Day 22, Monday, March 5. Mollies Ridge Shelter—11.8 miles

This is our first day getting ready with our new trail companions and I can see a few areas we might be able to improve upon. I also notice it’s fortunate that Dancing Dog is not a man as she is unable to slide the stem of her French press through her pot lid. She just gave up and said it wouldn’t fit. This is the type of attitude that leads to declining birth rates in populations.

Overall, I thought we were doing well. Yes, we were the last ones out of the shelter, but it was only 8:40. Not too bad for the first day. And then we passed the bathroom. I mistakingly thought we were talking a quick pee break and heading on (after all, they had each visited at least twice already since getting up). I said I’d walk the 1/8th of mile and wait up in the parking lot. After 20 minutes of waiting in which I could hear the constant gaggle, even when they were inside the stone building with the steel door closed, I could hear the flock approaching. During that time a shuttle driver came up to me and asked if I was waiting for a ride, he said I didn’t look like I was just observing nature for the joy of it. I replied “I’m hiking with 3 women.” He gave me a sympathetic look, lowered his head, said “Brave man,” and drove off into the morning. I shed my first tear of the trip.

In all the books I’ve read about the AT and even on the Smokies thru-hiker permit, it says to drop your permits in the Fontana Dam entrance to the Smokies. We walked past the visitor center, but clearly, it was closed so we walked across the dam. I wanted to observe the engineering greatness which is the Fontana Dam, but I was hounded to get going from the same gaggle of geese that just spent almost 1/2 hour “peeing.” Not too far after the dam, we came to the official boundary of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park—but no permit drop box. We must have missed the box at the visitor center. I gathered the permits and ran back across the dam yet couldn’t find the drop box. Luckily, a dam worker drove up and was able to tell me the box is at the trail head almost a mile in the park. He also said “welcome to your federal government at work” (and didn’t offer me a ride back).

I was a little peeved but when I got back across, the women folk had not been wasting time. In the 40 minutes I had been gone, they had managed to attach two Velcro strips to Bunny’s boots for her dirty girl gators. In the process, Dancing Dog (who doesn’t like to take her pack on and off because she is still working on developing that skill) managed to fall over backwards and “turtle” herself. It took all three of them to right her again.

I knew this would be a rough day of hiking in the Smokies. We have to go 12 miles and gain almost 4,000’ of elevation. Trail Runner lived up to her name and was up the mountain like a shot. Dancing Dog morphed to Dragging Dog on the uphill climbs and was unnaturally quiet. One of Greg’s last words of advice to me was “beware when she’s quiet, and always make sure she gets her morning coffee before attempting to engage.” We had already allowed extra time for her coffee, so this was serious shit with her being quiet. After a couple hours of nature sounds only, we discovered she was having a low sugar moment and stopped for some food.

Our lunch spot was near the base of the Shuckstack Fire Tower. While we were deciding whether to go up or not, Durwood showed up and decided to join us. We climbed the 0.1 mile to the tower when all three of the women looked up and said “hell no.” There were at least 6 flights up to the top and the first flight was missing a handrail. The three of them went up the first flight and stopped. I went all the way up by myself and was rewarded with exceptional views of the Smokies and Fontana Lake. I was rewarded with all three of the women ditching me on the tower. Normally, this might bother me, but the silence was a golden moment.

After the tower was downhill and level for a bit. Dancing Dog was her normal self and I ended up pulling up the rear. Since it was afternoon, my left knee felt like it had a slight “twitch” so I like to take it easy on it. I don’t want to push it. We still had almost 7 miles to go today (plus a little more than 2,000 on the trail) so I don’t mind listening to my body. If Bunny ever gets strong in the morning and I can stay strong in the afternoon, we might be able to start making some miles.

At about 6, we finally caught sight of the tower after a long uphill climb to finish the day. We waited until we could all get together before we headed into the shelter as a group. Durwood, two girls from NC Wilmington, and two guys from Virginia Tech were already there. It’s a 12 person shelter so there was plenty of room for us. 3 more people came in after us, but they opted to camp outside and one wanted to cowboy camp. I tried to get everyone to come in because I knew rain was expected.

The girls offered to move to the upper level so Dancing Dog and Trail Runner didn’t have to risk falling off in the night. Dancing Dog does have a few coordination  issues at time and can just be forgetful at times. I could imagine her forgetting she was up top and just stepping off and falling. I didn’t point out that the rats and bears go for the folk on the lower level. The guys offered to go fetch water for us. DD and TR heard “filter water” which I told them they would have to do themselves. Today will also involve filter instructions.

After our beds were all set up, we cooked supper. I was very relieved that DD made a big supper and ate most of it (I was there to keep her from throwing food out to attract bears). I still light her stove for her most of the time, mainly to make sure she takes the instructions off before firing it up—that’s still a skill that hasn’t been mastered.

All that was left was hanging the bear bags and getting ready for bed. The two Kaitlin’s were describing the procedure to Dancing Dog and this thoroughly confused her. She’s doesn’t seem to have the ability to “listen” to instructions and then put them into practice (or maybe she doesn’t listen—I’ll leave that to Greg to decide). I showed her what to do with her bag (I’m just talking hanging and not figuratively “do” with it). We all got into bed and then the rain started. Welcome to the Smokies.

EFG