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Damascus to Fontana

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    • Damascus to Fontana

      I'll post some pictures in a day or two, but here's the "Tale of the Tape":

      Zeros taken: 0
      Neros: 4 total, 9.2 miles, 11.6 miles, 11.0 miles, and 10.7 miles
      Miles Hiked: 282.3
      Miles Yellow Blazed 23.9 more on this later
      Avg MPD 14.85
      Snakes: 1 black
      Turkeys: 12
      Deer: 6
      Bears Seen: 1
      Bears Heard: 3
      Coyotes Heard: 3?
      Screech Owls Heard: 20 +
      Longest day : 20.3 miles
      4000 ft peaks: 22
      4500 ft peaks: 14
      5000 ft peaks: 12
      5500 ft peaks: 10
      6000 ft peaks: 7
      6500 ft peaks: 2
      Days Hiked : 19
      Days Beer/Shots of Moonshine and/or whiskey consumed: 19
      Blisters: 0
      Toenails lost: 2
      Fun Had: Infinite
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference
    • jimmyjam wrote:

      I'll post some pictures in a day or two, but here's the "Tale of the Tape":

      Zeros taken: 0
      Neros: 4 total, 9.2 miles, 11.6 miles, 11.0 miles, and 10.7 miles
      Miles Hiked: 282.3
      Miles Yellow Blazed 23.9 more on this later
      Avg MPD 14.85
      Snakes: 1 black
      Turkeys: 12
      Deer: 6
      Bears Seen: 1
      Bears Heard: 3
      Coyotes Heard: 3?
      Screech Owls Heard: 20 +
      Longest day : 20.3 miles
      4000 ft peaks: 22
      4500 ft peaks: 14
      5000 ft peaks: 12
      5500 ft peaks: 10
      6000 ft peaks: 7
      6500 ft peaks: 2
      Days Hiked : 19
      Days Beer/Shots of Moonshine and/or whiskey consumed: 19
      Blisters: 0
      Toenails lost: 2
      Fun Had: Infinite
      I forgot one stat:

      Shelters stayed in: 0
      That's right, we managed to tent our way even thru the Smokys.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference
    • Part 1 Damascus to Erwin

      123 miles, 8days. This sections starts with a nice gentle climb of 1,865 feet upto the ridge. Three days of ridge walking brought us down to WataugaLake which was over 10 ft low. We got cleaned up at the new “BootsOff Hostel” just across US321. Had a bear run back and forth huffing and puffing about 2 am on the other side of a 4 ft fence about 30 feet away from my tent. I had my M-80 firecracker in one hand and my lighter in other ready to toss it at him if he came over the fence ( the Watauga Lake Shelter has been closed for over a yeardue to a problem bear and we apparently found him). The bear finally went away and I went back to sleep.
      The next morning we had what looked like a fierce climb of 1,790 feet in 3miles followed by a decent of the same ( we nicknamed the mountain Madonna's Teet because that's what it looks like on the profile map),but there where switchbacks and it was an easy morning. After lunchwe had a 2,261 ft climb up to Moreland Gap Shelter. The next day we walked 18.4 miles and stopped at the Mountain House B & B on 19E.Great place and we met some sobo thrus that we would leap frog withall the way to Fontana.
      A big climb of2,564 out of the gap at 19E, over Doll Flats and Hump Mountain. The next day we made it to the Overmountain Shelter the famous “RedBarn” where camped in the meadow next to it with a fantastic viewof the valley opening up before us. Over night it started to rain. We hiked all the next day in the rain and decided to take the .6 (HaHa)side trail down to Greasy (Creepy) Creek Friendly Hostel. Strangest place I have ever stayed. Way over .6 off the trail down a steep baseball size rock covered trail. It was Friday so the owner kept going on and on about how she had to get our laundry started before the sun set because it was her Sabbath. After an hour of talking about it she finally pushed the button on the machine which took1-1/2 hours to do one load. Then she went to town and her partner had to wait until she returned before he would take the clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer. At 10:30pm we finally had our clothes back. During this time the owner drank about 6 or 9 glasses of wine.
      The next day it was raining more so we opted to shuttle up to the trail head at Iron Mountain Gap, skipping 4 miles of trail and the awful mile walk backup the “baseball trail”. It rained hard and sideways with a constant 30 mph wind and gusts probably approaching 50 mph when crossed over the bald. We marched all day stopping only once to eat lunch and once to grab water a 20.3 mile day. The rain stopped aboutan hour before to Erwin. We pulled into Uncle Johnny's Nolichucky Hostel on the river and grabbed bunks in the bunk house. A few minutes later Uncle Johnny shows up asks us if we found a spot and would we like a beer? He had his helper hand us a couple of IceHouses and then asked us if we wanted a beer run- Ummm heck yeah!!!He called his girl to bring us a 6 pack and then handed us a menu to order pizza from. By the time we got out of the showers we had two large pizzas and a 6 pack of Tall Boys waiting for us in the bunkhouse- it just doesn't get any better that that!!
      I can't say enough about Uncle Johnny and his southern hospitality, he treated us like family.

