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Thursday, May 22, 2003
The thunder was rolling and rain was pouring when we got up. We covered up
and walked 1.3 mi to Chestoa Bridge over the Nolichucky River and back on the
trail. The muddy trail got sloppier and slipperier. On a step downhill Ken grabbed a 4 inch tree trunk with his left hand. Crack, crack crash! It broke off and the tree toppled! Adrenaline! We both jumped and ran.
We are glad that we are here, but are beginning to remember desert hiking with fondness!
Friday, May 23, 2003
Today was tough hiking. Besides having to climb steeply up Roan Mountain the trail was a mess. The parts that weren't rocky were very sloppy with mud. It seemed you had to concentrate on where to put each foot step. We saw lots of rhodas in bloom before it started raining. After the rain it was hard to look up to see them. After a long, difficult day of hiking, we came to Stan Murray Shelter. To our great surprise there was no one at the shelter. It was late, cold and foggy. We decided to eat at the shelter, but neither of us was sure we wanted to stay in the shelter. We looked for a place for our tent. Nothing. Just as we finished eating the rains came. The decision was made for us. We scurried to get everything into the dry shelter. We spread out all over the shelter. It was a good, dry night.
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Later in the day we were hiking up a narrow valley and met 5 horses. Three came up to Ken to see if he would feed them. Then a wobbly foal walked up to Ken. Turned into a great day for livestock. Hiking was better today, but the trails were still a bit muddy. No rain
though!
Sunday, May 25, 2003
We really are not all the way to Hampton yet. Rain, socializing and slow trail made us behind. Then we followed Jeff and Christy and their young sons Jeff and Brad on a quick way to town. Hot food sounded too good. We also have been hungry and think it is time to carry more food. So tomorrow we will go back to where we got off the trail so we do not miss anything. The funniest part is that Linda A sent us a hilarious posting by Cuss who was complaining about Pond Mtn and that is the part we didn't hike yet! Late in the day as we were hiking to Laurel Creek Falls with lots of tourists we heard "Ken? Marcia?" Aussie Crawl hiked the PCT with us and last saw us in Idylwild! Patience was slacking with him. Small world. Patience has been writing in the registers for us to hurry and catch her. She hiked a 30 mile day to get to a shelter to spend the Sabbath doing no work, so Saturday was a zero day for her. We caught her a day later. Ken really liked the rhodas, flame azaleas and Mtn Laurel on the ridges today. We crossed innumerable creeks, each trickling with pure sweet water. Rocks in this boggy, moist area wear sparkling green velvet coats of moss. We are 55 miles from Virginia, state #4 on the AT.
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Last updated: 07/09/08 .
Rangers had a controlled burn on 4/15 on the AT in Cherokee NF. In the interim
5 weeks the forest has restored itself to an incredible degree. All this rain
helps, but the forest floor was a mass of new small greenery, Rhodas were
blooming (buds must have been tightly shut and higher than the low burn). This
forest is most similar to WA forest, almost a rain forest.
The highlight of today was seeing a herd of longhorn cattle at the top of
Houston Ridge. The horns on the big bulls were as big as any that we have ever
seen. We hiked to within 15 feet of the cattle and they were not disturbed. Got
some great pictures!