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Trip Report( kind of long)
Hello everyone,
Just got back from a couple of days out on the trail and thought some of you
might enjoy hearing about it.
My hiking partner and I started off around 2am. Thurs. morning and drove 5
hours to get to Cherokee Natl. Forrest. We left the car at a picnic area on
Round Knob and started up an off road vehicle trail that leads to the AT.
This trail is about 2 miles long and uphill the entire way, not a lot of fun
when you have only had a couple of hours sleep. But we finnaly made it to
the top and the AT. We started getting a bit worried as we approached the
top of the ridge because it seemed we were climbing over more and more trees
that had been blown down by Opal, and although we had heard good reports
about this area of the trail, we had to wonder what its condition would be.
Soon after reaching the trail our fears were relieved as we saw evidence of
the hard work of the Carolina Mountain Club all around us, if anything most
of the trail was clearer than it had been on my last trip to this area in
July. We soon passed the Jerry's Cabin shelter and decided that we would
hike to the Flint Mountin shelter at least. The weather was perfect, the sun
would almost blind you as you walked out of the dark forest on to one of the
balds. It was simply perfect. We reached Big Butt mountain (at least that's
what they called it on the map we had) which was as far north on the trail
as we had been, and had lunch as we enjoyed the view from the boulders on
the summit. Shortly after we started back hiking we came across 3 other
hikers who said they were out for a few days. They asked us where we were
headed and said that we should make good time as it was downhill almost the
entire way. They were right. It was down hill, in most areas a very steep
down hill, which didn't seem so bad until we remembered that we had to hike
backout the same way we came in, which would be straight up hill. Anyway we
made it to the Flint Mountain shelter and decided to call it quits there.
The next morning we awoke to warm tempratures and sunshine, but we knew it
wouldn't last as we could see some extremely high clouds moving by so fast
it was hard to follow them. When we finnaly got back to the summit of Big
Butt (which seemed to take forever, 4 miles doesn't seem to bad unless it's
up hill the entire way) the wind was gusting so hard as to make walking
difficult. We continued down the other side of the mountain and passed a
hunter along the way, 30 mins. or so later we passed what we figure was one
of his dogs. We didn't notice for quite a while that the dog was following
us, but he must have enjoyed our company because he went all the way to the
shelter with us. We stopped at Jerry's Cabin to take a rest and about 2
mins. later heavy rain joined the strong wind. It didn't take to long to
decide that this was the place to spend the night, and not the other
destination we had planned on. We read the register and built a fire in the
fireplace and decided to make dinner. Macaroni and cheese was on the menu
and we were both starved. In no time flat we had two boxes of mac and cheese
cooked up and we started to eat, it soon became obvious that our eyes had
been bigger than our stomaches. Stuffed, somewhat chilly, and in no mood to
clean dishes our minds started working. This was our last night out and we
wouldn't be needing the pans the next day, so why not let someone else clean
them for us? A couple of whistles and "here boy"s later the dog we had
somehow adopted came out from underneath the platform and started to eat. He
ate like he hadn't seen food in weeks and it still tooj him almost 30 mins.
to finish it off. I think he finnaly stoped eating more from jaw fatigue
than being full. My partner had been short of money before the trip and was
forced to take a poncho instead of any kind of rain suit, and while I was a
bit concerned about this before we left I became quite happy about it while
sitting in Jerry's Cabin. The wind was still howling and the rain was still
falling and we were starting to get a bit chilly until we thought of
covering half of the front of the shelter with his poncho. Soon we were just
about as comfortable as we could get with the fire roaring and the wind kept
at bay by a blaze orange poncho. We climbed into our sleeping bags and said
goodnight hoping the temprature wouldn't drop too far durring the night, but
our hopes didn't come true. We woke to sub-freezing tempratures and frost on
the ground. We got packed and back on the trail in record time and were soon
fairly warm from the activity, which was a good thing, I would of hated to
have still been feeling cold when I saw those snowflakes start falling from
the sky. Ok, it was only light flurries but I'm not use to snow in October,
so this was special for me. We got back to the car and drove back to our
homes, showered and went to work. I'ts still hard for me believe that I was
hiking the AT this morning and at my job this afternoon.
Anyway, I'm still pretty new at backpacking, but I have already decided to
do a thru-hike in 97, I wanted to take this trip so as to get some
experience at hiking in cold weather, which I have never done before.
Mission accomplished :)
E. George Oeser
(still lookin for a trail name)
synergy@nc5.infi.net