It started raining again sometime during the night and when morning came it felt like the day would be reminiscent of day one back at Springer. A couple guys were even talking about doing a zero day at the shelter. No matter how wet it is though, I’ll save my zero days for towns where theres real food and real beds. I got moving shortly after 9 unsure how far i wanted to get today. Fontana Dam was about 21 miles from the shelter and I had the option of doing 15 today and a quick 6 tomorrow, or a more balanced 9 and 12.
The rain stopped just as I was leaving the shelter and within a mile I had to stop to take off the rain jacket. I ran into John around that point, I’d met him once before at Muskrat Creek. We hiked together for a few miles, he’s section hiking at least halfway through the Smokies, although tonight it sounds like he’s been talked into doing the full 70 miles through the park. Most of the day was easy going but eventually I arrived at another named section of trail, this one was Jacob’s Ladder and it felt both longer and steeper than yesterday’s Jump Up. Luckily, the shelter was not far beyond the top, and I got in early – just before 3:00.
Turns out Matt, who initially was going to take a zero, was the only one to pass me and he was already at the shelter. I was second and we had the sleeping spots along the sides of the shelter staked out. With cloudy skies and lingering threat of afternoon rain we knew the shelters would fill quickly. It’s a small shelter and sure enough it filled quickly. There was maybe one spot left when a group of six came down the hill but after some discussion they decided to continue southbound to the highway crossing where they could get a ride. So, the afternoon went by hanging out with Matt and John, as well as Sam and Jess who are also trying to make it to Maine. We traded stories about the first two weeks on the trail and looked ahead to tomorrow’s hike. Everyone’s planning on making it into Fontana where I’ll be getting a room at the inn to get everything in order before starting the Smokies on Monday. Going to need to resupply, do laundry, and have a couple real meals.