| June 15, 2005 |
| Punchbowl
Shelter to Hog Camp Gap. |
| What a day for
adventure! The rain had stopped and the humidity tolerable.
A cool breeze felt great and dept me cooler. |
|
Open woods most of the day, easy hiking
with steep ups and downs of short duration. In 4 hours I had
covered the first 5 miles planned for the day. We had planned
to stop for the day at Brown Mountain Creek Shelter, but when we
arrived there, we decided to move on to Hog Camp Shelter Gap and
make it a 15 mile day. Simon swam in Little Irish Creek to
cool off. A new swinging bridge had just been built last year
over Little Creek making a reroute for the AT. Spirit and I
took pictures crossing the bridge before moving on North. |
|
Great views of Peddler Dam, while walking
through hardwoods and pines. Several creek crossings with a
lot of water falls and huge boulders. What a surprise at
Peddler Lake Rd., Trail Angels! Spirit and I had bacon and egg
sandwiches, cereal, pop, orange juice, coffee, cookies and a bunch
of other goodies. Mr. and Mrs. (Renegade and Tomboy) Williams
had camped along Peddler Lake Rd. for several days serving
thru-hikers. We probably sat there and talked to them for an
hour or more before moving on North. |
|
Before reaching Rt. 60, the trail went
through an old 1900"s chare cropping community of freed slaves.
We could see the remains of old stone fences. They lived a
very simple life as share croppers, raising corn, tobacco and small
gardens. If they had their own team of mules or horses, only
1/4 of the crop had to be shared with the land owner. If they
didn't have a team, the 1/2 of the crop were given to the owners of
the land. Taft Hughes an older gentleman who was a small boy,
lived in the 1900's community, told his recollections about the
community and his life to the forest service when the land was
purchased. Plaques honor the memory of the small community..
|
|
Arrived at Rt. 60, we were ready to tackle
Bald Knob, but guess What? More trail angles were waiting on
us! So we sat down and munched on brownies, apples and pop
while enjoying the company of the trail angels, Betty and "Shoe"
Shoemaker. Along came "Piney", Aubrey Taylor, trail angel for
27 years, to hand out pop. He showed us his copy of the
Appalachian Adventure with colored photos of the AT. Piney
told us about other thru-hikers he had met on the trail over the
years and about Taft Hughes. |
|
It was 5:00pm by the time we had decided to
move on toward Hog Camp. Piney offered to shuttle our packs to
Hog Camp where we could stash them, and then shuttle us back to Rt.
60 to hike north another 6 miles before dark. Good deal!!
We took him up on his offer. |
|
From Rt. 60 we stared hiking again at
7:35pm to make our planned final destination for the night. We
saw gorgeous evening views of the sunset and mountains from the
ridge bluffs. After stumbling over rocks, roots and logs, we
arrived at Hog Camp at 9:45pm. I pitched my tarp so
Simon and I could have a cool night of peaceful sleep without FROGS! |
|
Swing'n Jane and
Simon |
|
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