Date: 2016-04-09
From: Port Royal, VA

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Just got back from the A.T. on Sunday and I have a couple of observations -- and a story about a gun.First, the story:I went on two back-to-back A.T. hikes in late April and early May in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains.The first was with an old friend and newspaper colleague, Rob Waters. We wanted to start at Hot Springs, N.C., mile 274.4, and hike to Erwin, TN, mile 342.9 ¢ 68.5 miles. But a fire in the mountains near Hot Springs forced us, and a whole lot of NoBos, to skip the first 14.8 miles and get on the trail at Allen Gap, mile 289.2. We started mid-afternoon and camped that first night at Little Laurel Shelter, mile 294.0. The second night, we pitched our tents about a mile north of Flint Mountain Shelter, mile 307.2, and that¢s where we first noticed it, the barking.We could hear them in the distance, several dogs, barking, barking, barking, on and on. It wasn¢t all that bothersome, they were pretty far away. But every time I woke up that night I could hear them. I figured it had to be one of two things: They had something treed and weren¢t about to leave it be or, I know this sounds crazy, somebody was playing a recording of a pack of dogs barking to irritate a neighbor. What other possibilities were there?   Next morning Rob and I hiked north toward Devil Fork Gap, mile 310.0. Coming down the mountain toward the gap it dawned on me where I was ¢ this was close to where I was harassed by three dogs on my thru-hike. They came running up the trail toward me, barking, growling. On two of them the hair stood straight up on the back of their necks. The hair must have stood up on the back of my neck, too. I was afraid. I thought I was going to get mauled, but I fended them off with my hiking poles.So I told Rob, heads up, this is going to be trouble.We crossed NC 212 at the gap and headed the last four tenths of a mile down the mountain toward Laurel Road. The dogs I encountered appeared to belong to someone who lived in a mobile home on Laurel Road, about 100 yards, maybe, to the right of the trail.Just before we reached the road we heard three shots -- Bam! Bam! Bam! -- in fairly quick succession. Sounded like a .22. The barking stopped. After more than 14 hours, not another sound.Did someone shoot whatever it was that those dogs had treed? Or did someone decide enough was enough, and shoot the dogs?I don¢t know.Observation #1:Rob and I were making pretty good time, about 14 miles a day, so not many thru-hikers passed us ¢ the average successful thru-hiker averages about 12 miles a day, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and finishes in six months.Still, I began to get an idea of how crowded the trail was on the third night of our hike when we camped at Low Gap, mile 322.1. And how different some of these late starting NoBos were from the hikers I met last year.[I left Springer Mountain during the dead of winter, on Feb. 15, and by the end of April I had hiked more than 1,000 miles, almost half way to Mt. Katahdin. The people I hiked with partied in town but on the trail they got after it, they hiked a lot of miles. And, at the end of the day, they ate and went to bed, usually before dark. They didn¢t stay up half the night talking.]Rob and I were the first to stop at the Low Gap camp site but, before dark, there were about two dozen hikers there, almost all NoBos.Someone built a fire and six or eight of them gathered around, talking, hour after hour, oblivious to other hikers who had gone to bed. And then, at 11 p.m., they put on their packs and left.Next morning Rob and I got going and, on top of Big Bald [324.9], a mere 2.8 miles north of the Low Gap camp site, we encountered seven tents with almost all of their occupants still inside. Same folks? I don¢t know. But I wouldn¢t bet against it.In any event I spent way over 100 days on the trail last year and I never saw folks stand round and gab until 11 p.m.Observation #2:Rob and I camped that last night just north of No Business Knob Shelter [mile 336.7] with Cookie and Long Cloud, two NoBos. Next morning all of us hiked on to Uncle Johnny¢s [342.9], a hostel near Erwin where we had parked our car. We drove them to Irwin to resupply and then took them to lunch.I think it¢s almost as much fun to play trail angel as it is to hike, more sometimes.Observation #3:On my second hike I headed south with two other friends, from Carver¢s Gap [379.0] back toward Erwin.Hiking south gave me a much better idea of how many NoBos are on trail. This bubble of hikers was more than 350 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, so a good many had already quit. Still, I estimate we met more than 50 a day. Shelters were packed. Campsites identified on the trail guides were packed. Uncle Johnny¢s was packed.   Leaving Springer Mountain later in the year, missing most of the cold weather, has some advantages but it has some definite drawbacks too.Observation #4:On the second hike I met a NoBo named Bugjuice, a 40-something-year-old man who struck me as dead serious about going to Maine.I'm going to follow his hike. You can too. He is posting a daily diary of pictures and observations at Gobugjuice.com.    *   *   *NOTE:This was my second and third section hikes this year and I¢m done for a while. But plans continue for kayak trip in June, from Raleigh, N.C., to the Pamlico Sound.   And the best thing about that trip?   It¢s all downhill.