Back at camp we assessed our gear and our physical status. For the first time I had no aches and pains from hiking. A breakthrough! Carol, however, had blisters on her heels that said, “No more boots for us, thanks.” Aside from the blisters and a little stiffness, Carol was in great shape for a gal who had hiked nearly 18 miles. But it was time to pull out the map and figure out a Plan B.
For Day Two I chose 3 short trails where Carol could drop me off at one end and pick me up at the other and still work in a stop for her at the Visitors Center. First was the Flat Creek Trail which begins at the Heintooga Ridge picnic area, goes for 2.6 miles and pops out again on Heintooga Ridge Road. As I walked along I realized with dismay that this was a great trail, hitting all the highlights of a long trek in the Smokies in a little bit of mileage…why dismay? Because it would have been a great “last trail” for friends and family to join me on as I complete my hiking adventure. Ah well…I still plan to revisit this trail, perhaps in the fall, because it has it all, some ups, some downs, a creek, several footlog crossings, some flat area, beautiful flowers (fly poison everywhere). And of course…I forgot Carol’s camera, so you’ll have to take my word for it all.
One down side to my solo walk here – I got that creepy feeling again as I walked through a level area by the creek that was grown over with blueberry bushes. If I were a bear I would have had a summer home here. I knew that Carol was only 30 minutes away and we had set our watches for her to come looking for me at a certain time, but I still felt apprehensive. Perhaps it was the dampness, perhaps it was all that vegetation making it hard to see. The feeling went away as I began the last climb back up to the road. After this hike the plan was for Carol to drop me off for a 5-mile hike with begin and end points along Newfound Gap Road, but I decided to save that for another day.
From the Balsam Moun
tain area we headed toward the little town of Cherokee and the Oconaluftee River Trail. Now, this is a trail I could do anytime on my own, as it is a 1.5-mile river walk from the town out to the Oconaluftee Visitors Center. But we devised a plan for Carol to drop me off in town, I would walk to meet her at the VC, and then she would shoulder my pack and do the walk back into town and I would pick her up. She was wearing her trusty Crocs but it was a flat walk. She wanted to test drive my pack as part of her AT thru-hike research. What a great plan! So we felt like we got a lot accomplished.To round out the day we stopped in Arden NC (near Asheville) at Diamond Brand Outdoors to check out all the cool backpacking/camping gear and get some demos for stuff Carol is going to need. For safekeeping I placed my car key on the front seat and carefully locked the door. After a nice lunch the AAA guy came and unlocked my car. Moral of story: always give an extra car key to your hiking buddy…or at least have a hiking buddy as patient as Carol!
Backcountry Campsite #39 near Pretty Hollow and Palmer Creek Trails has a campfire waiting for you. 
A lovely field of red bee Balm on Pretty Hollow
Stones on the Oconaluftee River’s edge
No comments:
Post a Comment