| May 03, 2005 |
| A sunny bright so far, I'm
leaving Devils Fork Gap where I picked up yesterday going south Bald
Creek Road which is down below Black Stack. It's about a 12
mile day. |
|
Depending on how my foot is at the time when I get there and what
the time is as to whether I go on to Allan Gap, but a 12 hour day is
usually a good day for me. Every time I do 6 or 7 miles my
heal gets pretty sore. I've been living on Ibuprofen and
soaking my foot in Epson Salts morning and night since I've been at
Will's and that seems to help a good bit. |
| It looks like I'm going
through a hardwood area, small trees right now. A few big ones
scattered in and out. It looks like mostly oaks, maples.
Kind of the normal trees I've been seeing all along. The path
right now seems to be fairly smooth and level, so we'll see how
progress s during the day. |
Here again I'm following an
old fence line that was once a pasture field. To the east
 growing up now with lots of briars and small bushes. As I
climbing higher up on to the mountain it's the normal type of
change. I'm getting into the rhododendron now. Instead
of beagles this morning I'm hearing an old bloodhound down in the
valley. Kind of a neat sound, I haven't heard the baying for a
long time now. |
| Simon is glad
to be back on the trail this morning. He's been sniffing out a
lot of things. I just passed Andy and since Simon was doing a
lot of sniffing on the ground I thought there might have been
a lot of animals down through here. In a couple of places
there as I started up trail, right along the edges of the trail it
looked like big piles of dung. I didn't think to much about it
at the time, but Andy had told me that at the top of the hill that
they saw a bear print. So that could be what that was. it just
seemed to big for a dog. Just run into 3 north bound hikers
and two out of the three said the had just seen the paw print of the
bear before they got into the shelter . For me that's going to
be south of the shelter. Along the I've noticed that some leaves and
thing have been turned up and one small log was kind of rolled out
the side, so it's very possible - will keep my open - |
| In the last 45
minutes I've probably met 16 hikers going north, so breakfast time
must be over! |
| I seem to be
walking around a side of a mountain, on the under side, I'm starting
to see some Hemlocks, and some good size oak trees eighteen to
twenty inches in diameter. I know I'm on the NC side and I
think I may also be the Cherokee wilderness are now. Another
big tunnel of rhododendron. |
| This is
beautiful Tuesday morning. A beautiful sunlit trail, very
smooth hiking. There's been a few roots but nothing that I had
to climb over. Just coming trough one of these rock slide
areas where you have to walk through all the big boulders that have
fallen down the mountain side. They sure do hurt your feet
when you try to stumble through there. The farther I go,
this section is nothing but rock slides. This path is almost
solid rock now. There is a little dirt here and there that
gives you a little bit of a soft cushion, but the rocks are either
flat or pointed straight up -ankle busters- I'm certainly glad
I got through that rocky area. |
| I
just met Tortuga going north, which is the first I've seen her since
before Hot Springs. I gave her Will's number, so when she gets
to Sams Gap maybe she could give us a call and with me a night or
two. That would probably do her good, she has a scratched eye
she having some trouble with, this might give her eye a chance to
rest and put some medicine in it.
|
| Boy, here's
one giant oak tree, it must be 6' diameter at the bottom, tall and
straight. Boy - that would make some lumber man happy. |
 I sear Simon
can read, before I got the shelter sign, I glanced up and Simon
already had turned to the left and was going into the shelter.
Stopping by flint Mt. shelter to sign the register and use the privy
and be on my way. I could sit in that moldering privy and look
down in the valley at rhododendrons in that area, listen to the song
birds, but the best part about it, depending whether you are going
north or south you could look up to the mountain top and see where
you have been and where you're going. After I came back to the
shelter Baby Steps and her friends came into the shelter to rest and
get a bite of lunch. We're going to go towards Erwin. |
| I just met a
young rail guy I've never met before, his trail name is Song Line
and ask him if it had to do with music of any kind, He says, "No he
didn't write any songs, the only he did was play guitar once in a
while. Song Line has to do with hiking a trail, a single line
trail in a African custom where it's a renewed hike." |
| I'm going
around a deep ravine on to a trail on another side of a mountain to
get on the mountain that gets to Black Stack Cliff. I'm quite
a ways underneath the ridge line, but this is a poorly marked trail
through here. I certainly wouldn't want to come through here
night. It is lined with laurel and rhododendron. At
least it's smooth, it's not rocky like before. I really hear
that I'm getting into a rocky area whenever I get up there to Black
Stack. The word is for me to go around and use blue blazed
trail ridge line instead of going straight up top over the cliff.
There's one big rock you have to climb straight up about 10 t0 12'.
I don't think it would be very easy for Simon to climb, let alone me
trying to climb it with this sore foot on mine. So, I'm going
to take the dry boot route around.
|
| Stopped in a little
sunny cove and had some lunch with Goat and Buffet. Nitro came
in and also Sara and Jake and the Teflon Kids. Simon got his
pack off and really enjoys the hot sun. |
| I'm going up
Big Butt Mountain, but I think that Big Butt Mountain is kicking my
butt now. I must be getting up pretty high because I'm running
into the laurel bushes. Just met a local guy that was out
hunting turkey this morning said he came up the ridge and got lost
and got on the 4 wheel path that they been using to come right down
into the top of Big Butt Mt. where I was hiking. He said that
he knew where was now. Blue Ridge just passed me going north.
