June 8, 2009
Spoon writes:
Our stay at Uncle Johnny’s Hostel was met with a lackluster night’s sleep. People were watching movies until about midnight which kept us up. At least we had a dry roof over our heads, but the washing machine wasn’t functioning properly. It worked well enough, since it was only important to get the clothes wet and fluffy and then dry again. My night’s sleep was uncomfortable and I woke up with a dog begging me to let him outside.
Having had enough of this place already (no offense Johnny, maybe it was just the timing), we hit the trail the next morning bright and early. The sky was menacing and threatened much more of the same experience that we had been suffering the days prior. Upon the start of the hike, my little toe had felt like it was on fire. After Hot Springs a blister had developed on it that nearly encompassed the entire toe and was very deep. There was little I could do, I had to fix it and fast! Within the first mile of the day I tried an assortment of remedies that include hiking in my Crocs. Nothing worked until I wrapped it thickly in gauze secured with medical tape. Barely anything stays on my toes when I am hiking but this remedy supplied enough cushion to make the pain tolerable enough to hike. The real medicine though was the conversation with Hazard on the trail. The distraction made the pain go away much more than the bandage did. The day stretched on and on upwards. The sun came out in the afternoon and defeated the ominous clouds from the morning. In the afternoon we made it up to Beauty Spot, a bald before Unaka Mountain. The view was nice, but we wanted to keep walking. After some phone calls via the rare treat of getting reception, we made it up the menacing Unaka Mnt. At this point, uphill is uphill and this was easier trail. We found ourselves at the summit in the midst of a beautiful virgin hemlock grove. The trail was indistinct and just the blazes were seen. There was no undergrowth at all which allowed us to make our own paths through the trees. It was back downhill and a short up again before we reached Cherry Gap Shelter. Matt was there and with his mother. I jokingly gave him the trail name ‘Snooky Bear’ because he was hiking with her, but it was good to see that he had support like that. It was still early and Hazard and I built a fire, partially for bug control and partially just for sheer comfort. From our conversations earlier in the day we sketched dream home blue prints and story boards for a 3D animated short we would like to do when we get back. We let the fire die down as we went to sleep and my eyes closed looking at the embers.
The next day we were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful weather and terrain. Ups and downs are common, but this was more gradual than most. However, we knew we needed to climb up Roan Mountain today which is one of the more intimidating mountains in the south and certainly on the NC/TN stretch. We ate an early lunch before accent at Clyde Smith Shelter and met Patches and her boyfriend. They were much slower than us, but provided good conversation, as short lived as it was, and she gave us good insight on what it’s like being a female out on the trail.
Just before Roan Mnt. we had to climb Little Rock Knob which was a major bump up and down before the big one. Once we hit the road we knew the accent up Roan was about to begin. It is 3 steep miles up and has a false peak to fool you into thinking you’re at the top when, in actuality, you still have a long way to go. About a mile up, we encountered a troop of boys which must have been BSA or some church group coming down. The rest of the mountain was more of a blur because of how fast I was going. I made it up in about an hour and 10 minutes. Dumbfounded, I found myself at the summit being greeted by a news crew, who immediately started asking me questions. The Asheville News was doing a piece on conservations of the AT and Roan Mountain. Hazard came up about 20 minutes later, missing the majority of the interview but not too late to receive some trail magic! Jay (who is in the video) gave us buffalo jerky, peanut M&Ms, and a pair of cold sodas. It was a welcome treat and even though we had a few more miles to go, we savored the sunlight and the snacks. The rest of the trail until Overmountain Shelter was beautiful. Grassy balds let us see the flat of the Earth in every direction. The decent to Overmountain was easy and we were now familiar with the territory. Backpacker Magazine voted this shelter as having the most beautiful view on the trail. It is a big red barn which sleeps 20 people, but easily more by my guess. When we walked into camp we were surprised to see a group of extreme outdoor folks with church origins (?). They were very ‘green’ and all slept in tents, leaving the shelter for the thru-hikers. They were mild mannered and very quiet for a group of its size. We made off color jokes and enjoyed a roaring fire while sharing the shelter with Queen Becky and her husband, and Tyben and Sal.
