4/19 – 15 miles
It was a long downhill hike into Fontana Dam. I stepped out onto the road leading to town at about 3:00 in the afternoon. There was some excitement in town because police cars were streaking up and down the road with their sirens screaming. We learned later that some young hiker had too much to drink and got in a fight with some people at a shelter near Fontana Dam. The people called the police and they came and arrested the drunk kid. He was later released and told not to go onto the Smokys. That would have been the end of it except the kid wouldn’t let it go. He started up the trail into the National Park threatening to use a knife on the people that called the police on him. 
News like this travels fast through hikers on the trail and it wasn’t long before the Park police and sheriff’s crew – with help from several tips by thru-hikers – captured him and took him into custody. Now he’s really in trouble. Now he has federal charges against him.
Incidents like this are rare on the trail, but it just goes to show that even on the AT you are not completely insulated from the bad side of human nature.
There are a few hikers dropping off the trail, and it always makes us sad when we hear of someone giving up. I met a young lady a couple of days before reaching Fontana Dam, and hiked off an on with her as we closed the distance to town. As we got to know each other I realized why I was so happy to hike with her – she reminded me of Karen, my soggy-shoe hiking companion. This hike was the first AT expedition without my daughter and I was missing her.
When I hiked out of Fontana Dam, I heard that my new friend could not go on. She had tented alone in the rain the night before, and come close to hypothermia. That, and equipment problems caused her to call her hike off.
I hope your friend can recover and get back on the trail sometime. Maybe you’ll meet her on your way back down the trail from Maine to Georgia.
Glad the police removed the troublemaker from the park and trail.