Lots of good advice in this thread, but the one I always give people is this:

This event is meant to be fun-and that's fun for everyone. Just like none of us want another people to ruin our fun, we should be just as careful not to ruin someone else's fun. For the most part try to take a step back and enjoy the MINI fellowship and time away from the daily grind.

 

And some of us like to do early morning runs up and down the Dragon or one of the other great roads... around sunrise.

So those of you with the one-ball exhausts, we love the sound but not at 0100 hours (1:00 am, for you civilians). Some goes for you party animals and firecracker fanatics.

 

I'm just hoping xUHOHx doesn't snore- seeing as I'm sharing her cabin!

Ok, another question- what is the road surface like? Are we going to be dodging pot holes while simoultaneously hitting the twisties? Also, someone mentioned (not here, somewhere else) that we won't be dealing with hills while dealing with twisties... I'm a tad suspicious of this.

Cell phone coverage is spotty? Is that with all providers? what about internet at Fontana village- is there wifi there? if not do you think a sprint card would work?

Anyone a fisherman in this group? I'm thinking of bringing a fly rod, tee hee!

 

The road surface is generally very good. Not perfect (i.e. not 100% buttery smooth at all times), but good. Few potholes. The road is used by so many enthusiasts, that I believe it is well maintained. Don't worry too much about it - but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be paying full attention to the road when on it! You definitely should be!

As for hills - the road is so busy turning left and right (including banked turns) that you're not even going to pay much attention to altitude... that is, until you stop at an overlook to check out the view.Cell phone coverage is practically non-existent. You pretty much have to drive to a nearby town (20-30 minutes away) to get decent cell coverage. Don't count on it.

Fontana Village does have Wi-Fi access... but it is generally limited to the Inn / Check-in lobby area. This is one of the downsides of staying in a cabin instead of the Inn (if Internet access is important to you)... but that doesn't stop you from visiting the lobby up at the Inn and surfing away with your laptop. Besides, you should be socializing and/or motoring most of the time anyway!

 

Oh, plan on socializing, motoring, hiking, white water rafting and hopefully fishing a bit- but I was hoping to be able to download photos and post them for all our NAM friends who are missing the fun! (OK, I'm going to post the really embarrassing photos of MOTDers!)
Thanks for your answers- I'm really really really looking forward to this (and really, really, really can't believe my dh is staying home with the kids! I piddy da foo!)

 

Haaiiii - I don't SNORE. I can't account for my little brother, but if he does, I'll just roll him out to the porch. I DO wish your fam was coming, though!

I'm pretty sure between the two of us we can do the wi-fi thing and upload for the MOTD-missing. We'll just have to hike to the lobby. And don't forget to bring your phone charger...batteries drain like water!

 

EVERYONE takes to the lobby to upload. Last year, Fontana's bandwidth was stretched pretty thin. Combine that with Fontana's idea of fast internet access being dialup with two-soup-cans-on-a-string speed... well... be patient.

It doesn't matter how good a phone or Sprint/Verizon/whomever card you have, there is NO, ZIP, ZERO cellphone coverage unless someone snuck a tower in there while we weren't looking. Some folks with kids or outside concerns rent or bring satellite phones just in case. If you do, read the fine print, they can be prcey.

While there, you are essentially "off the grid" - and that's not all bad

(note: there are rumors that if you go to the very tippy top of the dam, pose in the time-honored "Big Fig Newton" and place a square of tinfoil on your left buttock that you may achieve a 1/2 bar cell signal. It didn't work for me, but if you want to try it, let me know - I want pictures.)

 

There is AT&T signal at the top of the dam.

Here is the info for renting a satellite phone.

 

if you just want to phone home, may I suggest a prepaid phone card. There are 2 pay phones..one on the Adventure Center porch and one outside the village store. I believe most of the larger cabins have phones as well.

 

Also a pay phone in the main lobby - that's how I called home last time...

 

Fontana DOES have a trout pond, although I pity the fishes during MOTD, as they get beer bottle bombed. I'm not familiar with licensing in NC, but a marvelous fly-fishing river fairly close to Fontana is on US 74, in the Nantahalla River Gorge. Everytime I go to the Dragon, I pass thru this area for its sheer beauty and see scads of fisherfolk, along with kayakers, white water rafters, canoes, etc.

US 129 IS a public road, as we all know. It is well-maintained, I think, considering the high volume of traffic it receives. However, whoever said that you "won't be dealing with hills while dealing with the twisties" must have been on a different road. This is why this thread is so important...to alert people that some serious and deadly stuff can happen if you don't slow down, stay in your lane and pay attention.

Cell phone usage is spotty, but there ARE places that you can make calls. I've noticed a country church around Robbinsville on 129 that I can usually call out at, as well as on that connector road between Robbinsville and Hwy. 28 to Fontana [it's flat and fairly open, so pulling to the side of the roadway to make a call usually won't get ya killed].

 

To call home I've used Skype on a laptop in the Inn Lobby on that wifi, Works very very well. I've passed it around a couple nights

 

I hit one of those shoulders too fast trying to get over for someone right on my boot. If you want to run the Dragon hard, please do it early in the morning when few people are out. Riding up on someone's butt is too dangerous.

+1

 

Thanks- but I'm thinking more along the lines of a trout stream than the trout pond... preferably one that I have to hike into, where few anglers have reached, where the lovely wild trout live... a stream that has mountain water that flows over rocks, I will stand on the stones along the bank & use the little skill I have to cast that light fly into that small still water where those trout are waiting for the hatch to float by.. the trout that will see the very tasty fly I present, will watch it float for a few seconds, watch it dance on the water... and then just as I start to pull it out of the water, that trout will rise and grab it, and then itself will dance- bending my rod to it's will... and at the end of our courtship, I will gently reach to my worthy opponent and remove the hook from his mouth. He will then be free to return to the wild and enjoy his life- maybe a tad wiser about the flies he eats

Actually I did a search for good fly streams and the upper Nantahala was suggested. It's too shallow/rough for kayakers and rafters, but is considered top fishing waters...

Oh, and I'm going to be one of those rafters too Can't go to the Smokies and not enjoy the great outdoors! <Sigh>

 

From Robbinsville to Deals Gap, there are lots of pull-offs along US 129 as the streams are very nice, pretty unpopulated [by fisherfolk] and easy to get to.
A few years ago, I had to take US 74 West to TN, and up US 411 back to Alcoa. Along the extreme western edge of NC is a great park system where, on your left, is a lot of stream fishing. During the week, it shouldn't be too busy, if at all.

 

The reason I rent a satellite phone, is because I bring my kids with me. We stay in houses off-site that have phones, and if Pamalalala and I are out on a drive with our friends and the kids need us in an emergency, cell phones just don't cut it.

My almost 17 year old can and will call 911, and handle things, but in dire need, the $70 rental fee more than pays for itself in peace of mind.