Back At It

Well, after the fiasco with my knees, I have been back out on the trail since Sunday, March 29!  My mom drove me to a point on the trail that was about 8 miles away from Fontana Village so I could have an easy day to get back into the swing of things.  My knees were still very painful at this point, but I was so anxious to get back out on the trail that I wasn't going to wait any longer.  It wasn't a super fun day; I didn't see anybody that I had met before and I was still in a fair amount of pain.  One kind man that I met was slackpacking for the day and immediately offered to switch packs with me because he was concerned about my knees--seriously, this was about five minutes after we met.  People are the nicest out here.  I refused, though, no more relying on other people to get me up the trail.  If I'm back out here, I'm doing it myself from here on out.  So I trudged on to Fontana Lake.  Making it to the road crossing was nice, because there was a marina where there was wifi that hikers were welcome to use and plenty of outlets for charging up.  I hung out there for awhile before walking the last mile to the Fontana Hilton.  It is named as such because for being just another shelter on the AT, it really is the nicest one out there.  First off, it has amazing views of Fontana Lake.  The shelter itself is roomy--I think it holds somewhere around 18-20 people.  And to top it all off, just up the trail there is a bathroom with running water AND showers!

I was really booking it to the shelter because I had spent quite a bit of time at the marina and the sun was starting to set.  When I got there, a group of people who had been posted up there for awhile that evening were slightly taken aback that I was...female.  "I saw someone walking up, and I thought, 'That person's a thru-hiker. That person is making it to Katahdin.' And then you get here and you're a girl?! And you're obviously injured and still moving that quickly? You're badass, man, so badass."  So that was pretty awesome to hear on my first day back where I was so concerned about my knees kicking me off of the trail again.  I've felt pretty good about my physical ability on the trail from that point on--even if I'm in pain, I know I can push through and make it to Maine.  Side note: after learning my first name was Lara combined with the fact that for some reason they think I'm a badass, these guys decided that my trail name should be Tomb Raider.  So, nice to meet y'all, I'm TR.

I actually stayed in the shelter for my first time that night.  I've been a tent snob up to this point, but I've gotta admit that it was pretty nice to not have to set up and break down my tent.  It also helped that it rained that night, so having completely dry gear in the morning was definitely a plus.  I'm not a blue blaze convert yet, but in a nice enough shelter on a rainy enough night, it can be quite the treat.  The next morning, some of us caught a shuttle down into Fontana Village for breakfast.  It was a delicious meal, and the lodge in the village ended up being a great place to hang out.  There were cushy couches and outlets all over, and when the sun came up later in the day, the porch was the perfect sunny spot.  I wasn't planning on this, but the day turned into a zero for me.  Later in the afternoon, Kylie and Wookie made it to the village, and that was super exciting for me.  After spending two straight weeks with someone, you really miss them after four days apart!  And even though the day was an unexpected zero, I was so excited to be back amongst the hiker community I didn't even care that I wasn't walking.  We went back to the Hilton for the night and hung out with a bunch of awesome people who were also staying there.  We played cards and Heads Up and had a generally great time.  A man who hiked SOBO last year came by with his son to bring us fresh fruit and beer!  Trail magic will never fail to amaze me.  And again, I was just so happy to be back out there.

Bringers of fruit & beer

On Tuesday, March 31st, we entered the Smokies!  We started off the day by walking across Fontana Dam--the trail runs right over the top!  The Smokies were the only section of the AT that I had previously backpacked, so I was kind of excited to get into some familiar territory.  It was a really tough day, as the park contains the highest elevations of any section of the trail.  The most notable part of the day was Shuckstack Tower--an old fire tower that has long since foregone any notion of OSHA credibility, but is for some reason still open to the public to climb.  The whole thing was shaky and parts of the stairs didn't even have railings, but I went all the way up for some stupid reason.  I definitely learned that I will not be getting over my fear of heights anytime soon.  The views were wonderful from the top, but I've gotta say it was NOT worth it!

Fontana Dam

Never again.

