New Trail: TN 91 to Dennis Cove Road, TN

Watauga Lake

When: April 20 - 22, 2015

Where: Shady Valley, TN (TN 91) to Hampton, TN (Dennis Cove Road USFS 50)

Weather: 2 days of cold spring weather, mostly sunny; last day slight rain

Length: 29.1 miles southbound

Elevation: Cross Mountain Rd. and TN 91, 3525"; Iron Mountain Shelter, 4118'; Vandeventer Shelter, 3579'; Watauga Lake Shelter, 2100'; Pond Flats, 3707'; TN 321, 1984; Laurel Fork Shelter, 2186'; Dennis Cove Road, 2550'.

Day 0: This near 30 mile stretch is the remainder of my last hike In March where, for a variety of reasons - bear warnings, first time out, a potential long hike with serious ascents and descents (am I ready for this?), and that inner prompting saying, "Be careful" - I skipped over the Watauga Lake Area. M and I planned a 4-day trip to Asheville, NC to visit our relatives, all conveniently installed at the Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community. We traveled to Asheville on Monday (4/20), I dropped M off there and headed for Kincora Hostel up the mountain from Hampton, TN. I met BP with whom I had previously arranged an overnight at the hostel and a ride over to my starting point in the morning. I stayed here last time but elected to sleep in the Volvo since all my stuff was in there and I did not want to move it and I did not want to deal with the cat smell that permeates the place. I hope some Spring Cleaning is in the plan. Actually, I had a pretty good sleep in my down bag floating on my air mattress. I stayed dry and warm under stormy skies. I was parked on a slight incline on packed earth and gravel and when the heavens opened, the rain woke me pounding on the car roof. I wondered for a bit if the deluge was sufficient to reduce the friction between my tires and the ground resulting in slow but accelerating drift down the parking area into the gravel drive and the brush below. Interesting what comes to mind in the middle of a dark night. Nothing happened.

Day 1: Up before the sun, I packed up with minimal gear needed for one overnight in a shelter. Probably the lightest pack in recent history: no stove or fuel, no extra clothes, no tent, no extra food (all meals where prep-less). After an hour car ride I hit the trail about 8:00a with all upper body layers on: long-sleeve polyester knit shirt, long-sleeve polyester plaid broadcloth shirt, polyester green half-zip jumper, and rain jacket. Even sporting kilt below I was comfortable in the 40F windy conditions along the ridge of Iron Mountain. A couple miles in I passed my first NoBo who alerted me to several trail features including the Nick Grandstaff Monument. Stopped at the Iron Mountain Shelter for a rest about half way through my 11 mile day along the Iron Mountain ridge. There were many NoBo thru-hikers on the trail and at the shelter; I suspect I saw upwards to 30. During the entire time I did not encounter one hiker headed south as I was. I arrived at the empty Vandeventer Shelter around 1:30p to sunny skies but continued cold and windy conditions. If I had brought my tent and was not scared away by ignorance of any camping spots ahead I could have hiked further and lessened the longer hike tomorrow. It was beautifully poised on the ridge, so a good spot. A few folk stopped by before moving on and I had settled into reading in a sunny spot at the rear of the shelter with a marvelous view of Watauga Lake. I had switched out my kilt for some polyester leggings (not tights) but the wind finally drove me into my sleeping bag: it is just too comfortable in there with the sleeping pad inflated beneath. Around 4:30p two young ladies arrived and where finished for the day. The had served together in the Peace Corp in Micronesia and had education degrees and teaching experience. Both were at transitional times with career choices and decided to thru-hike the AT before the next phase. They were delightful to chat with. After chow one named Ukelady, unpacked her ukulele and serenaded us with a variety of songs. She sang beautifully (her best instrument)  and was so relaxed and confident that the setting was not a performance but a sharing. We watched the sun drop behind the ridge through clear skies. Hiker midnight arrived at about 8:30p and all went quiet as each snuggled into their bags. I had hiked along the Iron Mountain ridge all day to slightly undulating terrain, no significant foliage present, expansive views, some signs of spring -  a most enjoyable but cold day.

No leaves yet

Ridge trail

Iron Mountain Shelter with Nobos

Great water source at bog

About water: shelters are most often placed near a water source for obvious reasons, but, though close, may not be easy to get to. The upcoming shelter, Vandeventer, has a spring but it is located 0.5 miles down from the ridge resulting in a arduous descent and strenuous ascent - not something a long-distance hiker relishes, especially at the end of a long day. Therefore, being aware of more conveniently positioned sources prior to a day's stopping point, can result in easier access, which was the case at the "bog" source. I loaded up, but the trade-off is that I had to carry most of that load (6 pounds) 4 miles. The terrain ahead was relatively flat, and my pack was light to start with so the decision was easy.

