10.6 miles
7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Raining again. We
stuffed our wet stuff into our backpacks and left the campsite by 7:00
a.m. It was very foggy as we crossed
over another knob that could very easily have been Beauty Spot. We never were sure exactly where Beauty Spot was,
several places in this area could have been labeled that.
We met a young man on the trail who was visibly upset and
was crying about something. He muttered
something about Damascus and I said yes, we were headed to Damascus. He told us that there had been a tragic event
at Field Days in Damascus. An elderly
man in an old Cadillac plowed into the parade and struck several people. He
knew some of the people and he had to keep going, and with that he hurried on
down the trail. ( http://bigstory.ap.org/article/witnesses-car-strikes-crowd-va-parade)
We had not heard any news out here on the trail, so we didn’t know anything
about this incident.
We came to Curley Maple Shelter and had trouble determining
where the trail went from there. There
were several paths leading away from the shelter, as usual. One usually went to water, one to the privy,
or in this case - there being no privy – to the toilet area. We went on down one of the trails and finally
found a white blaze.Curley Maple Shelter |
Sitting beside the beautiful creek. |
Lots of bridges like this in this area. |
On the final descent, Wait-up took his boot off to check why
his feet were hurting so bad. Look at
the picture and you can see why. The wet boots, socks, and feet for the last couple
of days lead to some blisters for both of us.
The first time we have had this problem.
After the final climb up and down, we crossed the railroad tracks and then the bridge going over the Nolichucky River and this time approached Uncle Johnny’s hostel from the north. Got there at 1:00 – always a welcome event to finish early in the day and have time to rest up. Plus, it gives us time to move on up the highway and find a place to stay and leave our car. This time we drove up to Roan Mountain Road where we had a semi-private room in the hostel of Mountain Harbour. Good thing we called ahead, space was at a premium every night there.
Oops, blisters! |
After the final climb up and down, we crossed the railroad tracks and then the bridge going over the Nolichucky River and this time approached Uncle Johnny’s hostel from the north. Got there at 1:00 – always a welcome event to finish early in the day and have time to rest up. Plus, it gives us time to move on up the highway and find a place to stay and leave our car. This time we drove up to Roan Mountain Road where we had a semi-private room in the hostel of Mountain Harbour. Good thing we called ahead, space was at a premium every night there.
Crossing the railroad tracks before coming back into Erwn. |
The trail crosses the Nolichucky River bridge. |
The Nolichucky River. |
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