Day Twenty-eight

Fontana Dam

What a great day! We started out early because it is 11 miles to the next shelter. We got to the top of the hill where the restrooms are and it started raining. I said ‘Rats, we need to put our rain covers on,” and Bob and Zig just turned around and headed back to the shelter. We took a day and went to the Village for lunch. Yum! We met a hiker named Left Field. He had lunch with us. All of his equipment was Highlight Mountain gear. He’s been hiking 30 miles a day. He had great legs. He was very personable and he went back to the shelter with Bob & Zig. I went to the Dam. The trail crosses over the dam and into the Smokey Mountains. I feel better today because I took a lot of Benedryl yesterday. I still have a little cough but my nose isn’t running. I met some really nice people at the dam and I bought a pin for my hat. I had no idea that the dam played such an important role in WWII, providing the power to build over 50,000 planes. They brought people in to work 3 shifts and got it done in 3 years. What a great country we live in. Left Field’s friend picked him up about 4:00 p.m. and we had happy hour at 5:00 p.m. with wine and cheese and crackers. We had spent some time getting our firewood together so that Bob broke out the hot dogs and buns. Feast! Some other people came to the shelter and Zig and Bob discussed whether they should warn them about my snoring. Zigfoot deadpanned, “They’ll find out.”

Retrieving firewood on the AT is no small feat. I got out my knife and Left Field had asked to borrow it. He then proceeded to chip away at wooden sticks on the concrete bench and instructed me that you need kindling for a fire. I was watching him and every time he shaved a piece he’d hit my knife blade on that concrete seat. I let him finish and then asked him if he had a whet stone so I could put an edge on my blade. He also said, “Nice knife,” when I handed it to him. Yes, I know…

Tripper's Trail Art

He said I could do it on the metal fire ring and I think I may have impressed him by doing just that. I went to work on this tree we couldn’t burn the night before while Bob was out gathering wood. Zigfoot was justing sitting stoically, watching the whole thing. I told him I wasn’t sharing my hot dog stick. He found a stick and started whittling. I’ll bet he whittled on that stick for an hour. Then Left Field left. During happy hour the 2 people that showed up turned out to be Stacey and Jared! I couldn’t believe it. They finished off the hot dogs, cheese and crackers. Jared did all the talking. Stacey wasn’t drunk and only said a couple of words all evening. Jared let me use his saw on the bigger part of the tree. The saw was only about 8 or 9 inches, it folded over and only weighed about 4 oz., made by Cameo. It was great! I gotta get me one of those! He seemed fine, but she was just too quiet and submissive. And she moved stuff around on the bench so she could sit right by him.

After I finished up with the tree and my hot dog stick Bob asked if I could throw that knife and I said, “Sure.” Zig asked, “From that far?’ and I told him, “No” and walked toward a big tree, maybe this far 2 out of 10 times. So Bob says, “Come on, Tripper, do it. You can do it.” So I did and totally missed the tree and threw my knife into the ground cover outside of the enclosed area. Bob helped me look for it and then I prayed to St. Anthony and told him I was sorry that I lied about throwing a knife and I promised I wouldn’t ever do anything that stupid again if he would help me find it. He answered by telling me to re-check the trajectory, so I did and I walked right to it.

Another thing Stacey did was she was setting up their stove to make coffee and I said, “I have cocoa!”

Jared said, “She’d like cocoa with her coffee.” He never asked our names or told us theirs but this morning he did say, “Bye Tripper.”

I prayed for Stacey again that night, thanked God for my family and a great day and thanked St. Anthony again for helping me find my knife.