      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference

      The post was edited 1 time, last by jimmyjam: fixed the typos ().

    • Wish I had warned you about Greasy Creek. I did the walk and she was not around so I walked back up and stayed at the next shelter. There was also a viscous dog barking just before you got there.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • Astro wrote:

      Wish I had warned you about Greasy Creek. I did the walk and she was not around so I walked back up and stayed at the next shelter. There was also a viscous dog barking just before you got there.
      She was home when I got there but that's a long off trail walk for what you get, would not do it again.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Drybones ().

    • Damascus to Fontana:Part Two Erwin to Davenport Gap

      Thiswas by far my favorite part of the hike. It was also the mostphysically demanding. 6 days 103.9 miles (22 mile yellow blaze on Day5). Day 1 was of course a big climb up out of the Nolichucky River.But first Uncle Johnny took us into town for a resupply and a bigbreakfast at the local diner. Afterwards I did some repairs on myMYOG backpack. When he saw us packing up, Uncle Johnny said Hey don'tyou want to stick around, I'm going to be doing a lunch shuttleshortly. We could feel the pull of the vortex and it was strong butwe managed to break free and head up the mountain. Uncle Johnny doesa breakfast, lunch and dinner shuttle in addition to resupply runsand beer runs. Great guy and a nice place that has everything and waspretty darn clean for a hostel too. The climb wasn't bad at all, longswitchbacks at a gentle grade. As we did not hit the trail untillunch time we pulled up after 11.6 miles and set up camp at a stealthspot just south of Spivey Gap that Uncle Johnny told us about. A2,000 ft climb for the day.
      Thenext day we continued the climb up over Little Bald at 5,220 ft andthen we conquered Big Bald 5,515 ft and desended some down toHogback Ridge Shelter and camped. Fantastic views that day but a hard15.3 miles.
      Day3 We leap frogged with some sobo 20s Frog, Whistler, Woodchuck andWhite Gurl. We discovered a new hostel “ Arrowhead at Laurel Creek”and chowed down on $5 cheeseburgers and $3 hotdogs and packed out acomplimentary beer a piece for dinner. ;-). Camped at Jerry's cabinShelter that night. At 4 am Mr Squirrel or Mr Chipmunk jumped out ofa tree and onto my tent and slid down it and ran off thru the leaves,it gave me a start.
      Day4 we met up with sobos 20's Splinter, 4.0 and PJ who were trying tocatch up and pass the other sobos we had been hiking with ( they didcatch them the next day, sneaking up on them and tagging them andsaying “your it” HaHa). Had a ridge walk followed by a longdownhill into Allen Gap, a 2,516 desent over about six miles. Walkedup the road to “Moms” a dilapadated general store with no waterbut it had ice cream and YooHoos. Got some trail magic in the parkinglot from a nobo sectioner in the form of double stuff oreos. Wewaddled down the road to the trail head and proceeded our short butsteep climb up out of the gap. Stopped at Spring Mountain Shelter andcamped on a great knoll over looking the shelter with perfectly flatspots. Met a sectioner who was camped beside the shelter on an awfulspot and invited him up to our camp.
      Day5 Got up and engaged our “Beer Gear” and barreled the 11 milesinto Hot Springs. Straight to the tavern for burgers & beer. Thenwe checked into the Laughing Heart Hostel. Great place, clean andonly one other small group of 3 there. We showered and did laundryand were looking at our maps and discussing the the huge climb we hadup out of town and up to Max Patch. The 3 sectioners overheard us andsaid “Hey we're hiking that piece over the next two days sobo.We're going up to the top of Max Patch tonight and drop a car- we cangive you a ride up there tonight if you like” Hmmm do we want climb3,000 ft out of town with our packs loaded and cross Max Patch a dayand a half later at noon or do we want to go up there tonight, campunder the Full Moon and see the sun rise in the morning? It took amillisecond for hell yeah we want a ride to come out of my mouth.Hence the the rest of the yellow blazing. We went back to the tavernfor more sandwiches, chicken bites and beers to celebrate.We wouldhave made it in time for a sunset too but google got us lost andtried to take up the wrong side of the mountain. On the way up we sawthe ATC van and asked them if we were on the right the road and wefinally were. We thanked our new friends and a quick .1 mile hike upfrom the parking lot had us on top. Unbelievable, lights tinklingdown in the valleys all around. Set up our tents facing east and dida shot of moonshine to celebrate. The stars and moon were amazing.Awoke at 6 am to a group of 20 something girls seated 20 feet infront our tents giggling nonstop. A STFU came out of my mouth afterabout 30 minutes of this and they moved. At 7:30 ish we were treatedto a great sunrise. About a dozen tents were up there but severaldozen more people had come up in the early morning.
      y6 We did a long desent down to Deep Gap and then back up to 4,263 ft and then back down to 1720 ft at Standing Bear Hostel where we had resupply boxes with the necessary food, bars, a pint and a half of Jim Beam Honey and six 1.5 oz bottles of assorted whisky- our Smoky provisions. on the way down the mountain there were numerous piles of bear skat so i started decorating them and called it "skat art", the hikers behind us got a big laugh out of the "birthday cakes and smiley face. Standing Bear is a rustic place, but it has seen it's better days. The kitchen was crawling with ants, there were maggot in the privy hole and the privy is located less that 30 feet from the creek-HELLO- this is an unsafe practice, and I'm pretty sure the showers drain directly into the creek- gross. On the plus side we camped and there were plenty of PBRs available for a small price. Wewere ready roll out of there in the morning.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference

