In the middle of the night we were treated to an amazing lightening bug extravaganza! Ronald and I watched from the pitch-black shelter as the lightening bugs flickered and danced in front of us. We'd never seen anything like this before. The rains never came last night, so even though the morning was overcast, it showed promise.

My foot feels much better today, so I'm very thankful. An injured foot in the Smokies could have been disastrous! Since we only had about eight miles into Fontana today, we didn't rush. We started hiking about 8:00 with the climb out of Cable Gap to the ridge above. Broke a good sweat in the 1,000-foot climb, but the trail was well graded most of the way.

The descent to Fontana Dam went quickly as well. We could see occasional glimpses of Fontana Lake through the trees. Looks like there have been some major work done on this section of trail, too. There were several places where the old AT took off straight up over a knob, but the current trail switchbacks along the side. What a novel concept! There were still plenty of steep spots, but at least not the constant "roller coaster" effect that can drain every ounce of strength from your body.

We met a Boy Scout troop less than two miles from the bottom. They said they were going out for five days, and hoped to cover over 50 miles. But their leader already looked about dead! He was pitifully out of shape. At the rate they're going it will probably take them five days just to get to the Nantahala, and that's only about 27 miles. Hope they can make it.

The last mile and a half from the boat launch to the Fontana Dam Shelter (a.k.a. the Fontana Hilton) was the only psychological challenge for the day. Not because it was difficult, but because it was obviously a trail relocation just to eliminate the former long road walk to the dam. It goes over a viewless little ridge, often within sight of the road, and winds up and down over every little bump along the way. We bitched and moaned about it, but in reality, it was better than walking on pavement.

Reached the Fontana Hilton by 11:00. It's in a park, so you walk down the road through the park to reach it. It's a beautiful shelter overlooking the lake. The shelter is very spacious, built of beautiful wood, with stone steps and benches outside. A hand carved sign on the side proclaims it as the Fontana Hilton. There are even picnic tables and barbecue grills. We stopped just long enough to take a munch break and write in the register before walking the rest of the way to the Visitor Center at the dam.

From the dam, we called Nancy at the Fontana Motel. She said she'd be up to get us in a bit. We were content to hang out and drink our pop and walk around being "dam tourists" for a while. Just had time to watch a video on the history of how the dam was built by the TVA during WWII, before Nancy arrived to pick us up.

Nancy and Jeff Hoch are two of the people who make the AT great! They bought the Fontana Motel and moved up from Florida four years ago on a leap of faith. Since then they have gradually become a haven for hikers. They offer shuttles to wherever you need to go, do your laundry, offer good counsel and good company. We were treated like family from the first minute. Nancy even closed the motel and borrowed a friend's truck to come and get us, because Jeff was off working today and had their truck. How often do people go out of their way like that? We spent the afternoon chatting, writing, and relaxing, then Nancy drove us into Robbinsville to shop and have dinner. There's quite an eclectic gathering of people staying or visiting here tonight, so we're having a wonderful evening.

Last night sleep did not come easily. Nestled deep in a canopy of trees, the shelter was as dark as a photographer's darkroom. I lay there gazing into the blackness when a flash of light caught my attention. At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. It was there, then just as quickly, it was gone. I struggled against the fog of sleep to clear my mind and focus my eyes. I soon realized the light came from the dance of fireflies. I'd never seen them when it was this dark out.

One or two would fire their light, quickly followed by a dozen more. It was almost as if a chain reaction was taking place in front of me. Then, a moment later the light would devolve to black. The participants in the dance would shift positions and the light display would fire again. Each time new and beautiful pattern of light would appear against the black night.

After several minutes I reached over to share my discovery with Linda. Brandon was too far gone into the world of sleep to be disturbed. For a long while, Linda and I lay there watching the amazing dance of night before sleep finally overtook us.

It didn't seem much later before my alarm was sounding. I awoke to see the sunlight filtering down through the trees. Our companions of the night were gone to their home in the forest. With only a short day ahead, we lay in our bags another half-hour before starting our morning ritual.

You really never know about the trail ahead. You can pour over maps, trail profiles and review the comments of others. But it's not until you've trod it, that you can take its full measure. That was certainly true today. Somewhere in the back of my mind was the feeling that today's hike would be a hard one. So it was a great relief when Linda pronounced her foot healed shortly after we started.

We hiked along the easy trail expecting it to become difficult at any moment. Much to our enjoyment and surprise, it stayed nice all the way down the mountain. Of course the out of shape Boy Scout leader we passed at the bottom of the mountain may have a different opinion. For us the only difficulty came after we were off the mountain. I'd expected the trail from the road to the dam to be flat and fast. What we encountered instead was a series of meaningless ups and downs. They really tend to wear you down when you don't expect them.

After a short stop at Fontana Hilton to eat the last of our food, we made the remaining distance to the dam by 11:30. We arrived a bit more tired than expected. But a few cokes and ice cream bars brought us back to life. Nancy from the Fontana Motel arrived shortly to shuttle us to their motel.

Later this afternoon Nancy took us into town where we were able to pick up items not in our mail drop. We also took advantage of the stop to eat at a local restaurant. Jeff and Nancy Hoch are definitely some of the nicest people we've met on the trail. If you're ever in the area, Fontana Motel is the place to stay.

Today we got up and made breakfast and started walking around 8:00. We hiked only eight miles, but two of them were up hill and the rest was all down to Fontana Dam. Mom's foot felt better this morning. We reached the top of the mountain and started heading down around 9:30. It was a long way down, and it seemed like hours and hours and hours. But it only took about two hours and we reached Fontana outskirts before lunch. We walked down to the Fontana Hilton Shelter. It is really a nice one. We stayed and had some snacks before walking down to the visitor center. We bought pop and ice cream and called for our ride to Fontana Motel. We walked around the dam until our ride arrived. Turns out that Nancy, the person who runs the motel borrowed a truck from a friend and came to pick us up. That was really nice!

At the motel, we had more pop and snacks and sat around during the afternoon. Jeff and Nancy have two dogs. One of them is very friendly, and the other you have to watch out for because she bites. They have a cool ring toss game up on the wall. I spent a lot of time getting good at that. I bought one of the games to take home. It was a fun short day.