Date: 2003-04-26
From: Walnut Mt Rd

To: Hwy 19E Elk Park, NC
Miles today: 10.2

We spent the last night in Erwin, Tennessee at the Super eight Motel. Maybe staying there was just meant to be, because once we went down to breakfast, there were all these hikers sitting around having breakfast. They looked a little familiar and we heard a trailname or two, and then finally realized it was hikers we knew. There was Peter Pan and Kiwi, two of the four old geezers we gave a ride into Gatlinburg 12 days ago. There was a hiker gal on the couch who seemed sick, with several friends including Tadpole who we hadn¢t met. Sticks was also there, one of the guys we met near Clingmans Dome. at first Sticks said he didn¢t know us, but finally remembered. It was Sticks and Smiley we met on the trail between Clingmans Dome and Newfound Gap. Sticks remembered seeing us sunbathing on the trail and we remembered him admiring the tree root wads. After a nice talk we asked if anybody needed a shuttle to the trail. Sticks was ready to go to the trail and two other guys want a ride over to Miss Janet¢s. We dropped the two guys off at Miss Janet¢s, we had never been there before. We took Sticks over to the trail by Uncle Johnny¢s. We came back to the Super eight and picked up the Four Geezers, and took them over to the trail by Uncle Johnny¢s.  It took a little while to get ready but finally we got the Geezers on the road. We also stopped on the road to pick up Gypsy Wind, another hiker I remembered from last year at Uncle Johnny¢s. We discovered that Gypsy Wind lives in the area and does not get on the trail much anymore. The Geezers asked us to make a reservation for them at Kinkora out of Hampton for May 1st. We said we would try. So now we are ready to start our hike. It¢s 12:27and we are at Walnut Mountain Road.It¢s now 12:40 on the trail and Cindy has found a new flower called Polygalax. We are crossing a old gravel road at 12:42. Sometime about one a clock we ran across Sean O, real name Sean O¢Reilly, a 71-year-old gentleman from Maine and a through hiker. We had a nice conversation with Sean, he said he burst some other hikers bubble, who was only 70 12 years old and thru hiking. He said he loves Chicago, we told him we never get up there. Shawn has lost 20 pounds hiking the trail, and is very unhappy about that. He says he was solid muscle when he started the trail. So 20 pounds of muscle is what he lost. He says his kids will be petrified. So on we went from there.We stopped at about 1:30. we were reading the data book and realized things weren¢t going according to the book¢s description. We can see that the trail is new and it has changed from the book¢s description. So we have a lot of uncertainty about the trail at this moment. Then we passed three guys going up the trail backpacking. They ask us how far is it to Walnut Mountain Road. We tell them it¢s 2 miles to the road. They are very unhappy. They have been out for hours and have gone 8 miles. They expected to be at the road. The rerouting of the trail has added at least 2 miles to its length. Then we passed a group of four who were slack packing and expecting to do 24 miles today. They were chugging right along. After that we passed two guys who were running up the trail with packs on. We made them stop to talk to us even though they were in a hurry. Finally we work our way on down to the river and we realize we won¢t get off the trail until 6:30 p.m. we had intended to do another 3 mile section after this hike, but that won¢t happen now. the trail goes along the River thru a very nice hiking area, where we meet the Iron Toothpick. He is an Ironman triathlete and he¢s as skinny as a toothpick. So that¢s how he got his name. We had a nice talk with him and he told us more information about the trail relocation. He said through hikers don¢t worry about the mileage, that they just walked until they get to the next shelter. He was having a nice day, he was hiking with some friends but they weren¢t hiking together. They will meet up tonight at the next shelter. We had passed a gal at the Mountainear Falls who had told us that 2 miles further we would find a really neat falls. She said it was a big one and don¢t miss it. I forgot to mention we had our lunch at our one-hour break.We came to a point on the trail where we left the river and climbed up, we went over a style. We went up up up and didn¢t have a trail description to tell us what we were going to see next. So we climb up up up and finally come to Jones Falls. We thought the gal was telling us about Oak River Falls which we had seen before. It wasn¢t that falls, but Jones fall was 100 feet tall and very impressive.We knew we had five or more miles to go so we didn¢t stay very long. We climb out of there and keep Climbing up. We got up on top of the mountain finally but it took a long time. We took a break when we got to the top of the mountain and while resting heard someone cutting their grass. So there is a road and civilization near here. We heard some cars on the road also. We knew we had a long way to go so we took off again. It was drizzling a little bit so we put on rain gear and took off down the other side. We go through a pine forest of tiny pine trees, cross a little paved highway, go a little further and cross another paved highway near a church. That highway had a yellow stripe on it. We went off through a pasture and through some woods and through another pasture and over another style. Going on forever and finally passed the Isaac cemetery. At the Isaac cemetery we know we have 3 miles to go. We climb out past the cemetery and get to this final style on top of a 3380 foot mountain. So you were way up in the air and there is a huge pasture there opening out for the views of the mountains ahead of you. Just a very neat view from this mountaintop. We walked down through the pasture and finally get to an old road, follow this old road for half a mile, over to another pasture with a big view. It was called Bishops Valley maybe. So we walked way down in that valley and finally come to a Creek, we followed the Creek for a little while, from here it¢s only 8/10 of a mile to go. You go up and over one more Mt. and then down steeply to Bear Branch Road. Along the road people must drive by in their pickup trucks and throw refrigerators over the side down into the gully because it¢s very trashy along here. And then there is the regular trash like the contents of a kitchen trashcan. this is just a nasty looking section of the trail. When we get to Bear Branch Road there are pizza boxes thrown out on the road. So now we have 3/10 of a mile to go, and what do they make you do, you go up and over another mountain. You go up up up and then down down down and get to highway 19E at 6:30 pm. We took a picture of a snake in the last 100 yards of our hike. It¢s slightly drizzling as we come off the trail and you have to walk a couple hundred feet down the highway to your car, the tractor-trailer trucks were roaring right by you, blowing a mist all over you. Finally we get back to the car and do our car shuttling, then we can¢t find a motel anywhere around here. Not on Highway 19E, couldn¢t find one in Hampton or Elizabethtown. There was a drag racing event in the area and motels were filling up. Also we don¢t like to pay $70 for a room. We took the interstate back to Erwin and stayed at the Best Southern Motel for $45. We were so tired we had cereal at 9:30pm and went to bed.