We started off the trip by taking Charles' youngest son, Eli, to a church camp out near Hendersonville, NC. On the way there we stopped off at King's Mountain National Military Park, which commemorated a Revolutionary War battle between Loyalist and Revolutionary Militias. This was one of the battles that convinced Cornwallis he wasn't going to be successful in the Carolinas and that he should go up to Yorktown, VA. The rest was history.
http://www.nps.gov/archive/kimo/home.htm
We learned a new term at the park: The Over the Mountain Boys. These were the settlers that were on the western side of the mountains in SC and NC and chose to stay out of the Revolutionary War, until they were rallied by British atrocities in Carolinas. They gathered and surrounded a British Loyalist unit at King's Mountain and routed them.
British COL Patrick Ferguson was the British officer that led the Loyalists as they moved through the Carolinas, he is also the officer that promised to burn the farms and chase down the Over the Mountain Boys. From the web page: "Kings Mountain National Military Park commemorates a pivotal and significant victory by American Patriots over American Loyalists during the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War. The battle fought on October 7, 1780 destroyed the left wing of Cornwallis' army and effectively ended Loyalist ascendance in the Carolinas. The victory halted the British advance into North Carolina, forced Lord Cornwallis to retreat from Charlotte into South Carolina, and gave General Nathanael Greene the opportunity to reorganize the American Army."Eli was delivered safely to the camp and we proceeded to Fontana Dam to link up with Dave, my hiking buddy from 2006. We spent the night in the shelter at Fontana Dam, getting up and meeting Dave at the Dam.
Dave gave us a ride from Fontana down to Mooney Gap, NC, south of Franklin. Our original hiking plan was:
Big Spring Shelter to Siler Bald Shelter 12.8 m Monday
Siler Bald Shelter to Cold Spring Shelter 12.1 m Tuesday
Cold Spring Shelter to Rufus Morgan Shelter 10.7 m or
US 19 NOC (I think) 11.5 m Wednesday
US 19 to Brown Fork Shelter 16 m Thursday
Brown Fork Shelter to Fontana 11.6 m Friday
The happy group at the beginning of the hike: John, Bill, me and Charles.You will note that the original plan called for about 64 miles of hiking, and the original plan was a pretty mellow plan, only one day over 16 miles, Thursday, with an easy day on Wednesday either staying at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC), which is where the trail crosses over the Nantahala River and there is a tourist/rafting area with an outfitter, a couple of restaurants and a hostel. The big lesson I learned in 2008 was to take it easy and don't try to knock out too many big mile days, especially south of the Smokies.
The original plan lasted all of about 5 seconds after our first stop with Dave. As we were going up the approach road, we ran across a point on the trail where the AT crossed the road, Bill decided to just "start hiking there", which would be OK, but the dropoff point was about 800 feet (we had to go over Albert Mountain) lower in elevation than the original dropoff point. So, we added two miles and 800 feet to the hike. For the un-AT-initiated, Albert Mountain is a very steep, rocky section of the trail, some serious ups and downs. It was one of the mountains that convinced me that I should leave the trail in 2008.
We ended up stopping about a mile short of Siler Bald Shelter, making up one of the miles we added to the hike. We camped short of Swinging Lick Gap. The next morning we hit Siler Bald, where we ran into a couple of scoutmasters that were out for a dayhike while the rest of their troop was hiking another section of the trail. We had a good chat, and kept on hiking. We stopped for lunch at Wayah Bald, where there is a stone tower that was built in the 30's.
From Wayah Bald we hit Cold Spring Shelter after a bit more hiking. At the shelter we ran into a Boy Scout troop, two sisters from Salina, KS and an FBI Agent with his two sons from Florida. We elected not to stay in the shelter with the Boy Scout troop and two female hikers and stayed up on the ridge with the FBI agent and his two sons. They were about 8 and 10, and dad was trying his hardest to introduce his sons to the great outdoors.
That night, we discussed the options about the NOC, stop before it and hit it early on Thursday, stay there on Wednesday and enjoy a relaxing middle of the hike break (my vote) or hike past it a couple of miles to avoid the crowds and enjoy a little more nature. Not that I am against nature, but I believe there is more to the trail than nature, seeing everything that is around the trail is important as well, especially if there is a shower, restaurant and a hostel. Nothing wrong with a little luxury. I was voted down and we decided to hike a couple of miles (up a big hill) to a campsite.