First glimpse of Watauga Lake - east end 

River valley

History

Views from rear of shelter

Late afternoon view into shelter

Shelter with self-portrait

Thru-hiker on left, my stuff on right

Day 2: In order to finish my 29 miles I planned to hike 18 today. I cannot say I was dreading the day, but the length and terrain of this stretch caused me anxiety the last time out to the extent that I did not hike it. I would have preferred to (and had originally planned to) break this up into two days of more reasonable hiking. I knew I could do it, but under the circumstances now of a rigid schedule some anxiety persisted. I was up and out by 7:00a; the girls were awake, nursing some bagels and cream cheese from their town visit yesterday. They were still nestled in their bags as I left with fond expressions of success for the day. Since I was hiking north to south I had a long well-graded 6 mile descent (instead of an ascent if I had been hiking the other direction as originally planned) along the ridge toward Watauga Dam. The weather was fine but the forecast suggested rain later in the day. I had lake views all the way down to the dam and my pace was brisk due to smooth switchbacks and few rocks. Ahead of me was Pond Mountain. To pass the top of Pond Mountain, named Pond Flats required an ascent and descent of 2000 feet over the course of 6 miles. For some reason I had been questioning how difficult this stretch would be; this was another reason I was fearful last time to hike this stretch. I had a lighter pack this time, so the only way was forward at whatever pace I could manage. I was quite surprised with how well I hiked this mountain. I had rested at a lakeshore park with two thru-hikers and given them some of my extra food and I had imbibed a significant amount of water and carried little up the mountain knowing that there was water at the top. The uphill was again well-graded with consistently pitched switchbacks. I strode up at a good pace and rested little on the way up. I felt great, so the combination of pack and personal weight management and those spin classes at the gym paid off. I had underestimated my fitness and preparedness for this hike. I had scaled more difficult mountains (remember the Smokies) but I had just let doubts creep in about this stretch. I must remember as I plan other hikes to reflect on this experience when looking at trail terrain as I plan itineraries, not to overdo it but to be more realistic with what I can do. Sometimes being conservative with expectations is good, but I have been doing this for a while and I should let my experience weigh in.

About campsites in this section: Three things conspired against me when I bailed on this section before: the Watauga Lake Shelter was closed as well as 4 miles of trail near it, I received a verbal assessment from a knowledgeable person that there were few if any good camping spots north before the Vandeventer Shelter and my trail guide indicated none as well. As I hiked through I found the assessment and other information false; there were several really good sites where I could have easily camped north of the closed shelter on that previous hike and been able to break up that long stretch as originally planned, but my ignorance of the trail and the information in hand at the time left me wanting. When packing a tent on future hikes I can be a bit more daring about not being so wedded to the shelter areas and do as most thru-hikers do which is hike a good day, then stop for the night wherever seems best.

Morning view 

Pleasant descent but do not step too far to the right

The dam is much bigger than it appears here

Standing Pine

Wattage Lake Park

Dam at rear of picture

Laurel Falls were positioned near the end of the day's hike; in my trail guide they were at the bottom of a reasonable descent with a steep ascent to exit the river gorge. I had seen much cascading water already. The girls at the shelter had advised me of a blue-blazed high water trail from the back of the Laurel Fork Shelter that stayed high and bypassed the falls. It is OK in my mind to hike alternate trails in the vicinity of the AT as long as they are part of the system and are at least as long as the parallel AT. I had already decided to take this high road to avoid the terrain and get to my day's end a bit sooner to be back in Asheville before it was too late to visit with my MIL. I hiked along the river (Pond Branch I believe) until I reached the blue-blazed trail up to the shelter. Up I when with every intention of proceeding past it and along a the upper branch trail avoiding the falls. Well, as on my previous hike someone had a different plan. There was a blue-blazed trail beyond the shelter which I followed to its apparent end at small stream flowing over some rocks. I looked up, down, across, around and could not find anything that looked like a trail. There was dense undergrowth on the less used trail. I walked back a bit and considered the blue markings to make sure I did not miss something but found no other path forward. Frustration bloomed as I was searching. I was so annoyed at whoever set up this high-water side trail or failed to maintain it so that it was useful. I was confident that it was there somewhere but again my lack of knowledge and adventuresome spirit to probe around left me with no alternative but to hike back down to the shelter, down to the trail, down to the falls and then make the steepest ascent of the day out of the gorge. I was not a happy soul, but as I hiked down I mellowed into the realization that what was ahead was what I was going to do so I might a well make the best of it. At least it was not raining yet. The trail down to the falls was not so bad and the falls were worth seeing but the hike out was not what I expected: a jumbled  staircase of large rocks. It had started to rain so things became a little slippery and I wrestled into and out of my rain jacket a few times (by this time whether I was wet or not would not matter). I reached the top a little weary, but I had not pushed myself too hard and was presented with the remainder of my hike to Dennis Cove Road, about 2 miles. The last bit was quite pleasant and I was starting to feel the sense of accomplishment that reaching that road would bring me. I arrived at the intersection of trail and road with joy and a few fist pumps, turned toward the hostel and the Volvo. No one was present so I changed into some respectable clothes and headed down the mountain. After a meaty and carb-laden dinner at Mickey D's in town I made my way back to Asheville.

Laurel Fork Shelter

Laurel Falls

Trail was even steeper in places

Closing the Gap: so why those euphoric fists pumps and feeling of accomplishment? Section hikers cobble together pieces of the trail with the hope that eventually all those sections will add up to the entire AT. Over the past few years I have hiked the AT closest to where we live and in the vicinity of Asheville, NC. With the completion of this hike all my pieces are now connected into one continuous 950 mile section from Fontana Dam, TN (just south of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park) to Mount Holly Springs, PA (50 miles north into PA across the Maryland border), about 45% of the entire AT. Am I finished? No. What's next? I am still considering. Am I going to hike the entire AT? Well, I have thought from the beginning of these adventures that I would, but there are other places to long-distance backpack that have appeal, so I am not passionately attached to just the AT. Short term I plan to hike more into PA to extend my section northward and then possibly in the fall go to Fontana Dam and hike 165 miles south to Springer Mountain, GA (southern terminus) expecting to encounter some thru-hiking SoBos who started up north in Maine and are hiking south. Longer term I have my sights set on the John Muir Trail (part of the Pacific Crest Trail) near Yosemite National Park in the High Sierras, and the PCT that traverses Oregon across the Cascade Range. Will those hikes happen? Who knows? Much of the hiking in the southern Appalachian Range is similar, though up north things do change, but a change of scenery to our western mountains seems attractive if not daunting in distance and arduousness. 

There is still little to compare with the experience of donning those trail runners and kilt, hefting a backpack, and striking out on a long section of trail. It's really in my blood now and I long for more.