      The post was edited 3 times, last by jimmyjam ().

    • Part 3: Standing Bear to Fontana:
      Day 1 Got woke up before sunrise by the resident rooster. I would have killed him if I'd been able to find the little turd. Cock-a-doodle -do at sunrise,not an hour before. Anyway it was good to get packed up and away from there. Had breakfast of Belvita flat biscuits and then “Ali” gave us each a Hot Pocket scrambled egg and sausage. Yummy. Thanks “Ali”! We had our packs loaded with 5 to 6 days of food and our resupply of whisky, we were ready to roll. There was a lot of uphill ahead of us,16 miles of it before it would level off.
      If you've not hiked the AT thru the Smokys, let me tell you it's a long long long ass climb up from the north end going sobo and a similar long long long ass climb up from the south going nobo. Once you get that over with the Smokys are probably 90% a ridge walk with little PUDS, pretty easy really. Only a couple of notable climbs or desends after the initial one.
      So that 1st day we did a 3,700 ft climb up out of the @#% gap. Saw lots of day hikers and weekenders. Had a couple of decent views along the way. Stopped after 10.7 miles at Cosby Knob shelter and camped. A bunch of clueless weekenders, about 8, we passed came in just before dark.They had a reservation for the next shelter but couldn't make it there. They were only out for one night and had at least 5 paper grocery bags full of food. A few of them stayed in the shelter,another set up one of those hammocks you'd have at your house, you know the ones with the wooden ends and woven rope. Another set up a huge four person tent right under the bear cables- Hello is there anybody home in there? Unbelievable. About 9 pm our 4 sobo friends we met who zeroed in Hot Springs came in and slept in the dirt in front of the shelter- thank you clueless people not supposed to be there.
      Day 2 we leapfrogged with Frog, White Gurl, Woodchuck and Whistler. Lots of good views. We pulled up after 20.3 miles and camped at Ice Water Shelter. We did the long miles because we did not want to stop at Peck's because we heard there were no camping spots and because the next shelter did not have a good water source. Ice Water Spring, despite it's elevation at 5920 had an excellent spring.
      Day 3 we got up late, had breakfast and went to the spring to fill up and drink up.While Slingshot was at the spring, a doe and two fawns walked right up to have a drink. When he came back to tell us, the doe followed him and grazed on the grass in front of the shelter, 10 ft from us! We had a 3.1 mile downhill to Newfound Gap. On the way down we must have passed over 100 people struggling up the mountain to see Charlie's Bunion. Got down to the gap and what a culture shock. 100S and 100s of people everywhere. We spotted a nobo across the parking lot and across the highway. He was frozen in a stare, apparently shocked like we were at all the people. We waved our arms and he came over. We swapped water intel and general hiker trash talk. We crossed the parking lot and got to the edge of the road. Zip zip zip went the cars. I'm on the edge of the crosswalk and no one is going to stop. I get a small opening and step out and hold my poles up and stop traffic, we scurry across and into the woods.
      A long gentle 8 mile uphill to Clingmans Dome at 6,643 followed. We could hear a few voices as we approached in the green tunnel but had no idea of the hoards of people we would see when we popped of the woods. We dropped packs at the bottom and walked up the ramp and fought our way(actually I think the sea of people parted a little once they got a whiff of us) thru the crowd onto to the observation deck and took pictures. Back down the ramp and into the now familiar safety of the woods.