We woke up with the sun in our faces as it rose over the mountains. It was an early wake up call, but to see the sun was a very welcome sight. The trail began uphill but we pushed over Little Hump and Hump Mountain for even more spectacular views. We took a video blog on top of Hump Mountain with Tyben. We soon found ourselves lost on a trail after that though, going on a steep hunting road for about half a mile until we ran into a house with barking dogs. We re-found the trail and made our way to 19E, the highway where we were going to resupply. Tyben was waiting there with his very nice Avalance and took us into the town of Roan Mountain. There we encountered Bob’s Dairy land and ate some of the best tasting burgers in our lives. They were literally the size of our heads. Tyben was very nice to chauffeur us around and encouraged us to stay at a hostel, but we had farther to go. Herb was making his was in to 19E and Tyben made a very generous and trusting offer to Herb to take his (Tyben’s) car into town and leave it at the hostel afterwards. The next 8 miles were pleasantly gradual but thunderstorms threatened above our heads the entire time, but very little rain fell as we made our stay at Mountaineer Falls Shelter. This shelter had three stories and was very new. The water source was at the top of a small, but beautiful, waterfall. It was crowded with a few frat boys who clearly did not know what they were doing backpacking-wise and they also looked exhausted. We established the best spots in the shelter and went to bed.
The morning was Sunny with some dark clouds rolling past. Being thru-hikers we always get out of camp before others. Although the profile of the terrain was gradual, the trail was a series of steep ups and downs which slowed our progress somewhat. We ate lunch with Tyben and Patch (he let us know he thought he had Giardia). We came down into Dennis Cove Road after the weather had turned foul. Two miles away from the nearest shelter, a couple offered to take us up the road to Kincora Hostel. We hadn’t planned on staying there, but it was just a $4 donation and we could get showers and do laundry. We were shocked to see Sal there and we got some comfortable bunks and ordered a pizza from town. We also met a bunch of the people there that we had been tracking in the hiking/shelter journals. Disco Stu, Route 66, Poli Poli, and Plow Boy were all there.
In the morning Poli Poli made a beautiful breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes all from the generosity of Route 66. For $4, this was definitely a treat. From there it was a short hike to Laurel Falls. We sipped in the scenery then took the thin trail along the bank of the river. It must have taken several hours of work to get the path the way it was, but it was gorgeous. The day grew darker and we knew a big hill was ahead of us on the way up to Pond Flats. We past Laurel Shelter, where we were going to stay that night and made our way up some slow switch backs. This gave us a false sense of ease until the trail turned very steep for a long time. There was even a false peak and no view at to top to add to the frustration. The trail afterwards went gradual until Watauga Lake. We ate lunch at the picnic tables among the people playing at the beach. The skies began to open up on us and it was funny to see everyone rush for their umbrellas and cars when we were just used to the rain and sat in it. Tyben came down to the lake and told us about a massive spider that terrorized the same shelter we were supposed to stay in last night. He can’t blame us for staying at the hostel; we left him a note on the trail to do the same. Did we mention how good those showers felt? It was all uphill out of Watauga Dam until we hit Vandeventor Shelter in the rain. We stayed with Disco Stu, Sal, Tyben who all went to bed as early as possible.
The night had poured rain on us and made the beautiful view from Vandeventor impossible to see in the morning. The entire day was a fog. However, it was a very good day for wildlife; deer sprang into action at every attempt and turkeys flew out of the shrubs constantly. I even came across Tyben filming what couldn’t have been more than a week old fawn and her mother. The weather was cold and miserable and wet. The only event besides that was coming upon one of the oldest shelters along the trail which we only stopped at for a photo op. After this was Abington Gap Shelter which had a poor water source and no privy. Some section hikers going SOBO tented outside as we shared the shelter with Sal, Disco Stu, Tyben, and Patch. Patch had done a 30+ mile day after going to the doctor for his Giardia.
We woke up early after several disturbances from several alarm clocks. We ate breakfast and made it out of camp before 7am. On very little water, we sped down the mountain to Damascus, VA. We were smelling clean linens the whole way down because so many people hung their laundry out to dry. The sun was out and we were happy to be heading into town for a couple of ‘zero’ days!
-Spoon
