Day: 025
Date: Friday, 19 May 2023
Start: Erwin (AT Mile 344.3)
Finish: Cherry Gap (AT Mile 362.3)
Daily Kilometres: 29.7
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 612.6
Weather: Sunny, warm and breezy all day.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Peach pie & rice pudding
Lunch: Chicken salad sandwich/Italian sandwich
Dinner: Rehydrated meals.
Aches: Dave - a few of the usual niggles; Julie - nothing to report
Highlight: As Julie remarked during our last hour of hiking today, it was so peaceful and quiet for long periods as we walked along a broad wooded ridge where there was no sound and barely any breeze as the setting sun cast long shadows through the forest. Magic!
Lowlight: None really.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
Based on the theory that Uber drivers in small towns don’t sign on until 8:00am, we had a sleep in, ate breakfast in our motel room, packed and then tried for an Uber around 8:30am after Dave had taken care of some last minute admin. Success! An Uber arrived in four minutes and we were driven the few miles to where we left the trail on Wednesday afternoon.
By 8:50am we were hiking on a beautiful morning, at first following the Nolichucky River upstream and then a creek as we began our all-day long climb up Unaka Mountain (5,183’). Fortunately, because the climb was spread over about 15 miles, the grades were generally easy and the trail not too technical.
Along the way, we met a few other hikers including a firefighter from Florida out for a week’s hiking, and “Tassie”, a lady from Tasmania (~60yo) we had heard about from other hikers. By reputation an early riser and fast hiker. We had a chat and learned she started just a couple of days before us, so is travelling at roughly the same pace. Suspect we will see her again. We also passed a day hiker, jingling his way through the woods. He was wearing “bear bells”, as have a couple of other hikers we have seen. The bells are supposed to warn bears of the hiker’s approach so that they run away. We have also heard them referred to as “dinner bells”, for obvious reasons.
A highlight of the long climb was a meadow-like large knoll called Beauty Spot along the way where we emerged from the forest and had fantastic views in all directions, including ahead to the formidable last climb to the top of Unaka Mountain. Unfortunately, there were no views from the actual summit of the mountain, but the vegetation at the top changed to pine forest with green moss covering the forest floor. Very pretty and a nice change from the deciduous forest and rhododendron glades we had been travelling through for most of the day.
Around 6:40pm, having gone further than anticipated for the day, we found a small tent site in Cherry Gap and set up camp. It had been a good first day out of town.
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