Wednesday morning we hit Wesser Bald, where there was an observation shelter, providing pretty good views of the Smoky Mountains.
The cool thing about the towers and balds is that you can look back along the trail and see where you came from, which is cool, and see where you are going, which can be disturbing.
We hit the trail again heading towards Wesser Bald Shelter, where we watered up and kept going on towards the NOC. We hit the NOC about noon, played around in the water, got some gatorade (no riptide rush :-(), and had lunch. After lunch, we sat for about an hour where the rest of the group started to scheme . . . why walk only part way up the mountain after lunch, it is only two miles, why not go a full 6.9 miles past the NOC and get to the top of the hill on the other side of the gap? Remember, we walked 11 and change to get to the NOC, so this would be about 18 miles, I resisted, but the other folks in the group firmly believed that was a good plan.
7 miles and 2000 feet up later, the group's collective ass was kicked by a wicked up. John and I got there a little bit before Charles and Bill so we went and got some water. Charles came in and about 20 minutes later Bill came in and declared that his new hiking daily limit was 16 miles. We were a little concerned about Bill because he didn't move around a whole lot for about 30 minutes, but he let us know that he was OK:
Bill: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Group: Bill, are you OK?
Bill: Unnnnnnnnnhhhhhnnnnnhhhhuuuuuh
Group: Do you require medical assistance?
Bill: Unnnnnnohhhhhnnnnnnuuuuuuhhhhhhh
Group: Do you need some water?
Bill: Unnnnnnnyahhhhnnnnnnnnotnnnnnnnnnnownnnnnnnnthohhhhhhh
In the words of Smokey, the ancient Peony Park accountant: "I wish I would have had my camera on . . ."
We hit the trail on Thursday, rested and as fresh as you can be on the AT. Up over Cheoah Balk (a mere 700 feet uphill) and headed towards Cody Gap for our next night. Along the way we leapfrogged with the Boy Scout Troop once or twice and the two sisters from Salina, KS. For the record, the sisters were walking slow, but they were carrying a lot of stuff. There are two ways to walk the trail, with a lot of stuff and slow, or with not a lot of stuff and not slow. I choose the latter everytime. We decided to lunch at Brown Fork Gap Shelter, and got there about 2 PM.
We started lunch while we waited on Bill, once he showed up, Charles and John headed down to the water hole to do the watering up, I finished off my lunch (pepperoni's, cheese whiz and tortillas) and then headed down to the spring. I got down there, started chatting and saw a HUGE TIMBER RATTLER on the log, about 2 feet behind John, who didn't see it. As soon as I saw it, Charles saw it and we moved away from it quickly.
We figure that the snake had just eaten, and was laying low because we were much larger than him. John had put some empty bottles behind him, closer to the snake and was about to reach back to get them. Very scary moment in retrospect. We moved down the spring a little bit and finished off with the watering task and then went back up to the shelter, Bill made a sign and I put an entry in the log book about the snake. Just as we were getting ready to roll, the advanced guard of the Boy Scout troop showed up, Charles showed them the snake, they were pretty good about not messing with it, and they basically sat and watched it for a while. Just as we were rucking up, one of their scoutmasters showed up, we showed him the snake so we could leave with a clear conscious.
Friday's hike was pretty un-eventful, we were heading downhill mostly (in my opinion, much more painful than an uphill) and heading to were the truck was parked and a hot water shower. Charles got there first and got the truck all opened up, John rolled in next and hit the shower, I waited til he got done. There is an old adage: You can take the boy out of the mountain, but not the mountain out of the boy. When John got done with his shower, he walked across the parking lot wearing his boxer briefs and a smile. Luckily, there was only one couple that I had to apologize to for his lack of clothing, the wife said not to worry, she raised 3 boys herself and had seen it all.
All in all, a good hike, I am glad to be done with that part of the trail, it is reputed to be the toughest part of the trail. On to Watagua and Damascus.
Couple of NC Tourism points:
If you are in Hendersonville, NC (where Eli's church camp was) take the time to go to DuPont State Park and look at the waterfalls, very pretty. While in Hendersonville, stop at the Hendersonville Hot Dog World, great hot dogs and fries, perfect to fatten you up after a good hike.
Back to work tomorrow morning, sigh. At least I got the pictures and some smelly socks.
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