Appalachian Trail Hike: Tennessee - Mile 393 - 467

Hello all! This was a short section but held many challenges. There were some gnarly climbs scattered throughout that were topped off with temperamental weather. The absolute treat that was the trail angels (saints?) I met, made up for any negative feelings from this section.

Note that I crossed the border on a full hiking day, which is why some of statistics may look off.

Appalachian Trail Hike: Tennessee Summary

Statistics:

Days: 3.5
Full hiking days: 3
Zeroes: 0
Neros: 1
Total Trail Miles Hiked: 75.5
Total Miles Hiked: 78.1
Total Elevation Gain: 15,547 ft
Total Elevation Loss: 16,512 ft

Highlights:

Without a doubt, the biggest highlight were trail angels Mac, Uber, and Lunch. Not only was their actual trail magic delicious, their kindness showed me what the AT was all about.
Unexpected real lunch with lovely folks!
Reaching Damascus, VA was a proud moment.

Lowlights:

The climbs just continued to be brutal.
Weather was hot, humid, and then would dump rain. I understand no rain, no pain, no Maine but cmon!

Day 23 Part 2: Mile 395.6 - 411.6

Trail Daily Miles: 16.0
Total Daily Miles: 17.4
Total Trail Mileage:
Elevation Gain: 3892 ft
Elevation Loss: 3110 ft
Weather: Sun, Hot, Humid
Overall Day Sentiment: Lunch was worth it.

At the road cross crossing where I left off, myself, Sherpa, and HiHo headed to the Appalachian Station 19E for some lunch. Initially, they were not serving lunch, but Sherpa encouraged them to feed hungry hikers because we would spend money. Upon arriving there we were greeted with some other friendly faces, including Petroglyph, and we all had a great time. Stevie also made it there and we were able to do a mild resupply to fill in any gaps we had for the next few days.

I also was able to clean the wound on my knee, pictured below, that was caked in mud and blood. It ended up being pretty painful as my whole knee was skinned and continued bleeding after I cleaned it. That’s what I get for trying to quickly trail run to get some chicken wings.

Feeling uncomfortably full I headed back to the trail as I had a solid 16 miles left to do after 1:00pm. Whoops!

I quickly ran into Gambit just after this and we decided that we were still going to try to go to our desired campsite despite it being late in the day. There were more blow downs that I had to crawl over and under in this tiny section, then in larger previous sections. Because of these blow downs, I officially missed the 400 mile marker because I was paying close attention to the apparent obstacle course as to not hurt my other knee.

There were a few waterfalls to see on this day which were welcomed because it ended up being hotter than expected. This also was one of my first introductions to sincere humidity of East Coast hiking, so the extra water sources were appreciated.

Because I had enjoyed lunch so much, I was behind schedule. Therefore Gambit and I rolled into our very tiny tent site just before dark. We set up our tents as the sun set and had dinner with our headlamps on and it was a quiet cozy evening.

Day 24: Mile 411.6 - 436.6

Trail Daily Miles: 25.0
Total Daily Miles: 25.5
Total Trail Mileage: 436.6
Elevation Gain: 5817 ft
Elevation Loss: 5865 ft
Weather: Sun, Hot, Thunderstorm
Overall Day Sentiment: Proud of camping alone.

There was a decent amount of miles to do for the day and sincere climbing, so we left pretty early. This was not out of the ordinary for me, but Gambit is a very fast hiker so he likes to sleep in and still somehow gets to camp around the same time I do.

The morning miles were cruisey and overall, it was just a nice hiking day. I hiked with Jack in the Box for a while, which was nice to talk to someone while hiking.

I entered the Laurel Fork Falls area, which was a beautiful rocky area with great water features running through it. There are two routes near the Falls one which is the typical Appalachian Trail and then one high water route area in case there’s been a lot of rain recently. There was someone that gave me a bad feeling, nothing that they actually did, but I listened to my gut and avoided the actual Appalachian Trail and I took the high water route to get in front of them. Even though I missed out on some beautiful views of the actual falls, I’m thankful that I can listen to my intuition.

There then was a solid climb what I call a pointless pyramid climb in which you go up steeply and then down just as steeply. This was one of the times that proved that the AT just wants to be the most difficult route rather than following a natural valley. Of course at the top of this climb, the skies opened up and I was greeted with a 20 minute thunderstorm because why not?

At the bottom of this pointless climb was the Watauga Lake recreation area. There are an option to paddle across some or all of this to skip some hiking miles, but I was not confident in my upper body strength at this point. Gambit and I realized that we had about 9 miles to go and it was after 4:00pm nearing 5:00pm. We set off with hopes to reach that, but I was not confident.

As the hours went on, I became less and less confident, and Gambit got ahead of me and said he was fine with night hiking. I decided this would be the first night on the trail that I would camp alone. I found a great campsite that I had all to myself that was just north of water source so even though I had to dry camp, I didn’t have to carry the water that far.

Whenever I set up camp, I switch into my sleeping/camp clothes and hang my hiking clothes on either my tent or on a branch because they are sweaty. This helps dry them out even if only for a couple hours and it keeps them out of my tent and away so that I don’t smell them as much. I tucked into my tent and fell asleep, but was awoken by the pitter patter of rain a few hours later. Out of a hard sleep, it was a mad dash to put myself together enough to exit my tent and grab my hiking clothes to save them from getting wet. You know, the opposite of what setting them outside my tent had intended to do. I rescued them and they weren’t too bad.

Whenever I camp alone on the PCT in the first three times I woke up in the night and I was nervous about what was around me, but for some reason this night I slept great barring the brief rain intermission, and it was a testament to growth over the course of these trails.

Day 25: Mile 436.6 - 456.0

Trail Daily Miles: 19.4
Total Daily Miles: 19.6
Total Trail Mileage: 456.0
Elevation Gain: 3737 ft
Elevation Loss: 3944 ft
Weather: Sun, Thunderstorm, Tons of Rain
Overall Day Sentiment: Trail Angels are truly angels

I feel like at this point it is commonly known that hikers, including myself, are very much food motivated. There was a comment on FarOut, which is our mapping application, that there was going to be trail magic until 5:00pm this day. It was 19 miles ahead to where the trail magic would be so myself, Gambit, and Stevie Wonder all had targeted to be there by 4:00pm so we can enjoy the magic.

I hiked with Stevie a lot this day, which was a nice way to break up some of the miles. And overall, this was a normal and pleasant hiking day.

I arrived at Trail Magic on time and oh boy trail magic it was. Large tents were set up to block an outdoor kitchen from getting rained on. There was a griddle, a smoker, tables, ample amounts of chairs, and a group f of wonderfully warm people.

While Stevie Gambit and I were there with a group of other hikers, it started down pouring rain but thankfully we were under the tents. I had planned about another 5 miles for the day so that I could have a short day the following day into Damascus, Virginia.

The three trail angels; Mac, Lunch, and offered something Stevie, Gambit, and I could not refuse. They had gotten a place in Damascus and offered for us to stay there overnight. They were coming back to the same location to do trail magic the next morning so they would drop us off at this exact location. Essentially we would slack pack the last 15 miles into town rather than hiking anymore for the day.

This sounded too good to be true, so we took them up on it. In addition, more hikers (Denmark, Walkabout, and Reboot) also got this kindness. What a joy!

We were able to make a group dinner while listening to the absolute torrential rain that was falling outside. There were nine of us and it was a cozy evening. I got to shower and do laundry a day earlier than I thought which is always a treat. All 3 of the gracious hosts had previously hiked the trail and gave great insights.

There was also 3 absolute angel dogs which mended my heart a bit from missing my sweet Roo.

Day 26: Mile 456.0 - 471.1

Trail Daily Miles: 15.1
Total Daily Miles: 15.6
Total Trail Mileage: 471.1
Elevation Gain: 2101 ft
Elevation Loss: 3593 ft
Weather: Mist, Sun, Rain
Overall Day Sentiment: Post office logistics, ugh.

It was a quiet morning heading back to the trail with the trail angels (saints?). I had a package to pick up at the post office that included new shoes so I was in the second group that went up a little bit later.

Unfortunately, despite my sweet Darline’s best efforts the two day shipping was not there even at day five. Bless Uber, who handled me crying about my package and therefore potentially a forced zero day because of the weekend. She and Mac came up with a plan to get some miles in the following day despite the logistical hurdle that was the post office. Bless their steadiness.

In any case, I had 15 miles to slackpack back into Damascus. These miles went quick as they were mostly downhill and it was a joy to hike in to such a famous part of the Appalachian Trail.

Myself, Gambit, Stevie, and Denmark were all staying with the trails again that night, which was an utter gift. I went to the grocery store and bought treats to bake because I had a kitchen at my disposal in addition to it feeling like a day worth celebrating.

Being around such a wonderful people within the AT community and celebrating getting to Virginia was a fantastic evening. A few other hikers including Petroglyph were able to join as well! It rained again, which made me all the more thankful to be inside with the roof over my head for the second night in a row.