12.8 Miles
Back on the trail at last. For this section of the walk, Richard and I plan on going from Green Rd. in Tennessee to Damascus Virginia and call it quits for this year. In addition we are planning on doing the hike different. We will be doing what is known as slack packing a lot. We will park a vehicle where we plan on starting the day and another where we plan on ending the day, then hike from one vehicle to the other with only a day pack which has water, food and rain gear. We will not be taking any of the other gear that will be needed for overnight camping. Looking at maps of this section of the trail we should be able to do this a lot.
We start today by dropping off Richard's vehicle at Max Patch. While at Max Patch, Richard sees two men, that we saw in the restaurant at breakfast, and starts talking with them. They were replacing fence that is used to keep vehicles off Max Patch. The fence was torn down so that emergency vehicles could get up close to the top of Max Patch. A young woman was struck by lightning there, earlier this year.
At Green Road we start off with a 1300 foot climb for the first two miles, after that it was up and down with several 500 and 600 ft/mile climbs. Unlike earlier this year, everything was green, we were walking in a green tunnel. The most amazing thing on this section was the mushrooms; they are all different colors (reds, browns yellows and colors in between). Some mushrooms when mature die and rot. At this point they smell like rotting flesh; flies love them. When the flies land on them and eat, they leave with mushroom spore on their bodies and spread the mushrooms' fungus. And the life cycle goes on.
Starting out this leg: Green Rd., TN
Colorful mushrooms along the trail
Due to the foliage there was little breeze so the air was warm and very humid. One spot where there is a clearing was at a Bald, called Snow Bird. There was a cool breeze that is almost chilly due to our clothes that were wet from sweat. At Snow Bird there was a navigation station that is used by airplanes. From Snow Bird we drop into Deep Gap where we stop to get water and eat lunch at Ground Hog Creek Shelter. At the shelter there were hundreds of butterflies, it was a beautiful sight. Prior to leaving the shelter a group of young boys (12 to 15 years of age) come up followed by three riders on horses. Horses are not supposed to be on this section of the trail. The boys planned on staying the night at the shelter. We were glad we were not staying at the shelter.
Snow Bird Bald
From Deep Gap we still had 5.6 miles to hike. After being lazy for 3 months our butts were dragging, and our hiking time showed it. It took almost four hours. To make matters worse, the drive back to Green Road to pick up my vehicle took well over 2 hours due to an accident on I-40. We got back to the motel at 11:00 pm - a long day. The first day and 12.8 miles down. We will be taking 8-8-10 off to recoup.
Jerry-I'm so glad you're back at it and hope that good luck follows you and Richard to this years stopping point. I was talking with Doug Reese and he said to say hello and I'm forwarding the link to him so he can follow.
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