unofficial campsite to fontana dam parking lot

last night was pretty rough. despite our good position, we still got a good amount of rain. most of the wind was well above us, but about once an hour a mighty gust would shoot up the valley and almost flatten us. my tent definitely has a leak somewhere, as i had a decent pool by morning. thankfully my fat sleeping pad kept me out of it for the most part.

packing up was soggy and muddy. i hate packing away my tent covered in mud, but what are you going to do? nico and i breakfasted and were on trail by about 8:30. nico motored to fontana marina, while i took it more slowly taking some photos of more spring ephemerals, but not before we picked out a trail name for nico.

with the recent wind storm, the trail was littered with sticks and branches. nico, a fútbol player, was having a great time flicking them off the trail with his feet, generally trying to get them to go as high or as far as he could. we talked about a few names, and ultimately settled on ‘quick’ (pronounced kick, as in the french pronunciation of quebec /kəˈbɛk/).

fontana marina is a pretty crazy place. the entire thing is floating in the middle of fontana lake. it’s marina, a hiker resupply, and has a big outside area with tables and chairs for folks to congregate. quick and i did a recon of the supplies, i also got a couple tamales and zapped them in the microwave. as we ate, more hikers including intel rolled in.

quick, intel, and i wanted to take the shuttle to fontana village, to check out the resupply there and get a bite to eat at the resort restaurant. the entire town of fontana has a population of 29, and the wind storm had them without power. the reservoir was so low they were also on water restrictions. the pit stop, gas station / gift shop / hiker resupply was running on a generator when we arrived.

we picked up some breakfast and lunch essentials and then walked from there up the hill to the resort restaurant, but found they had no power at all. when we walked into the restaurant a woman came out and told us that sandwiches were complimentary for guests, and would we like ham or turkey. we were then promptly handed a sandwich each and directed to a cooler with sodas. we then joined the hikers who were actual resort guests on the porch to eat our sandwiches. just as we finished, i spied the shuttle coming up the road, and we all made a mad dash through the resort to catch it.

back at the marina, the hiker party was in full swing. all devices were being charged in every available plug and power strip. tables were covered in gear, food, and beer cans and bottles. i purchased some dinners, sadly mostly alpine aire, my least favorite (and definitely magz’ never again brand). quick was charging devices, so i had a snack, a bag of cola flavored gummies, and a beer.

bug arrived after slack packing (she and her dad were staying at the resort) from fontana dam to the marina and reported that the solar charging station at fontana dam shelter was working. so quick, intel, and i packed up and hiked the short mile and change to the shelter.

the shelter was pretty nice for sure, but the thee of us still prefer our tents, so after checking it out and quick plugging in his phone, we headed up to the tent sites. this however was a disaster. the tent sites were former picnic sites and were concrete pads. tents, especially those like intel and mine that aren’t free standing require stakes. i hiked up the hill to the official picnic site, only to find a nice flat grass spot and a no camping sign. i continued up the hill to a parking lot / overlook where there was also a lot of grass, but here there wasn’t a no camping sign. i even chatted with a grounds keeper and he indicated that we were unlikely to have any issues camping up there.

tents were set up to dry out, and the trio of us headed back down the hill to the shelter as we planned to jump in the lake. when folks at the shelter heard what we were doing we were joined by a slew of others. the lake was freezing, but once i climbed out and cracked the beer i brought, it felt so good.

on the way back up the hill to make dinner someone mentioned that the power was back on at fontana village and the restaurant had boxed burgers for sale. no one wanted to pay the shuttle fare, but quick volunteered to go and pick up burgers.

i cooked my dinner in the sun overlooking fontana lake, and just as i finished, quick arrived with a burger and soda for me. i wrote for a while, hung my food, and retired to my tent to finish writing. a hiker came up and it was rapunzel, bringing we top of the hill campers all beers.

so now i’m typing in my tent as the sun goes down having a beer after a pretty epic day of fun and beers. :)