May 11: Fontana Dam Village to Mollies Ridge Shelter. First day in "The Great Smoky Mountains National Park"

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Rest is wonderful. Half a day off with a nice room and a soft bed without the wind and rain sharing your bed. There was a very bad storm move through the area about 3AM this morning and the mountains were still clothed in mist and fog when we got up at 7:30AM. We had oatmeal for breakfast then packed away the last of our gear. When we went to the lobby to checkout five other hikers were all there waiting on the shuttle van. Before we finished our paperwork the van arrived to cart us all to the trailhead. The others had been waiting over an hour so CC and I were christened as good luck charms.
We placed out backcountry permit papers in the box and started up the trail at 9:07AM just seven minutes later than we had wanted to. "Hagus" was the last of the other group to leave and walked across the dam with us. We stopped for some photos and were soon walking by ourselves again. The hill was graded well enough but still a climb, 2,800' in less than 10 miles. The wind was our constant companion, at times it sounded like we were walking next to the runway of JFK airport. When the sun would come out and we were in the lee of the
mountain the temp would jump to 65. Then a cloud would cover the sun and the temp would drop 15 degrees, poor CC was either freezing or dripping in sweat. I am a walking boiler and as long as I am moving I can stay fairly warm, but need to layer up as soon as we stop. No new flowers were spotted today. We did see a new bird, a florescent blue sparrow sized one. Every time I tried to get a picture it would flit off chirping "neener, neener, neener!" There were a large number of weekend park hikers heading for Fontana Dam as it is Sunday and they probably have real jobs to be at tomorrow. Coming up the mountain we passed "Athena" a woman we first met at NOC and we also passed two new Pod members. "Sweetwater and Waterotter" a nice couple who were just starting a NOBO section. We had lunch near a "Camp 113" seven miles
into our day, it was only a 15 minute stop because of the cold wind and bugs. The remainder of the day went well with the rain holding off until after we had reached the shelter. We arrived early, 3:15PM and debated doing another 2.5 miles to the next shelter. Due to the deteriorating weather conditions and the large group who were ahead of us and had pressed on we decided to remain here. That and a 12.8 mile day that included the climb we made was good enough for us.
It is now 8:21PM, everything is tidied up, CC is tucked into her bag and I'm pecking away at the pocketmailer by our fireplace and fire. Phexen came into the shelter after supper and chose to stay and we had some good conversations earlier. A couple of park hikers came in just minutes ago drenched to the bone. Temp has dropped to 43 degrees and rain drops drum on our metal roof. There are no tents allowed unless all spaces in the shelter are full, so CC has to “shelter-it” for the next seven days. Fog cloaks the forest and it has the makings of a
long, cold night.

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

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