Beauty Spot to Erwin, Southbound

May 19, 2013
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.

From here there was about 4 miles of leisurely walking beside a creek.  Aw – nice!  We met a couple of men coming to meet us going north who said we would coast into Erwin the rest of the way.  Well - it didn’t quite turn out that way because there was the dreaded one last UP before we got to the railroad tracks.  We also met Harry for the first time coming out of Erwin going north.  He spoke in broken English and asked us how far to the shelter.  We told him but I’m not sure he understood.  More about Harry later; we saw him many times on the trail after today. 

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. 

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.