Kylie is rightfully nervous about entering the top of the tower

We did our first 17 mile day on Wednesday, and it was pretty tough with all of the elevation changes, too.  My knees felt pretty good as most of the day was uphill, however; it's the downhill days where they really start to struggle.  On Thursday morning, we woke up at 4:30 to walk the three miles to Clingman's Dome to watch the sunrise.  Clingman's is the highest point on the entire AT, so we figured that it would be a great place to witness this.  And I have no doubt that it would have been, if the entire mountain had not been socked in with fog.  It was completely freezing and soooo windy and there were absolutely zero views.  We ended up being okay with this though, because it meant that we did our 10 miles for the day and still made it into town in Gatlinburg, Tennessee by noon.  There were even two different trail magics set up along the way!  We got a motel room in Gatlinburg for the night and ran all of our errands around town.  Every single hiker that I talked to, myself definitely included, HATED Gatlinburg.  It is one of the most, if not the single most, tacky places I have ever been.  There were absolutely no redeeming qualities to the town except for the fact that they had a Five Guys where we stuffed ourselves with burgers and fries.  This was also where we met up with James again--he had gone a day ahead of us to meet up with his brother and sister for a few days.  So at the end of the day, the fearsome foursome as Sherbs has dubbed us, was reunited again.

A nice diagram showing us what the views WOULD have been

Yummy yummy trail magic. I went straight for the tomatoes.

The next day back on the trail was beautiful!  We had great weather and some amazing views.  It definitely made up for missing out on the view from Clingman's.  That night, we crammed into the shelter and slept on the floor because we knew rain was coming.  We were definitely glad that we managed to fit, because it POURED all night long.  Never have I been so glad to be under a roof.

I can't even believe that this is my life sometimes

I was pretty worried about the next day, Saturday April 4th, because it was going to be basically all downhill.  I had no idea how my knees were going to hold up.  As it turns out, they did just fine!  I was in a great mood all day, just feeling very lucky to be back out on the trail and having my knees doing so well.  This was the day where I really realized that I think I'm going to be okay from here on out.  If I can handle high mileage days for a few days in a row AND a huge downhill day, I feel like I can do anything!  We made it out of the Smokies, which meant we were allowed to camp anywhere we felt like (GSM National Park only allows camping in shelter areas).  We stopped at the first flat place we found, which happened to be next to a service road by some huge power lines.  It wasn't the most scenic view in the world, but the sun was shining warm on our faces and on our wet gear that we spread out all over, so we were happy.

Our view for the night

Uphill, TR, Wookie, & Bluegrass

Sunday, April 5th may well be my favorite day so far.  The views were beautiful all day long and the weather was perfect.  We started off the day with some serious trail blockage from some recent storm.  It was troublesome to get around, but we managed and then were on our way.  A bit further on, the trail took us right under Interstate 40, so that was a bit of a change.  After that, we ascended to the summit of Snowbird Mountain, which was an incredibly tough climb, but it's those climbs that make the views at the top so worthwhile!  And man oh man, were they worthwhile.  When I finally reached the top of the mountain and walked out onto the bald, I was completely taken aback with how beautiful it was up there.  All I could think was, "Is this really my life?!"  It just made me feel so lucky to be where I am.  We ate lunch on the top of the mountain and then continued on with our day.  We ended our day at Max Patch, another bald where the views were even more incredible than from Snowbird.  Rolling green hills in the foreground, the Blue Ridge Mountains behind...it doesn't get any better than that.  While James and I were sitting there, a day hiker came by and dropped off all of the materials for s'mores for us!  We dug in immediately and used our camp stoves and trekking poles to roast up some marshmallows.  This is hiker trash, people.  No shame.  Some other guys came around a bit later offering up cold beers for us, too!  Two rounds of trail magic on top of one beautiful mountain: that is the life.

Snowbird Mountain

Max Patch

Hiker trash in action

Monday, April 6th was a pretty normal day as far as the trail goes.  Not too many views, and a lot of downhill led to some pretty sore knees.  I was still in a great mood, though!  After that scare with my knees, every single day I just feel super happy and lucky to be out here.  I don't feel stressed about anything anymore--I am just so pumped that this is my life right now.  I love all of the people I'm around, and I love my current lifestyle.  Things are real good.  And Tuesday morning, we headed down into Hot Springs, NC and had an AMAZING breakfast at a diner there.  I had been talking about pancakes for days, so I ate as many as I could while I was there.  It was fantastic.  We spent the rest of the day doing errands and eating more.  My mom came into town to visit for the day, so that was an added treat!  After showering and doing laundry and eating a bunch of great food, I feel rejuvenated and ready to hit the trail!  We spent the night in town and most of today here, as well, but as soon as I post this blog, I'm gonna be back out there.  James and Wookie decided to spend one more night in town before heading out, but I was getting a bit too antsy.  After having to take too many days off for my knees, I've been pretty ready to get back out on the trail since getting to town.

All in all, everything is amazing, my knees are doing infinitely better, and the trail life is doing me a lot of good!  Until next time...

Happy trails!