April 12 Wednesday
Miles today 6.8
Total miles 165.3
Cable gap shelter to Fontana Hilton!
We only went as far as Fontana Hilton today because tomorrow we are going into the smokies! You have to have a permit to go into them and we got ours back at the NOC, this year they are $20. We've ran across "mother goose" who has hiked the trail 6!!!! times including a 'yo-yo' meaning she hiked all the way then turned around and hiked all the way back. It makes me feel like anything is possible :-)
We got into Fontana at a decent time today, around 1pm and then we were able to take showers at the running water showers they have in the bathrooms here; so amazing!! Then we got a ride into Fontana village that was two miles north of the shelter from the shuttle service for $3/person and took inventory of the available facilities. There was a nice restaurant, a general store, and a sort of glorified hot dog stand, the pit stop. We had thought we could do the pit stop and save a little money since the restaurant seemed expensive after looking at the menu but the folks at the pit stop weren't all that happy with hikers I guess. We ended up at the general store buying a smorgasbord of food and maxing out using their microwave lol. We had hot dogs, mini pizzas, cheeseburgers, burritos, and drinks on their giant porch while we waited for laundry availability. It was nice outside and fun to relax and have food. We were last to get our laundry done and the general store had closed and no one had service to call back for the shuttle. With limited options we walked to the road and hoped for the best. One of the maintenance workers picked us up and we have him what we had when he dropped us back off at the Fontana Hilton campsite area. With full bellies and clean clothes we got ready for bed. The night was so clear and the stars were so bright I went down to the water front to gaze at the sky where it was more open. I laid there looking up for a few minutes and saw a falling star! I really appreciated how fortunate all of this trip was and looked for a while longer before going off to bed for the night. Nature is a pretty amazing thing, happy trails.
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