White Blaze on Fontana Dam
Brown Fork Shelter to Fontana Dam 13 Miles
Early rise: 6:30 and I’m up with the birds. The birds always wake me up. They are really annoying. It is good for the bird population that I am not armed while out here.
We split camp about 7:37 and headed out with Dad texting us the threat of afternoon rain. We originally wanted to get in to Fontana Dam and resupply while it rained; but after a phone call, we decided to stay at their hotel because they had such a good deal. That sounded all nice and fuzzy but we were going to have to get there first. There was a big altitude drop into Fontana Dam, which meant knee and foot punishment. We had to get down to 1700 feet and big drops are sometimes more painful than tough climbs. My feet are already throbbing when I put on my “in-camp shoes,” let alone my boots with a 50 lb pack on my back. We're getting faster though, and it feels good to leave camp before anyone else for a change.
We rested at the first shelter we passed and then got back on it. I bonked on the next big hill and we took it easy until I got my blood sugar back up. This bonking has got to stop. It makes me weird for the rest of the day. The climb to "High Top" was a bear but we kept good time and got in to the visitor center by 1330. We called the shuttle and used the bathrooms while we waited for it to take us into the strange town of Fontana Dam.
The hotel was awesome! It was reminiscent of an old hunting lodge with boar heads and bears and bobcats up on the walls, with a modern quality. The whole town was actually a resort of some sort. There was a pool, actually two, and tennis courts, several places to eat, a Laundromat, post office, general store, etc.. It was weird, like some kind of compound. We weren't complaining though. Our room was sweet like a Vegas Suite and the burgers were proper and meaty.
We roamed around, naked under our rain gear as our clothing washed and dried. Cyclone and Rolex both picked up new Big Agnes inflatable floor mats for under their sleeping bags. I was envious. The town of Fontana Dam had nearly everything except for Cell Service on the whole compound; nothing, nada, zip. It was weird, we had Internet though and I posted some GPS stuff but didn't have time to type out blogs. Cyclone and I played a few rounds of Big Game Hunter in the arcade and I got to play the guitar a bit. We watched a lot of TV in the room as we ziplocked our resupply.
About Re-supply; in case you were wondering, this is what we eat:
Wake up:
Two Breakfast bars or oatmeal breakfast or Pop Tarts, something or other at least 450 calories
Throughout the day we eat about a pound of GORP or Trail Mix to keep blood sugar up and to avoid having to take a lunch (From Wikipedia: Backronyms for the word gorp, an alternate name for trail mix, are Good Old Raisins and Peanuts, Granola Oats Raisins and Peanuts, or Gobs Of Raw Protein. These probably are folk etymology. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1913 reference to the verb gorp, meaning "to eat greedily".)
1 clif bar or similar energy bar if available (230 cal)
Dinner:
One Pound of Spaghetti and 1 Pound of sauce split between three of us (650 cal)
One Pkg of Ramen (190 cal.)
So we prep all of the spaghetti beforehand by breaking it all up to fit in the pot and we make spaghetti sauce packets by putting 8oz of tomato paste in a bag with some seasoning. We mix up all the GORP and divide it up into 1 bags per day. We remove as much packaging as we can and we pack it up in our personal Bear Bags. You have to be able to separate anything that smells like anything so the bears don't get curious and start sniffing around your pack or tent. We mix all the GORP in the hotel ice bucket and use the plastic cup to scoop into ziplock bags. We do all this sitting in our underwear on the floor in the hotel room. Now there's a picture for you before you go off to bed... Sweet dreams.
Oh yeah! My GORP recipe:
When I was a kid and we used to hike in Boy Scouts, your GORP recipe was a point of pride and investigation. Gorp recipes were legendary in their complexity and secrecy. In this trip we’ve tried to keep it simple so that we don’t spent too much time trying to resupply, not to mention we don’t usually have a kitchen so we have to be able to mix our GORP on the fly.
My Long Distance Hiking GORP recipe is simple:
1. Two big bags of M&M Peanut (dark Choc when I can find it)
2. Three 12oz cans of Honey Roasted Peanuts
3. An equal amount of Sesame crunch as peanuts (If no Sesame then Pretzels)
Sometimes
4. 2 small boxes of raisins or Craisins
Separate this up into 12, quart-sized freezer bags and snack on this all day (12 bags @ about 1100 calories per bag). Keep in mind we are making this for three people for four days each guy eating one bag per day.
Don’t get too fat!
David AKA "Jukebox"
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