I are thinking about his leg, and some motorcyclists rumble by. They were very loud. They pppphththtth on by, and he turns to watch them, then turns back to us. And says...hmmm....next time I see you in person, I'll do the voice too, but for now, just imagine a gruff southern old man voice saying: 'They jus' like the noise. Tha's all. What they needs is a record. They'd be able to sit at home all day a listnen to that there record, goin' VAAm VAAm, and then they won't have to drive them things around. Yes sir, a good record'll keep um occupied.'
C and I agreed, took our leave, and then proceeded to laugh heartily when out of earshot. Silly motorcyclists just need a record, after all...
We meander on, and find ourselves nearing Fontana at a fairly impressive rate...I didn't know we were making such good time, but...well...we were. We emerge from the trail to a parking lot, and register for the Smokies. You need a backcountry permit for the Great Smokey Mountains, because there are a lot of people that go along, and the rangers want to be sure they know who's where. Because we were 'thru-hikers', we heard about a billion different things to do. Someone told us to register and then play dumb if a ranger asked us if we knew thru hiker season had closed. Someone else told us we wouldn't have a problem. Others, after the Smokies, told us that they never bothered registering. We registered anyway. Then we hike back into the woods for a bit, to emerge again on a road with a large Fontana Dam sign. We follow that along, to wind up at the 'Fontana Hilton', perhaps the best shelter along the AT. I haven't seen them all, but this one was impressive. Two tiers of bunks on two sides, water from a water fountain, showers nearby (at the visitors center, a small 10 min walk, bathrooms maybe 4 minutes away, it was pretty great. There was another hiker there when we showed up, someone doing similarly to what C and I were. Her trail name was 'So Close', and we ended up hanging out with her for quite a while. I'll see if its ok if I use her actual name, but for now I'll err on the side of caution and privacy. We spoke with her for a while about the town that was nearby (C and I were going to get a mail drop there tomorrow! Excited!), and about what we were getting ready to get ourselves into at the Smokies. C and I found out that we would summit the highest peak of the trail there, Clingman's Dome, at an impressive 6000 + feet. So that was very exciting. C opted to sleep in the shelter, but I couldn't give up my hammock, knowing that I had to sleep in the shelters in the Smokies, so I strung it up and had one more hammock night of bliss before the shelter agony.

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There was a cloud that was rolling into this valley. It looked really amazing, a sold wall of white enveloping everything that stood in its way.










Now we're in the cloud. It was really neat...a very surreal experience. Its very quiet in a cloud, and all the noise we heard, we made ourselves. Its also kinda cool and kinda damp. I very much enjoyed it...it felt like we should meet someone from Lord of the Rings in the mist somewhere.







A cool tree.













This was a neat view at one point, before the cloud came. This is also where we met Record Man.











Fontana Lake wayyyyy in the distance













Fungus. C dared me to eat some, but that struck me as a terrible idea.












We've made it! 163 miles on the AT under our belt. Only about 2K left. The first major waypoint, check!