A true mountain "bald" on the approach to Big Bald Mountain View of Nolichucky River from 1,500 feet high on Cliff Ridge    5-22-05

Repeat daily.

Every morning, I wake up anxious to start on the Trail. Even though I read the ATC guide books and peruse the maps, I still don't know exactly what surprises await me each day. I like that.

On the Trail, I'm at my peak mentally and physically in the mornings. The creative juices are flowing. I'm more sociable with other hikers. I enjoy the views more, take more photos, think more thoughts, write more notes.

After about six hours of happily climbing up and down mountains, I start to focus on how many more miles and mountains there are in that day's section. I don't stop for as many views, take as many pictures, talk to hikers as much, or write much. My brain is focused on getting to the finish.

I'd love to be able to do this trek with every run capped at six hours, but I'd never get done!

By eight hours, I have "trail daze." Fatigue has numbed my brain as much as my legs. I just want to be done. Every uphill blip on the elevation profile seems like a mountain to me. The climbs get insanely steep. The last miles are always longer than advertised.

Sounds just like in an ultra race, doesn't it??

Then I get in our truck, Jim drives us "home" to our current campsite, and I admire all the beautiful mountains along the way, proud that I just climbed a bunch of them. But all I want to do at that point is get cleaned up, eat a large quantity of food, and sleep.

By morning, I'm re-charged and ready to repeat the process again!

BALD IS BEAUTIFUL

The major climb today was up to Big Bald Mountain over a stretch of seven miles. I started at 3,170 feet and roller-coastered my way up to the summit at 5,516 feet.

The first photo above was an unnamed bald below Big Bald's peak. I just love these bald balds in the southern Appalachians. The forest service mows some of them periodically to keep them grassy. Otherwise, aggressive woody trees and shrubs like rhododendrons and laurels soon take over the summits and obscure the spectacular 360-degree views like those from Max Patch and Big Bald.

The Trail was beautiful all the way up to Big Bald, with flowers covering the hillsides and annual grasses growing along the deeply cut path near the top. Since there were no trees for the AT blazes, they were painted on posts. A blue-blazed foul-weather trail traversed the mountain at a lower elevation; the ATC advises using it during fog or rain because hikers can have problems seeing the blazes and get disoriented or lost on top the bald.

I didn't have to worry about that today. It was sunny and warm, with puffy white clouds in the sky. The breeze was stiff on top of Big Bald but I wasn't up there long enough to have to put on my jacket. The guide says bad weather can move in fast, and advises hikers to be prepared. Weather there can be as unpredictable as higher mountains above tree line.

WHERE DID ALL THE HIKERS GO?

On such a beautiful Sunday, I couldn't help but wonder where all the hikers were. There was a dirt road to the top of Big Bald, but no one was there. I had the whole place to myself!

I passed a young section hiker from Alabama about five minutes after I started this morning, then saw no one until five hours later as I began the steep climb up the Trail along a creek just beyond the Spivey Gap/US 19W road crossing. Three folks had walked up a couple hundred feet and were sitting on a little wooden bridge, talking. They appeared to have come from church, not out for a day of hiking.

Jim was the next person I saw. He and Cody ran in about four miles to meet me at the end. He met "Still Walking," a woman I'd met back near Standing Indian almost two weeks ago, but I never caught up to her. So my hiker count today was one plus Jim in an almost nine-hour period. Amazing!

There were at least five north-bound hikers ahead of me today though. They all signed the register at No Business Knob shelter (another of those odd place names!). I saw that Warren and Terry Doyle went through at 10:45 AM on the 20th. I'm three days behind their group now.

FREE FALL

After summitting High Rocks (which has a massive rock wall similar to the one above Carvin's Cove on the AT near Roanoke) at 4,280 feet, the Trail mostly traversed the sides of the remaining mountains and lost 2,580 feet over the last twelve miles (lots of ups and downs along the way, of course). Much of the Trail was runnable today, including the two-mile free-fall (1,500 feet) at the end down to the Nolichucky River.

I was sorry Jim didn't go the first seven miles with me this morning so he could see Big Bald, but I'm glad he got to see the last four miles of beautiful trail today. So much of the AT is rocky and he gets frustrated when he can't really run on it, so he was a happy boy flying down that smooth trail to the river!

The views of the river and the town of Erwin, TN were outstanding, too. It reminded me of looking down at the American River from the Western States trail. Many laurels lined the Trail through this section, but I wasn't able to frame a good shot of the river with the flowers in the photo.

"MISS JANET" AND "STILL WALKING"

Still Walking, AKA Robin from Connecticut (pictured on the right), was waiting with Jim at our truck when I finished my run today. (I encouraged Jim to run his own speed back down the mountain to the Nolichucky). He'd promised Robin a ride to the popular hiker hostel in nearby Erwin, TN.

It was good to chat further with her as we made the short drive. She's on summer break from the college where she teaches, and hopes to do her thru-hike in just over four months. Robin's been averaging about 16 miles a day, walking 10-12 hours. She's having trouble eating enough on the Trail to keep her energy up, so I told her about the Hammer Nutrition products I'm using. It seems to me that hikers could benefit from the gels and drinks (Perpetuem and Sustained Energy) as much as I am.

I'd read about the hostel in Erwin in several hikers' Trail journals, so I was happy to meet "Miss Janet," on the left above. She runs the place and caters to the hikers, taking them to the grocery, fixing scrumptious meals, driving them to nearby trailheads so they can slack-pack a day if they want, etc. She's a lively, personable lady who obviously loves people. I'm kinda sorry we can't stay at her place and enjoy the hospitality.

Notice the white blaze on the tree in her front yard?

I'm off to bed now. Let's see . . . I start tomorrow's run on the bridge over the Nolichucky River at 1,700 feet. You know what that low elevation means??

Big Clue:  the highest elevation for tomorrow is 5,180 feet. Lotsa UPHILL tomorrow!

That might not be so good for my right Achilles tendon, which started hurting yesterday at Blackstack Cliffs. The downhill today made my left inner knee/quad(s) sore, the very same place I had this problem two weeks ago with the other knee. I've been icing both places all night.

Sue "Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, Cody, and Tater Previous       Next Send an e-mail message to Sue & Jim   © 2005 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil