Trailstealth.com

For the 2nd day hike of the New Year, I drove to the Nolichucky Campground and began walking into the ‘Jones Branch’ valley on Unaka Mountain. Being one of the closest access points for the Appalachian Trail, I go there quite a lot. The weather was incredibly warm for January, and the ground was quite wet from an early rain. The clouds were thick and gray. I was happy to see a bit more water in the creek than the last time I had walked up through there (it was nearly dry).

In my mind, I had sort of planned to walk out to the ‘Jones Branch Overlook’ and get a nice visual of the valley and the mountains beyond, but while I was walking up the mountain into ‘Curly Maple Gap’ I realized how unlikely catching any views from the overlook would be, as the clouds were very thick at that time. Visibility was only about a hundred yards, so I decided to stop at the shelter and have a snack break. (more…)

It was a cloudy and warm day last Saturday, so I decided to go out to ‘Sill Branch Falls’ in the Sampson Wilderness for the first hike of the new year.  Intermittent rain followed me up the wet trail toward the upper falls.  I had noticed before that the ridge that the side-trail to the falls is on had been burned a while back (presumably by the Forest Service), and now almost every evergreen tree that used to be there is now lying dead on the ground, or on top of other fallen logs.  Because of that, it was a bit difficult to navigate through there, especially since I decided to walk up the ridge to get a better view of the surrounding mountain ridges.  There are times when I like to get a different perspective on the world, I suppose, and travel off-trail, exploring new places.   I had forgotten just how tall the ridge I was climbing actually was, and surprised to discover that it is quite a bit higher in elevation than the parallel ridge that followed the ‘south fork’ of Sill Branch up onto Rich Mountain.

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I took a trip south for a day, to do some picnicking and sight-seeing, and ended up driving back by the Smokies, following the Appalachian crest all the way back north into northeast Tennessee. Although I will remember this journey perhaps always, there is not much more I can say about it right now.

Doc Watson was playing downtown here for the ‘Blue Plum Festival’, and I went to go see him pick his guitar. I have seen him play before, but wanted to see him again–he is a living legend. Saw several friends after the show (some who had come all the way from New York), and we all took in another show at the Down Home after the Doc show. It was a fun night, with lots of good music and friends.

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HAIRNT.  Does anyone really know what that is supposed to mean?   Hairnt?
So, just what is this mystery word that seemingly means nothing and everything all at the same time?  Was it something devised by scholars, brain-doctors, astro-mathematicians, or double-naught spies?  Is it an adjective, a noun, a verb, an adverb, conjunction, prepositional phrase, or any other form of speech?  Maybe it is a greeting, perhaps a salutation…the long lost language of cavemen…what a dinosaur’s fart sounds like? Hairnt! What the hairnt is this hairnting hairnt? What’s hairnt-ning? Hairnt! Hairnt Happens! —Arrrgh, too much HAIRNT!

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It is becoming more and more obvious that I am terrible at keeping a ‘blog’. I quess I am more interested in living life and having adventures than I am in writing about them. Be that as it may, now that the weather has turned cold, perhaps I can get caught up a little bit on the writing for the website. As you may have noticed, Trailstealth.com was hacked a couple of months ago, and the template for the front page was destroyed. Rat has put up a temporary new front page, until we can do better. Anyway, I personally apologise for the inconvenience, and the lack of new reading material. In other words, I will try to do better.
For those of you who wonder, I have been out hiking in the mountains quite a lot (whenever possible, would be more of an appropriate statement). My latest hike was in the ‘Sampson Wilderness Area’, Also known as ‘Clark’s Creek’. It was a cold day,

Clarks Creek

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I Drove up to Damascus, Virginia on Friday, May 16th for ‘Trail Days’, the festival for Appalachian Trail Thru-hikers. I camped out at ‘Hoppy and Birdie’s’ place, behind their barn. I saw a lot of old friends that I haven’t seen for a while, which was real nice.

The first night, I decided to go into town and listen to the ‘Jones Boys’ jam at the gazebo. Rat was sitting in with the band, and they sounded really good. It was a bit chilly, but there was a pretty fair crowd anyway, considering, and everyone had a good time. Later on, I did a little bit of jamming around the campfire at Hoppy’s, but my fingers were too cold, despite all the anti-freeze I had consumed.

I stayed up long enough to watch the moon set behind the ridgeline. The temperature inside my tent went from darn near freezing to oven-like before I even realized it. I woke up smoldering hot. Somehow, I got a bit sunburned.

In the afternoon, instead of going to town and watching the parade, I decided to take a nap, watch the hawks fly overhead, and prepare for the evening’s festivities. I jammed on my guitar for a few folks around Rat’s camp, and Rat even sat in on a couple of songs. There were a few requests that are Trail Day’s traditionals, that had to be played, and I have written a few new songs since my last trip to Trail Day’s ( a few years ago) that I felt like playing, too.

I climbed into my tent at a somewhat reasonable hour, and woke up Sunday morning feeling rather refreshed. Birdie had cooked a huge plate full of Pillsbury rolls that were quite tasty. I said goodbye to several people, and went back to Johnson city, happy to have had the chance to see many of my trail friends, and even get a sip of ‘Paw-Paw’s’ ‘breakfast’.
There will be pictures of the event here on the site soon.

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I made time to hike to High Rocks from Spivey Gap yesterday. The weather was beautiful. Actually, I got a little bit sunburned while standing out on the rock, getting a view of the mountains, and talking to a couple of southbound section hikers from the Winston-Salem area. I started to ask if they were brothers, but the question was indeed pointless, as they were almost mirror images of one another. “Frog’ and his brother (sorry, I am bad with names) took some photos from the overlook with their digital cameras, and may be sending some photos in to the website later on, I hope. Anyway, the fresh air and exercise was just what I needed.

Also, this week, there was a forest fire on the mountain near Johnson City, where I live. The entire valley was thick with smoke as Buffalo Mountain, and the ‘Dry Creek’ area burned. According to the newspaper, the Forest Service thought that the fire had been extinquished and sent everyone home, only to see the flames re-ignite and burn several more acres overnight. Apparently, the fire was started intentionally by someone on the trail that connects into the Buffalo Mountain Park trail system. Rat toured the area and took some photos. They can be seen here: http://www.guitar-antics.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=27

On May 4th, (2008) I went to take photographs of the ‘listening rock’ on Unaka Mountain.  On the far south-western end of Unaka Mountain, approaching the Nolichucky River, is a large hollow known as ‘Jones Branch’, named after the creek that runs down from the mountain, through the valley, and to the river.  High atop the knob in the middle of the hollow, not far from ‘Curly Maple Gap’ is a large rock cliff face that extends upward from the rocky, pine covered central-toe of the knob.  From this jump-off is an excellent view of the Jones Branch Valley and the mountains that lie beyond the Nolichucky Gorge (Temple Hill, No Business Knob, Flat Top Mountain, Cliff Ridge).  It is, however, not easy to get to or from this hidden overlook.  I found it by accident a few years ago.

Surrounded by pines, there is only a couple of places along the trail where you can actually see the rock cliff on the knob.  Not only is the view quite stunning, but the music of the waterfalls and creeks echoing up from the valley is a soothing sound, and it seems as if you can hear everything in the valley (when the wind isn’t blowing) from this rock face.  I could actually hear the hikers’ boots on the Appalachian Trail stomping along up unnamed ridge into Curly Maple Gap from hundreds of feet away.  The sun was beating down from a clear blue sky, and the wind would breeze through occationally to cool the pines.  It is a beautiful time of season to be there, while all the trees and flowers are bursting back to life, and the air smells sweet, scented with Mother Nature’s perfume of flowers and pine needles.

I hope that the photographs turn out alright, but won’t be sure until I get them developed (it is a 35 mm camera).  We will post them here and in the photo gallery if and when they become available.

——–Boulderman

It has been awhile since I have written anything for the ‘trail blog’, so I thought I would get things up to date, somewhat. In case you were wondering, I have been out for a few short hikes around the Nolichucky River, and Spivey Gap areas.. I also took a couple of memorable hikes in the Sampson Mountain Wilderness Area to view and take pictures of waterfalls. The photos didn’t turn out too well, however, since I took them with a disposable camera, knowing I would most likely break a ‘good’ one climbing those falls. The trip up to ‘Devil’s Fork’ Falls was quite awesome, and I hung out there by the middle set of falls for some time, just enjoying nature–fresh air, sunshine, and of course, the water.

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I was lucky, I suppose, and learned about the beauty of nature at a young age. I was 3 years old when my family moved from Kentucky to East Tennessee, and since my father was a botany teacher and a naturalist, I was taken to some awesome places as a child. Roan Mountain and Unaka Mountain immediately come to mind, but there were other places–some places that I don’t remember where they were even.

Obviously things have changed alot since I was 4 years old, and some of those places we used to drive to in the ol’ VW bus are now inaccessible to vehicles, or require a 4-wheel drive, like much of Rich Mountain.
Unaka Mountain was my playground, and Sunday picnics at the Unaka overlook were quite common for us. I have many memories of picking blueberries where the Appalachian Trail used to descend into Limestone Cove. That is the first time I recall being ‘on the trail’. (more…)