      We stopped fo rthe day at Silers Bald Shelter with a bunch of weekender types and one sobo thru “Long John”, he was close to 7 ft tall. Very windy all night with a constant 25 to 30 mph wind.
      Day 4 brought more good views and a surprisingly tough hike up Thunderhead Mountain, elevation 5527. After that it was a long gentle downhill to Russel Field Shelter. On the way we saw the biggest two turkeys that I have ever seen. I mean these two looked like a pair of ostriches.They were probably 4 feet from head to tail and 18 “ wide. Tried to get a picture but they cruised thru the heavy underbrush and disappeared in seconds. There was no water to be had south of Russel except for a hike down the mountain at Ekaneetlee gap. At Russel we had another full shelter. We camped out front with Long John. Some “weekenders” came in with a huge 4 or 5 person tent and pitched it right next to Long John, I don't think they bothered him as he wore hearing aids and I'm sure he just took them out and slept soundly. The weekenders all opened up cans of food and cooked in frying pans. When they were done with that they started hanging their backpacks (large Walmart external frames) from the bear cables. I told them you only need to hang your food bag. They said they didn't have one, their food was throughout their backpacks- clueless. Two of them were nice enough after dark to come over and stand between Slingshot's and my tent and talk about the other weekenders for about an hour, thanks guys REALLY all those woods and you have to stand in front of my tent to gossip??? We decided we would get up early and do a little night hiking.
      Day 5 We started hiking around 7:30 am, headlights on for 45 minutes or so.This was our last day and we had thoughts of cold beers, big juicy cheesburgers and a hot shower in that order. It was a long long downhill to Fontana. We tried to hold back for a while, but the speed crept up on us and we had it in a serious Beer Gear before we knew it. 15.5 miles in less than 5 hours and we were across Fontana Dam.No phone signal. We start walking to the lodge. We meet a girl from Utah who had just finished sobo thru the Smoky's an hour before us(she camped at Mollies Ridge last night). She was coming back from up the hill where she had gotten enough signal to call her uber driver to take her to Ashville. We kept walking and trying to hitch to the lodge. No luck. Along comes the same girl with her uber taxi and the offer to take us out of the park and drop us in a town. We were thinking Robinsville, in the process of figuring out directions the driver asks where we are trying to get to. Franklin we say to rent a car. She says well it's just a little (25 miles) out of my way and the other girl says its ok we her. So Trail Magic! We get dropped at Enterprise for only $25! Within 30 minutes after that we are in a diner cold beers in hand and cheeseburgers on the way and it's only like 2pm! After stuffing ourselves we drive back to Crazy Larry's,stopping at Abington for subs and beers to go. Got cleaned up atLarry's, spent the night, returned the rental in Abington in themorning and drove back to my house. Another successful and funLASH!!!
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference

      The post was edited 2 times, last by jimmyjam ().

