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[at-l] Trip Report--long

Last Sun., my husband, John, his sister and her husband, a cousin and I got a
shuttle and headed for TN 91. We had planned a four-day trip back to Damascus.
This is much slower than usual for this easy section, but the in-laws not only
are from the flatlands of Florida, they had been doing a lot more fishing than
hiking and wanted no more than about five miles a day.

It was great hiking weather if you like cool, and I do. About 42 degrees and
cloudy. This was an easy day with only a few short ups. We stopped at Double
Springs Shelter, where we skimmed through some register entries. On 5-26 a
bear sighting was reported --on the trail, not at the shelter.

At one point, hiking along, I sort of "came to" and had a feeling I'd been
hiking forever and would keep on doing it. This was not forever in the sense
of being tired or wanting to be at camp, but forever in the sense that this is
what I am about, this is what I do and will keep on doing. It was a fantastic
state and the neatest thing I've ever experienced while hiking. Of course,
once I was aware of it, it was gone, but I hope it'll be back.

That made me think of how only a few steps on a trail and all the job
stresses, frustrations, impatience and anger wash away. As though Dogbert
waves his wand and says "Out! Out! Demons of stupidity," and it actually
works.

Had some great views of Shady Valley. We went about 5.6 miles and camped at an
old homestead with a spring. It was a pleasant spot and well off the trail.
Later we heard people on horseback. When I was reading some of the earlier
posts about bikes and horses, I thought of all the damage we saw the next day
. On the wet trail, the horse's feet often had torn great holes or made long
slides.

We slept well, though I woke up once thinking I heard a bear snuffling around
the tents. Turned out to be Cousin Jerry snoring. :-) Next day, the short
mileage gave us a chance for a second cup of coffee and easy going. It was
another great day--about 55 degrees. Lots of different kinds of woods--all
beautiful. Sometimes fields of ferns, sometimes deep hemlocks. We saw a
Scarlet Tanager.

We spent Monday night at the Abingdon Gap Shelter, about 10 miles from
Damascus, having passed up the Holiday Inn at McQueens Knob. ;-) There were
Boy Scouts in the shelter, but lovely, level tent sites among the trees. We
had just a bit of rain, but it soon let up and we built a fire. There was an
existing fire ring, so we were guilt-free. We had a good evening around the
fire telling jokes and stories. We didn't know how far the Scouts had come
that day, but they seemed worn out from the time they arrived. We enjoyed
visualizing the irony of them muttering to themselves about the adults
laughing too much and keeping them awake.

I got a dehydrator for Christmas, and this trip proved its worth. First night
we had dried steak (an idea I got from somebody on the list) cooked with
onions, green peppers and mushrooms (they were all dried too) over rice. Next
night was chicken, mushrooms, and broccoli with broccoli/cheese pasta. Course,
my husband sez "Oh no! Now we even have broccoli when we're hiking!" ;-)

We got water the next morning even though a shelter entry said, "Don't go down
the hill (275 yards-steep) for water. It ain't worth it!"  Probably written by
one of those Scouts. This day's hiking was nice too. Again, lots of variety
and easy trail. There were a few long climbs, but easy grades and there were
lots of long flat areas. This is mostly along ridge top. In fact, my husband
and I are thinking of coming back Thanksgiving when the leaves are off the
trees. The views will be fantastic.

It started to rain after about an hour and kept on with a hard steady downpour
all day. We took our breaks under Hemlock trees so we could be pretty well
sheltered. Even so, the hiking was so easy that we were surprised to find
ourselves just four miles out of Damascus at 1:00. It didn't take much to
convince the Florida folks that hiking on in would be more fun than camping in
the steady rain. We could already hear the pizza calling.

The very last stretch of the trail was the steepest, with lots of switchbacks.
Here, the woods looked like loggers had been at work. We learned later from a
maintainer that the storms, especially heavy snow in March, had brought down
such a large number of trees. The maintainers had put in a lot of work.

It was a fun trip and we had a great time. Next year's family gathering will
probably be from TN 91 south through Laurel Fork Gorge. We took the long way
home to Kentucky and went through that area. It's beautiful. All we could do
not to start hiking right then.
Sally
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