A 55 year old gentleman from Ireland. |
| The warn sun
is bringing out the trout lilies and the violets on the mountain
today. I also see some may apples below me. There's a
little type of purple flower, I don't know the name of it.
I've come to another little leveling area, easy hiking for a change.
there's a lot broken limbs and tree tope in this area. The
wind must have really whipped up this little gap in here. There's a
shag bark hickory; must be awful old, lots of moss growing on it,
but its still alive on the top. I see lots of evidence of last
nights frost bite. |
| I knew I'd
been descending a little bit, I just came down into a sunny easterly
side cove that has a lot of tree canopy on it, but as far as you can
it's all green underneath, and what it is - trout lilies. It
looks like maybe that at one time it was a pasture field, a
beautiful little area. A lot of birches growing in this area
and the most wild cherry trees that I've seen all along. There
is also some small maple in here. This area is so flat that it
would be a beautiful place o build a cabin. You wouldn't
certainly have many walk in friends. |
| I going now
through a very old white pine forest, I can look atop of the
trees and I can see that many of them are dead, but at the same time
I knew that I was coming into a pine forest; the breeze that was is
coming up over the mountain was bringing an odor of pines.
Coming out into a beautiful clearing of grass and this has answered
my question. At one time this area right through here used be
an old homestead. I don't see any evidence of the home, but
there is a grave (Sheldon). I'm traveling on a section of the
AT that appears to be on the old road that let to the Sheldon farm
house. I've never seen so many dead pines in all my life.
Every where you look it is just dead. This is the
third area that I've come through, still in the dead pines, that
looks like it might have been homesteads along the way. I
don't see any evidence of any, but I'm probably walking on an old
roadway. |
| I must be getting
higher towards the top, there's some big metaphoric rocks that are
coming up into the trail. Coming into a grassy clearing again
following the same road or what looks like could be a road. In
this area there's an old peach or pear tree, and a couple of old
apple trees. Some sugar maples, and some dead pine. |
| I'm hiking on
the ridge line between NC and Tenn. It depend if your house
was on the left or the right side of the road as to which state you
are in. Coming out into another clearing bald like area,
beautiful green grass that looks like it might have been a pasture
at one time. The sky is a beautiful blue, with big old puffy
clouds. Another headstone (Howard E. Bassette, age 83, of CT, died
November 9,1987, hiked AT 1968, ashes on this spot for 1988 ) This
spot is a beautiful spot, beautiful clearing, grassy bald over
looking a valley, my guess is that he lived in this area for many
years. |
|
Definitely on top of the ridge, going by some huge big boulders that
are sticking straight up in the air, covered with moss and
rhododendrons. This is definitely a strong wind blown area,
the rhododendrons are laid over toward the west. The trail
goes from one big boulder to another, around the next one, and
go between several boulders at once. The trail open up into a
green bald like area with bunches of briars, small shrubs and trout
lilies. |
| This whole
area on top of this mountain looks totally devastated, with all the
dead trees, wind blown trees, dead logs and stuff laying around, it
looks like a demolition crew had gone through here. |
| Even though
the sun is out and it's a beautiful day, off in the distance there
is an awful lot of haze, so I'm not so sure how good my pictures are
going to turn out. I'm still descending Butt Mountain, I still
say this whole area looks like a war zone, however it's also a
protected game forest area so accounts for a lot of the diseased
trees and down trees.. |
| I came Forest
Gelding Mountain and I came up to a blue blaze I could go either
over top of the open ridge line or I could go around. I chose to go
around because everybody was telling me that I couldn't take Simon
up over there. I went around, it was about a mile - mile and a
half. It took me a while to get around there because of all
the stones in the path way and the higher I went the more stones I
got into, and it took me a while. |
| Went to
Black Stacks and of course it was huge big stones and I decided to
go around front to check it out to see what it was going to be like,
here again it was huge big stones and big drop offs, it would take
me a while to get around there and it was starting to get late, it
was close to 4pm. and I needed to catch Will, so I chose to contuse
on the AT path. |
| I got into the
area of Bald Creek, but there was no signs. There were signs
for other trails , but whenever I turned around a looked at this
blue blaze there wasn't a sign of any kind, so I just didn't put it
together as being the path area that I needed to follow in order to
get up to Bald Creek, so I went down and twisted back up hill and
aside another hill and found the water sources. saw where some
people had been camping and realized a was way below where a I
needed to be, so I had missed Will and had decided it was after 5pm
at that time. I hiked on going towards the shelter, when I
reached the shelter it was almost dark, but here were hiker there
and Wrong Way Grace was there also, so I talked to them and they got
their maps out too and took a look and anyway I ended up walking 4
more miles out Log Cabin Rd. After about 2 miles it was dark,
so I used my little flashlight and with Simon's help I was able to
go on out the road and then I hiked to this little hostel that the
hiker had told me about, called Will and told him that I was safe
and for him to come to pick me up the next day, at Allen Gap and I
would the mile and half there and meet him. I stayed at the
hostel that night, didn't have any heat really except a hot plate
and that was able to keep the first floor warm. I didn't have
any sleeping blanket there with me, so the guy that ran the hostel
gave me a blanket, so I wrapped up in that with my rain coat and
stuff on. - I was warm slept on a small car seat thing. Simon
and I shared it some and he finally got out and laid on the floor.
There was a full size bed upstairs, but I couldn't get upstairs, for
one thing, my foot and the other thing was I couldn't take Simon up
those steps, because it was like steps in a barn. |
|
Swing'n Jane and
Simon The Wonder Dog |
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