Date: 2003-09-26
From: Interstate 27-Sams Gap

To: Spivey Gap , US 19W
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: scattered clouds

Okay this is our Friday 9/26 hike. We are doing Sams gap to Spivey Gap. We got up at 5:45 am, had continental breakfast at Super 8 in Erwin, Tennessee. We run our car up to Spivey gap, in a little bit of fog. Drop the car off at about a quarter to 7, arrived at Sams gap at about 7:30, and on the trail at 7:48. We start hiking up out of Sam's gap at a good pace and in 1.6 mile we arrive at Street gap. At the two mile mark we are at a nice clearing and campsite. You can see your first view of Big Bald. It is another very nice day, like all the hikes this week. We are doing 2 miles per hour, so it took one hour to get to the viewpoint. We take off from there and look for another rest point at about 3.8 miles, but we never really saw a good one. The trail does come close to a gated community where a guy is cleaning his driveway 100 yards from the trail. Its a large community just down the ridge from the Appalachian Trail. We did find a log for a break at about the 4 mile mark. We kept on going, and at the 6 mile mark at 10:38, we are at a blue blaze which is the bad weather trail around the mountain. We get up on top of Big Bald Mountain before noon with spectacular views. There was 360 degree viewing on top, but also two cars near the top. We had our lunch up there while enjoying the views.We came down off the top and went across Wolf Laurel Road. You go up to the second little bald, and when you go over that bald, you can see what the cars were about previously. They were doing some privately funded bird catching and weighing of the birds. They have been collecting data on the local birds for 25 years. They have the nets hung out, and one of bird flies into it, they run out and grab them for weighing and banding. They caught a Swainson's Thrush while we watched, all the other ones they caught previously had already been weighed and released. We talk to one gentleman who has been coming here for 7 years and lives in Washington state. He comes down here for 30 days a year for bird research. He does the same research back in Washington State. We moved on to get to the Bald Mountain shelter at 7.9 mile, stay there for a while but not too long. We go on from there and down down down down, and up and over some easy hills and finally on down to Whistling gap. Took another rest there. Then you go up over one more Hill, High Rocks.We scrambled up and over some rocks to the high point, a hotel sized rock for viewing. You could look back and see one of the balds you had been standing on. It was all downhill from there. And so we just scramble down and finally came out at about 4:40 Pm at Spivey gap. And then took off. When we got back to Sam's gap we had to make sure we hike under the interstate, because that was a gap we hadn't closed yet. So we always make sure to get all of our mileage and all of our white blazes. So now we are done all the way from Springer to Damascus except for 10.7 mile near Damascus and the 40 miles in the Smokies. Time to go home to Illinois for a short time.One other note on our Friday hike, Sams gap to Spivey gap. The Stinging Nettle that we encountered, there was a whole road bed that was completely covered with the stinging nettle. You needed to be careful how you walk through there. There hasn't been a lot of fall clearing of the trail. It gets your legs a little bit itchy walking through the nettle, but the great views from the balds, makes it worthwhile.