Relatively short and uncomplicated walk down into Fontana Village, there were some more signs of spring along the trail. I could see the dam from miles away and felt like I walked around the lake a dozen times before I got there. When I finally arrived at the Fontana Dam Shelter, a.k.a. “The Fontana Hilton” I caught a ride into the village and found lunch at the Lodge Restaurant.
The burger was delicious and the next mission was to pick up the headphones Kacy had shipped for me. This wasn’t an easy of a mission as I expected, the post office claimed to not have anything matching my name. Kacy sent over the tracking info and that showed that even though the shipping address was Fontana Dam the package had been delivered to Franklin, NC. Now, if that was true, that would put them 6 days behind me on the trail and I wasn’t going back for them. Kacy did some calling around to see what was up. The Franklin post office confirmed for her that they didn’t have the package either and that it had been delivered somewhere in Fontana Village and signed for by someone named Piercy. The Fontana post office suggested I try the hotel, which apparently often keeps care of packages for hikers. Indeed, the hotel was holding my package, I had to pay an extra $5.00 for not being a guest and having a package shipped there but at least I found them.
The tent sites around “The Hilton” are all concrete slabs. This means they’re level and easy to set up the tents on. However, they’re only great if you have a free-standing tent. My tent requires the stakes in order to keep tension and be fully set up. It took a bit of McGyver’ing but with the rope I carry for bear hangs I was able to make it work. While I was working I saw people carrying 30 racks of beer up to the shelter, seems like it’ll be a rowdy night.
“The Hilton” has a great shower with hot water, don’t pass it up but I do recommend that you wear something for shower shoes.
Someone started a campfire which is the social center of the evening. The debate is going around the group which shelter to try for tomorrow. In the Smokies there’s no spontaneous camping, all campsites must be in close proximities to the established shelters. We can either do 5 miles and 4,000 ft elevation or 12 miles and 5,000 ft elevation. We’ll see how it goes, it’s supposed to be in the 30s again tonight but I expect I’ll sleep fairly well.
Day 19 Mileage: 6.7 mi [Cable Gap Shelter -> Fontana Dam Shelter ]
Total Mileage: 174.0 mi