Appalachian Trail Section hiking: Spivey Gap

May 17, 2013
11.2 miles
7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

The benefit of camping in the woods vs. staying at a hostel is the early start in the morning. We were on the trail by 7:00 a.m. and had a mostly downhill walk. I say “mostly downhill” because I have learned never to say “downhill all the way.” There is no way it can happen in the mountains. But today was relatively easy and mostly downhill back to the Nolichucky River in Erwin where we had parked our car.

No Business Knob Shelter

We passed No Business Knob Shelter and saw our first Mountain Laurels in bloom.

We heard the train in Erwin long before we got there. The view of the river below us and the train track running across it was a beautiful sight, so I took lots of pictures of it. It’s funny that you can see what is below you a LONG time before you get there.

A look at the Erwin train track going over the river.

The weather got warmer the lower we descended until we were sweating pretty good by the time we got there. A nice cold Pepsi from the machine was a welcome treat.

There was a train on the track, it seems to run quite often.

We went to the Holiday Inn Express and checked in for the night before heading out to eat at The Farmer’s Daughter restaurant south of Erwin. Aww – the most food we have eaten in a long time, family style service. Awesome!

The sign where the trail crosses the highway at the Nolichucky River.

May 16, 2013
13.4
8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

We’ve been to Sam’s Gap before. In March when we started at I40 north of the Smokies, we intended to hike all the way to Erwin, but stopped at Sam’s Gap because of the weather and because of sickness of relatives at home. At that time, we came to Sam’s Gap and went south to Log Cabin Road after camping on Big Butt in the snow. This time, we will be hiking north to Erwin.

Sams' Gap

Entering the trail at Sam's Gap going north.

We had a young shuttle driver from Uncle Johnny’s take us to Sam’s Gap. We started up the hill from the gap at 8:30, elevation 3850. It was up most of the way to Big Bald, elevation 5516. We were, of course, tired when we got to the top of the bald and sat down to rest. In a few minutes, here came a family – mom, dad, and three kids running around and a baby in a backpack on dad’s back. They looked like they had all the energy in the world after coming up to the bald, and it wasn’t their first time up there. They were on vacation and had hiked up to the bald the day before as well, but this time they said they had found a road that had put them pretty close to the top. They took our picture with the sunglassed pole before we moved on down the other side of the bald.

We went downhill for 1.5 miles, then started going back up to Little Bald. When we started descending again we thought it was for the last time before reaching Spivey Gap, but NO! When we saw The Trail to High Rocks we knew we had 2 more miles to go before the gap, so we stopped at a campsite for the night. Do you think we took the trail to the high rocks? NOT!