Today's hike is a 12 mile loop beginning and ending at Fontana Dam. I began bright and early on the AT. It is a steady uphill climb for 3.7 miles to Shuckstack firetower. Above, is the chimney from the watchman's cabin located on a small piece of flat real estate right next to the tower. The tower is still accessible but once you get above treetops, extremely windy today.
I spent about 30 minutes here with these two thru hikers, "Caleb the White" and Stella hikes. Caleb had been on the trail for just under 3 weeks. Stella is a hiking machine, having made it this far in just 10 days. She intends to hike the 72 miles through the GSMNP in under 3 days!
It may look calm out there but it is so windy here I don't know how I was able to take this photo.
I left the tower and headed downhill to a gap. Here I turned right onto Lost Cove Trail. Hiking steeply downhill, I relied on my hiking pole almost every step. The White pine above is quite unusual. It was located right next to a chimney fall.
Once the steepness subsided, I had 12 creek crossing to negotiate. The first few were easy rock hops. About the 4th or 5th crossing, I switched to my creek crossing sandals. The last few were calf deep.
The final crossing
The last 5 miles are on Lakeshore Trail. You would think "Lakeshore" would be a nice level trail, but you'd be wrong. It was undulating the whole distance. The lake is normally drawn down in the winter as you can see here.
Lakeshore Trail follows the old NC Rt 288 which was flooded in the 1940s by the dam. I have read that during WWII rubber was in short supply and quite expensive when it was available. Thus, tires often were not available. Folks would drive their vehicles until the tires wore out and just abandon them along the roadside. When the dam went online, they became stranded.
This formula was painted on two vehicles. A google lens search reveals that this is one of Einstein's Field Equations explaining gravity as a result of spacetime being curved by mass and energy.
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