    • TrafficJam wrote:

      I had a different experience at Uncle Johnnys. I thought it was great but they wouldn't sell me beer and didn't offer to take me into town on a beer run. All I wanted after my hike was one cold beer!
      Were you there "off season" without very many other hikers?
      Or it could be just who was working that day?

      I know my experience was OK, and if I do a thru hike in the future I will plan to stay there again. But my experience was not as memorable as HikerBoy's or JimmyJam's. Like every hostel along the AT I hope they are successful and there to serve future hikers.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • Astro wrote:

      TrafficJam wrote:

      I had a different experience at Uncle Johnnys. I thought it was great but they wouldn't sell me beer and didn't offer to take me into town on a beer run. All I wanted after my hike was one cold beer!
      Were you there "off season" without very many other hikers?Or it could be just who was working that day?

      I know my experience was OK, and if I do a thru hike in the future I will plan to stay there again. But my experience was not as memorable as HikerBoy's or JimmyJam's. Like every hostel along the AT I hope they are successful and there to serve future hikers.
      There were other hikers there. In fact, it was a hiker who gave me the rundown on the shuttle schedule and gave me a menu for pizza delivery. There was beer in a fridge in the store but they couldn't sell it. I asked if anyone was going into town and they weren't. Uncle Johnny, wife, and staff sat on the porch drinking beer but I did not want to ask for a handout.

      I left my little CF bag with drivers license, debit card, and cash in the bathroom. Someone found it and Sarge retuned it to me. I was very thankful for that.
      Lost in the right direction.
    • TrafficJam wrote:

      Astro wrote:

      TrafficJam wrote:

      I had a different experience at Uncle Johnnys. I thought it was great but they wouldn't sell me beer and didn't offer to take me into town on a beer run. All I wanted after my hike was one cold beer!
      Were you there "off season" without very many other hikers?Or it could be just who was working that day?
      I know my experience was OK, and if I do a thru hike in the future I will plan to stay there again. But my experience was not as memorable as HikerBoy's or JimmyJam's. Like every hostel along the AT I hope they are successful and there to serve future hikers.
      There were other hikers there. In fact, it was a hiker who gave me the rundown on the shuttle schedule and gave me a menu for pizza delivery. There was beer in a fridge in the store but they couldn't sell it. I asked if anyone was going into town and they weren't. Uncle Johnny, wife, and staff sat on the porch drinking beer but I did not want to ask for a handout.
      I left my little CF bag with drivers license, debit card, and cash in the bathroom. Someone found it and Sarge retuned it to me. I was very thankful for that.
      Well shame on them for forgetting their manners.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference
    • TrafficJam wrote:

      Astro wrote:

      TrafficJam wrote:

      I had a different experience at Uncle Johnnys. I thought it was great but they wouldn't sell me beer and didn't offer to take me into town on a beer run. All I wanted after my hike was one cold beer!
      Were you there "off season" without very many other hikers?Or it could be just who was working that day?
      I know my experience was OK, and if I do a thru hike in the future I will plan to stay there again. But my experience was not as memorable as HikerBoy's or JimmyJam's. Like every hostel along the AT I hope they are successful and there to serve future hikers.
      There were other hikers there. In fact, it was a hiker who gave me the rundown on the shuttle schedule and gave me a menu for pizza delivery. There was beer in a fridge in the store but they couldn't sell it. I asked if anyone was going into town and they weren't. Uncle Johnny, wife, and staff sat on the porch drinking beer but I did not want to ask for a handout.
      I left my little CF bag with drivers license, debit card, and cash in the bathroom. Someone found it and Sarge retuned it to me. I was very thankful for that.
      betting you didn't look sufficiently disheveled to appear as a real hiker.

      Lest we forget.....



      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC