Chapter Three: The Great Smoky Mountains

Day 15 June 20, 2020 Saturday (GSMNP Day One)

Fontana Dam Shelter, NC to Russell Field Shelter, NC

I awoke to nice weather, with yesterday’s storms finally passed. Out-side I could hear the sound of birds chirping at first light, about 5:45 AM. There were low clouds over the lake, partly covering some of the mountain peaks of the Smokies. Today was going to be the day. The geology of the Smokies is extremely complex both from the standpoint of how the rocks were made (sedimentation, lithification, and later metamorphism), and how they were transported to where they are today (structure, involving folding and thrusting). However, in general it can be stated that most of the rocks forming the present-day mountains in the park started out as sedimentary rocks eroded more than 750 million years ago from the ancient Grenville Mountains. As these Himalayan-sized mountains, which formed over a billion years ago slowly eroded, extensive river systems carried sediment filling surrounding marine basins along the continental margin. One of these was the Ocoee Basin, to the southeast (present coordinates) along the growing rifted margin of Rodinia, where massive accumulations of sediment flowed into a shallow continental sea over a period of about 250 million years. The resulting sediment fill, known as the Ocoee Supergroup, is on the order of 10 miles in thickness. Some of these buried sedimentary rocks were subsequently further deformed and metamorphosed into metasediments such as graywacke, quartzite, and slate. Although nearly all of these rocks were subjected to some degree of metamorphism, they are still generally classified as sedimentary rocks. In addition, about 300 million years ago, during the Alleghanian Orogeny, these old pre-Cambrian rocks were thrust over top of younger sedimentary rocks along the Great Smoky Fault. These thrusted metasediments are found along much of the AT throughout the park.

I broke camp about 7:05, noticing there was another tent set up about 20 yards away from mine. There was a young couple packing up as I walked by, and they said they were there to support a friend who had just completed an ultra marathon through the Smokies. I hiked down the road towards the dam, and in the parking lot I met the ultra marathon runner and some other friends gathered around the car snacking on fruit and other breakfast items. We chatted for a while and then I moved along. Further down the road, I ran into a hiker who informed me that someone had broken into his car and stole it from where he had parked it while he was hiking through the Smokies. He said all that was left in the parking lot was some scattered broken glass, apparently from the window broken by the car thief. He was on his way to higher ground to get a cell signal to call the police.

I continued following the white blazes down the road, to where the AT crossed the dam, and it was an impressive site. Fontana Dam is ranked #20 on the list of tallest dams in the US, but apparently #1 in the eastern US, at 480 feet. I found it ironic that with all this electric generation going on, someone had decided to resort to solar power to provide electricity for the cell-phone recharge station back at the shelter, which incidentally did not work.…