From Hiawassee to Fontana Dam

Hi all followers!

I guess we will start by saying that as we were leaving from Plum Orchard Shelter to Muscrat Creek Shelter the weather played us a difficult hand, it was major cold, icy and miserable. When we crossed the state line from Ga to North Carolina, the fog cloud turned into freezing ice globs that fell on you, and was heavy enough to start bringing small branches down on your head. This only got better as it soon turned to snow. We thought we would leave all that stuff behind in GA., NOT! As we slept we awakened to another 4-6 inches of snow on top of the ice and on top of us. The next area we were to climb was called Standing Indian Mountain, and we pretty much climbed on our hands and knees, over the ice and under the branches and rhododendrons plants that are huge and everywhere, but are not good at standing up to snow. Standing Indian is at 5500 ft. and the snow was up to our hips. Makes for a long, long climb. We know why they call it Standing Indian, because the snow was so deep you couldn't sit your butt down, anywhere. Not only was it snowy, but it was cold, cold, cold. Fifteen degrees and that was in the daytime, as we crossed the summit. For those of you who know me, I HATE THE COLD!!!!!
Our next mountain was MT. Albert. This is at the foothills of the Great Smokey's in No. Carolina. It is also a rather large hill at 5250 ft. HA HA Just a straight up climb, rock scrambling, no switchback, hand over hand kinda climb. Boy, I was glad that I was going up and not coming down. We made it to the ranger observatory at the top of Mt. Albert, and for the first time in 6 days I was able to take out the camera for some pics. Till then , pics were nothing but fog and rain and snow. Couldn't see too far out and no spectacular scenic shots. Sorry.
I have referred to WE a couple of times, I have been hiking along with a group of people, who come and go at various points along the way. Everyone goes at their own pace, but often a few of us end up near the same shelters. I have met, STRIDER,an Alaska native, cold is no prob for him. Also, Soul Searcher, who is from KY, Switchback and Sometime who are both from Maine. Ghost from New Hampshire, Strings from No. Carolina called so because he carries a small travel guitar with him. Swift is a thru hiker from 2 years ago and is doing this again, he is from Maine as well. Interesting People all with the same passion to finish this goal.
We have made it to the Fontana Dam area and are faced with more difficult weather. Down in the lower elevations we are not too bad, Spring looks to be close. But, in the mountains another story is being written. Ice and snow have caused the hikers to not be able to progress further. The shelters are becoming full and people are having to camp outside around them. Those who don't want to, find a Hiker friendly hotel or Hostel but even these are becoming full as people who cant get home wait it out. In the Great Smokey's you are required to stay at or near a shelter to sign in so they can keep track of you. There are elevations to 6643 ft. ( Cling man Dome), and these are closed due to Ice and snow. They have roads in the park closed due to Trees being down and rock slides. The area is very dangerous, and they do not want a bunch of hikers being in trouble there. So... some people go home, some people wait it out, some go do other sections, others try to go as far as they can. I chose to do the first. I didn't want to get to a place I couldn't get away from, and waiting another 14 days at home seemed more comfortable than winter camping at its best. HA Ha. So, I called Kim, and she traveled to Franklin No. Carolina to meet with me where I could get a room. She had to travel through the Great Smokey Mountain Park to get to where I was at, so she did a little scouting for the conditions. It was deceivingly warm at the base, but Icy and Snowy up top. The water falls were running fast with melt off, and they were having to cut up trees and detour them through the park because of the tree falls from the ice. Rock falls had closed 2 roads and they were not allowing anyone on the road to Clingmans Dome, a 7 mi. journey from the highest place you could get to. In a couple of weeks I will be traveling back, if the weather still prevents me from going through the Great Smokey's I will have to decide to skip and come back to do later after Maine, where by I would start on the other side of the mountains in Va. I really want to do the end to end, so I'm going to give Mother Nature one more chance. Hopefully she will be kind to me then. Meanwhile, I have some pictures for you to see the beauty even in the snow, and the places we traveled. I will let everyone know when I am leaving again if I survive all the honey do lists Kim has for me. HA HA. Maybe the mountain and ice aren't so bad.....