march 21- fontana village

Another cold night, a very cold night. The condensation on the inside of my tent was frozen, the water bottles inside my tent were frozen, and there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. I got dressed quickly, my fingers quickly numbed once outside my sleeping bag, even with gloves. I took down my food bag which i had hung from a tree last night, then took down my tent. Dj was taking it a little slower, we didnt do many miles today so he wasnt in any hurry. Once i had all my stuff packed up i told dj i was heading out. Standing around wasnt warming me up. The only way to do that in the mornings is to begin hiking. Even after a half hour of walking my fingers were still numb, though my feet felt much better. The daytime was cold too, and i hiked by myself until i got to the road to fontana village. i prefer to hike alone because i can keep my own pace, though it ges boring and time passes much faster when im with another person. I had stopped periodically during the day. 5 to 10 minutes at a time to let dj catch up. Towards the end i was scared he had gotten lost again. I was relieved when some hikers who got to the road a few minutes after me told me he wasnt far behind. We began walking towards fontana village. Me, dj, dude, and fidget. We walked almost a mile while trying to hitchhike until a woman in a pickup truck pulled over and drove us the rest of the way to fontana village. Fontana village isnt really a village. Its a resort town, with only a few stores, all of which are just an extesion number away from each other by telephone. What i mean is, the town is more like one sprawling hotel, but made of different buildings to look like a resort town. So all the employees in all the stores know each other. We spent some time in fontana village. i picked up some food at the general store for lunch, and dj went to the post office. It started getting late so we asked an employee in a golf cart for a ride back to the trail. Turns out he also does the resort shuttle. So for $3 each he drove us back to the trailhead. From there it was only a mile walk to the shelter. This shelter has a 20 person capacity, and down the path there is a bathroom building with real toilets, sinks, and a shower. I took a shower after ig got here and washed my clothes at the same time. Then spent a half hour drying them under the hand dryer. Theyre still a little wet but will be mostly dry in the morning. Me and dj cant agree on what to do tomorrow. He wants to do 3 high mileage days and get to gatlinburg on sunday night or early monday, then try to hitch to knoxville. The problem is that there is supposed to be a storm in the smokies on saturday. And i dont feel prepared for the cold weather mixed with wet and snowy conditions. But at the same time, waiting here for 3 days until we can head to knoxville feels like a waste of time. Ont the other hand, fontana village is having a hiker festival over the weekend. with pizza and beer tomorrow afternoon, and other things to do saturday and sunday. Id rather stay and have fun, and try to get some upper body workouts done in the spare time. But i dont want to feel like im holding dj back. Also, the bottoms of my feet are very raw. I took off my socks today for the first time since leaving franklin on sunday. The skin is thin and painful. The damage that my feet have taken as a result of me not taking care of them is very easy to see. If we do go into the smokies tomorrow, ill have to make sure to change my socks halfway through each day so my feet stay mostly dry. Im scared of the smokies. Everyone is. Most of the people in the shelter tonight are takin off until the storm passes. I think there are almost 15 people in here tonight. I told dj ill let him know how im feeling in the morning... i dont know... the cold and rain mixed together is a very scary thought. It rained a few days ago, but the temps were in the high 30's that night. So the cold was bearable. But a night in the low 20's even when dry is hard to handle. The smokies go into the teens on a regular basis.