Day 17

Thursday April 23

Mile 177.0

Mollies Ridge Shelter

Today started off good. We woke up and lazily packed up. Got breakfast at the restaurant of pancakes, sausage, and eggs. The service was as bad as last night.

Blazer showed us his custom book he made from his thru hike blog. Very cool. If I somehow manage to finish this thing I will have to do something similar.

Blazer was kind enough to give us a ride back to the trailhead, saving us some money. We packed into his car for the short ride.

We were on the trail about 10 for the short hike to the Fontana Hilton shelter. It was a nice hike with great views of the lake. The Hilton was cool, but basically just another shelter.

Viking took a break there and we moved on to the dam. Looked around the visitors center for a minute then headed on. We had to detour around some construction at the start of the dam.

Walked across and headed up the road to the park. Not well marked and left us wondering most of the time if we were on the right path. Finally found the sign and dropped off our permits. The box was full of permits. Looks like they haven't picked them up in a while. So glad we had to register if they don't even check...

The first climb was hard with all the extra food we had. My pack was well over 30 pounds which is overloaded big time. It loses all comfort when that heavy. My back is killing me tonight.

The throne rock was disappointing but still kinda neat. Got some at the next creek and headed up to the fire tower. Very sketchy. Missing a handrail on the way up and the floor of the tower looks rotten. Great views but a hard climb up to it.

The next 6 miles were torture. The trail was not hard but it about broke me. My legs were sore and hurting. My right knee has a sore on the back of it right in a crease of the skin. It makes bending it painful. Very painful. I was crawling all afternoon. Everything passed in a blur. Which was very disappointing since there were tons of flowers all along the trail and we had some nice areas we walked through. It was rough for sure.

When I got to the last climb I put my headphones in which was awesome. It helped so much to be able to listen to music and be distracted. The trail got easier as well but was still uphill. Took it slow and finally got to the shelter to see Blue Kazoo and Go Away Bear leaving for the next shelter 3 miles away. Viking stayed with me. There was no way I was moving on. I was exhausted.

Barely ate anything for dinner even through I know it is a mistake. It has been getting colder all afternoon and dropping fast. Had both jackets on and was glad I didn't send the down jacket home yesterday.

I crawled into my bag by 7. Going to be about 32 tonight so the coldest so far on the hike. Hopefully the mice leave us alone tonight. We already killed one in broad daylight.

I am hoping that tomorrow will be better then today was.