Day 17, Tuesday March 16, 2021

 

Joshua 1- 24

Fontana Dam Shelter to Mollies Ridge Shelter- 11.8 miles ending at mile 177.7.

Started out at about 9 after packing up in the rain, and immediately had to cross the Fontana Dam.  Very impressive structure built in the 40’s.  The view looking down from the dam was vertigo inducing.  It was raining pretty hard as we started out, our first significant rain in 2 weeks.

Once across the dam, the road took us to the entrance to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.  We dropped our pre-purchased thru hiker permits in the designated box and headed up into the Smokey’s.  

The changes were almost immediate compared to what we’d been hiking up to now.  The climbs seemed steeper and were definitely rockier. We had two significant climbs right away, going from an elevation of 1700 feet at the dam, up to 3889 at the top of Shuckstack Mountain.  There was a fire tower at the top allowing for great 360 views of the mountains.  We had lunch there and pressed on.

Next up was Doe Nob at 4520.  From there, the rest of the day was clambering down the rock strewn path, or sharp climbs up steep embankments. We finally arrived at  Mollies Ridge Shelter around 5.  In the park, thru hikers are required to sleep in the shelters unless they are full.  This one had only 5 of the 12 spaces taken, so we bunked there for the night.

Until next time...