Date: 2015-10-24
From: Damacus, VA

To: Hampton, TN
Miles today: 51.7

10/23 Day 143: 19.6 miles M1738.6Double Springs ShelterSeldom able to get good decaf coffee, I took advantage of Mojoe's excellent coffee and read the paper before leaving town at 11:30 am. Heavenly. I find that after so many days on the trail, my appreciation for simple things has intensified. Lovely morning. Out of Damascus about 4 miles is the VA-TN border. Trail was smooth and fast on the climb over McQueens Knob and down to Low Gap. Not many views though the weather and day were lovely today. I felt happy in my last miles of VA recalling a song my father would sing about a sweet old cow in VA that lived along the railroad, "cow, with eyes so fine, but you can't expect a cow to read a railroad sign". Then once in TN, "Rocky Top" was on my mind. It seems that almost as soon as I crossed into TN, I noticed the forest fall colors are more intense. Likely the high winds and storms were not as intense as in VA and spared many of the leaves that had come down prematurely in VA. Beautiful colors all around. Also, fewer leaves were on the trail. I hiked into a sunset that, as viewed through the fall color trees, was intense red and made the forest seem on fire. After dark set in, I noticed that the 3/4 moon lit the forest nicely. I arrived at Double Springs shelter to find 3 guys having a great weekend outing and playing cards. We shared a few laughs while I ate before I hung my bear bag and went to bed happy to be alive and happy to be having this journey to see and feel such things as I did today that can only be experienced in the wild places.10/24 Day 144:  32.1 M1770.7Black Bear Resort on Dennis Cove Rd., Hampton, TNI hiked out of Double Springs at 5:49am by headlamp. After a couple of miles, the trail goes through a cow pasture. Saw a skunk and a family of what I think were raccoon(s) as I dodged the cow patties and scaled the many stiles.   At the top of the pasture, I noticed a bench and a very wide, smooth trail leading up to it, which was also my path on the AT to come. This part of the trail is handicap accessible (labelled that way). Dawn was just breaking over the mountain. I imagined how beautiful the sunrises and sunsets must be here, along with the beautiful views during the day. The handicap accessible trail was in fact easy hiking and I thought how I would like to return here with a good friend and experience this together. Continuing on to Iron Mountain up from the gap at TN91, I noticed the sunrise hit at 7:45 and had nice color and the visibility got much better. I encountered a deer on the trail about 50 feet ahead of me along the eight-mile ridge walk across Iron Mountain. We stared at each other for a few minutes, the deer trying to eat but just not quite comfortable for a while, then finally did start to nibble. I inched forward testing how close I could get, and after I'd closed about 1/4 of the distance, the deer decided to move on down the trail, and as I hiked the deer kept moving down the trail for a couple hundred yards before jumping off trail to the left. As I passed that spot, we looked at each other again and I continued on to let the deer return to making its living. The AT crosses Watuga Dam, a huge excavation forming a lake between some big eastern mountains. Hakuna Matada (a hiking couple from Atlanta and their wonderful dog) passed me a couple of times today. (I see them walking down Dennis Cove Road to Black Bear resort as I write this journal entry in trail journals on the 25th). The clouds rolled in around 3pm with sprinkles and looks like we're in for 4 days of rain. I hiked over Pond Mountain Wilderness as the sun set. After hiking over Pond Mountain and down, the trail went crazy. Of course I'd hiked 30 miles and was hiking in the dark; so, I realize my perceptions were skewed. The trail scaled along a rock face over a stream, some bouldering, some steep ups and downs, and then came the climb up from Laurel Falls, about 40 feet up steep staircase trail (grateful for the staircase and the effort it took to build) -- all by headlamp. Relieved to arrive at Dennis Cove Rd at 9:00 pm, I made the road walk for another 1/2 mile to Black Bear Resort. Body and head aching, a quick hiker meal and right to bed. Another good day to be alive.