Date: 2017-05-26
From: Yellow Mountain Gap

To: Walnut Mountain Rd
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We passed the 400 mile mark today, and we left North Carolina for the last time (see photo).  The trail north of Georgia follows the North Carolina/Tennessee border closely and just wanders back and forth.  Today we stopped wandering and planted ourselves firmly in Tennessee.  More importantly, the sun finally came out!  We started the day out in cold, foggy, windy weather and headed up the hill to pick up the trail at Yellow Mountain Gap.  This is the site of a 1780 Revolutionary War battle in which the Yankees routed the British.  There's a nice historical marker there.  We headed uphill to go over two high balds: Little Hump Mountain and Hump Mountain (see photo).  Warren expected the hike to be "interesting" because of the high winds.  It was.  As I approached the open area the wind caught me full force from the left side and nearly knocked me over.  These two mountains looked like what I picture a moor in Scotland to look like -  grassy, foggy, with a few rocks and stunted trees here and there.  I timed the walk up Hump Mountain.  It took me 45 minutes to fight my way up .9 mile.  The wind was so strong that it blew me sideways to the right.  I had to bend forward to make my body a bigger mass to resist the wind.  It was hard and cold work.  Once I got to the leeward side, the sun came out, and I actually saw some lovely views of the mountains.From there I passed into woods.  The hike from 6:40 AM till 12:15 PM was very muddy and wet -- quite treacherous, even though there was a long downhill that should have been easy.  Going down one tricky place a young man in a fluorescent yellow shirt gallumphed past me saying that Lizzie was behind me and would catch up soon.  All the way up the mountains I'd been seeing shoe prints that matched her trail runners, so I had assumed, erroneously, that she was ahead of me.  Lizzie did catch up with me, and we chatted for a bit till we reached the road crossing  at US 19, the halfway point of the hike.  Warren was there checking in our group, as there was no one hiking southbound today.  He gave me a Coke, and another man who was there doing trail magic gave one to Lizzie.  She calculated that she had hiked nearly 2.5 miles per hour that morning, even with the fight against the wind up the Hump mountains.  I sat and ate my pumpkin seeds and realized that I hadn't brought enough snacks for the day.  Lizzie gave me a packet of cheese crackers which I kept for later.After lunch I crossed the road into a different world.  The woods there were not nearly as muddy or treacherous, and it was normal hiking in sunshine up and down hills.  At one point the trail crossed several grassy meadows, bordered by large shade trees.  At another it followed along a ridge.  It was former farmland and had a very pleasant domestic feel to it.  It reminded me very much of the ridge behind my old house.  I slowed down to enjoy this part but would like to have stayed there for hours.  There were lots of blackberry bushes in bloom, emitting a lovely fragrance.  There was also a lot of multiflora rose which, even though a terrible invasive species, was also giving off a delightful smell.  I decided to take the time to note what wildflowers I saw here.  (As we're getting farther North spring is not as advanced as it was farther south.). Here's what I saw: yarrow, milk vetch, red clover, golden ragwort, buttercup, butter and eggs, hop clover, chickweed, bluets, phlox, dandelions, wild geraniums, mayapples, sweet pea, yellow hawkweed, gray beardtongue, clintonia lily, Queen Anne 's lace, mountain laurel, rhododendron, and jack in the pulpit.  I thoroughly enjoyed walking through these woods.  I heard rufous-sided towhees, red-bellied woodpeckers, pileated woodpeckers, and veerys.  I got a close look at an indigo bunting that flew right in front of me when the trail emerged from the woods and followed a river through a grassy meadow.  I continue to hear the bird that sings, "to-wheat, to-wheat, to wheat-e-o."  I've been trying to remember what it is for two weeks but still can't remember.  As always on these long days, the end of the hike took forever.  Even though I passed several beautiful waterfalls I was ready to be done for the day.  The final several miles was uphill.  I sometimes hear the Cole Porter song, "Siberia", when coming up hills.  It has just the right tempo for the pace I go, but it has become an earworm.  I need a replacement for it, wonderful as it is.  I'm finally camped out again in my own cozy tent.  It has dried out, as have my rain jacket and poncho.  Just in time for rain tomorrow.