Bud and Vicki Hogan's 1996 Appalachian Trail Journey
June 26
Buck Mountain Road to Dennis Cove.................................................................17 miles
Early that morning before we broke camp, a hiker came by. Dewayne. We were just up and having breakfast but this guy had already hiked three miles or so. We talked for a couple of minutes, then he went on.
We broke camp about 30 minutes later and hit the trail ourselves.
We filled our water bottles with Baptist Church water and slogged through the marshy lowlands. We had only hiked a little ways when we reached a road, and here was our hiker friend, Dewayne, that we had met earlier that morning. He had been at this road for about 30 minutes trying to decide which way to go. He couldn't find any of the blazes. We looked around and couldn't see any, either. We came up with a plan. I hiked one direction, Dewayne hiked the other, and Vicki would wait at the last point in the trail that we were sure of. In just 5 minutes, Dewayne had found another blaze.
It was almost a blessing for us that he had not yet found the blaze before we arrived. It might have taken longer for us to have found the route by ourselves. We proceeded down the paved road, spotting a blaze every once in a while. We were passing several houses along this road.
We were approaching a trailer house when we heard dogs barking. When we looked in the direction of the noise, we saw 3 huge dogs headed right at us. This had not been a good 24 hours. As the dogs approached our friend, who had been in the lead, he turned around and started to hastily retreat. I knew better. Never turn your back on one of these animals. I had a walking stick in my hand and was preparing to break it over the most aggressive dogs head. Just my luck, a rottweiller.
As I raised my walking stick, the dog stopped about 10 feet in front of me. Barking and salivating, he looked like he wanted me for lunch. It took a step toward me when I pulled a Jeff Foxworthy. In my loudest and meanest voice I yelled, "getonouddahere." At the sound of my voice the rottweiller turned and sprinted a few feet away, then stopped and turned on me again. I was on a roll so I continued to yell as I raised my walking stick and advanced on my adversary. He continued his retreat.
My heart was pounding like crazy. I got lucky, again. I took off my pack, unzipped the outside pocket and produced a small canister of pepper spray. I held it ready to use, it might not have helped, but it made me feel better. The three of us continued on together for a ways before Dewayne hiked on ahead of us. We later caught up and passed him as he was having lunch. We don't hike as fast as most other hikers, but we hike consistantly, so we make pretty good milage. We never saw him again.
We thought there would be water at Moreland Gap Shelter, but couldn't find it. We pushed on. It is amazing how your search for water is foremost in your mind out here. You can go several days without food, but water is necessary. I don't even like being extremely thirsty. There was supposed to be water not to far past the shelter, but again we couldn't find it. We didn't know where the energy came from, but, we almost flew up the next hill to where an old abandoned tower was. And kept flying right passed it. We didn't want to be caught out there that night without water. We had to find some.
By now we were carefully rationing what water we had left. Before we got to the road we found a stream. Hallelujah!!! WATER!! But it was getting on in the day and we wanted to get to a camp site. At a previous shelter we had seen a printed page advertising a camping place at Dennis Cove. We decided to give it a try. The sign at the road pointed us 1/2 mile down the road to the place. We didn't know what to expect. Finally arrived at the place to find a huge gate across the road. Locked. D__N! D__N! D__N! Half of a mile out of our way and it's closed. I'm cussing pretty loudly by now. As we turned to leave, a kindly looking middle aged man comes out waving his arms to get our attention. It is the owner. They just keep the gate locked, they're really open. We go in.
We are the only ones there. Here it is late in the hiking season, and these people have had this campground opened for only a week. Not a bad place. They have a little store for supplies, a nice little stream right there, they serve hamburgers, hotdogs, and other hiker friendly meals. They will also prepare quite a nice evening meal for you. But get ready to pay for it. They also provide, for a fee, shuttle service into town. This was a nice place to kick back for an evening. We liked it enough to stay another night.
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