The day started promisingly. Rain had stopped and the high winds had diminished.
It continued interestingly. I passed spots of beautiful nature and fascinating history, and I met some friendly people.
And the day ended miserably.
Day 25, Jerry Cabin Shelter to Hogback Ridge Shelter
Friday, May 5, 2017
| Weather | Morning rain shower, with more rain in the afternoon and evening; turning much colder |
| Trail Conditions | Well-maintained, but overnight winds caused many blowdowns |
| Today's Miles | 15.5 miles |
| Trip Miles | 315.8 miles |
When the weather is cold or rainy it always seems to take me longer to get going in the morning. That certainly was the case today. I didn't leave camp until 8:30.
Everything was wet, but at least it wasn't raining.
The sun made a couple feeble attempts to shine, then seemed to simply give in and let the clouds take over.
After a short climb the trail led to a large open meadow. The presence of a fence and a man-made pond made it appear that this open area was once used for livestock grazing. I had hiked this section of the trail two or three times before and never saw any evidence of animals, so if that was once the case it isn't any longer.
The long, flat meadow made for easy hiking.
Up ahead I saw a couple hikers who had camped near me last night. Before long I caught up to them.
We had a nice chat and walked together for a while. They told me they were Dotcom (pictured left) and Queen from Maryland, and were section-hiking this section of the trail up to Spivey Gap.
Dotcom said she volunteers every Tuesday at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's office in Harpers Ferry, and told me to look for her if I happened to arrive there on a Tuesday.
Harpers Ferry seemed like a long ways away, but I filed away this information in hopes of reaching it when Dotcom was there.
As we walked together we came upon a granite memorial for Howard F. Bassette. The marker said he had been a thru-hiker in 1968. His ashes were scattered here following his death in 1987.
I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I found this memorial to be an annoyance. I'm surprised the U.S. Forest Service allowed it to be placed here.
Gravestones placed before the trail was constucted are part of an historic record of the land. A memorial like this is different. I'm sure the trail was important to Mr. Bassette, and placing a memorial here was meaningful to a few people. To the rest of us, though, it is jarringly unnatural and out of place in this setting. It detracts from the beauty of the area.
Dotcom and Queen stayed here because they had a cellphone signal and wanted to call their husbands, so I continued on.
A short distance later I came upon a bad weather trail similar to the one I used yesterday. The weather today didn't seem to justify taking this route, so I stayed on the white-blazed trail.
As it turned out, I was correct in thinking I didn't need to take the bad weather trail. The section of trail it bypassed wasn't difficult at all, bad weather or not. It was rocky, but certainly not as bad as Big Firescald Knob.
The trail remained mostly flat through this section. Despite the recent rain, it wasn't too muddy, so I was able to hike without difficulty.
As I mentioned before, I had already hiked this part of the trail. It had been several years since I was last here, but I kept thinking, "This doesn't look familiar to me."
Then I realized the trail had been relocated.
The trail that I remembered traversed over an old farm road. Out of curiosity and to confirm my memory, I walked a few yards off the trail and found the road. It was as badly eroded as I remembered it, which explains why the trail was moved.
After walking a couple hours I reached a side trail that led to grave markers for David Shelton and his nephew, William Shelton, and 13-year-old Millard Haire.
The Sheltons were Union soldiers during the Civil War. In July 1864 they left their unit and walked to this area, where they were joined by Haire. Some say the boy was helping them find their way home, though I wonder about this, given that the Sheltons had grown up in this area.
The three were ambushed and killed by Confederate soldiers from the 64th North Carolina Regiment, led by Lt. Col. J. A. Keith.
It’s still not clear why the Sheltons had left their unit as the war was going on. Some say the soldiers were on their way to visit family or to recruit for the Union Army. Others say they had deserted.
For a time, only two markers were placed here where they were buried. That’s because the government only paid for gravestones of solders.
Haire's family was unable to afford a stone marker, so for many years his grave was unmarked.
A marker for the boy was added later, between those of the two soldiers.
This is a sad but interesting bit of U.S. history. Like so many other stories of the war, though, there is much more to this one than stone markers can tell.
The ambush followed an incredibly sad chapter of history that happened near here just a few months earlier. It was one of the most infamous events of the war in this part of the South and is what I was referring to in yesterday's post.
Residents of western North Carolina and East Tennessee were much less sympathetic to the Confederacy than other southerners. Much of that attitude was because few people around here were slave owners. They were mountain people, not plantation owners, and they resented fighting a war for a cause that didn’t benefit them.
Confederates tried to coerce the locals to support them and convince the men to enlist in the army. In late 1862 and early 1863, that coercion took the form of withholding salt from residents of the Shelton Laurel community.
In January 1863 about 50 Union sympathizers from Shelton Laurel, including some who had deserted from Keith’s regiment, traveled to the county seat to retrieve their salt supply. In retaliation, Lt. Col. Keith ordered his men to Shelton Laurel. A gun battle broke out and a dozen residents were killed.
Keith then ordered his soldiers to round up 13 men and boys. They were marched toward Knoxville, Tenn., or so it seemed. The group didn’t go far.
The prisoners were ordered to halt. Then Keith ordered the men and boys executed, five at a time. Their bodies were dumped in a ditch.
The retaliation continued as the Confederates whipped and tortured Shelton Laurel women.
This shocking story is known today as the Shelton Laurel Massacre.
After the war, Keith was held for two years and eventually tried for the massacre. He was the only soldier involved in it to face trial.
Keith was convicted, but before he was sentenced he escaped.
Days later the state supreme court handed down a decision vindicating Keith, believing his claim that he had been ordered by Brigadier General Henry Heth to kill the Union sympathizers.
Keith was never apprehended.
Some days while I hike I come across a red eft walking across the trail, and today was one of those times.
A red eft is a juvenile eastern newt, which is a common resident of the trail and the eastern part of the U.S. At this stage in its life it lives on land, but later as it matures it will lose its bright color and change to a dull yellow-green. As an adult it will prefer to live near a small lake or stream.
I always thought a brightly colored creature as this would be easy prey for other animals and was surprised to find them so often in the open on the trail. I later learned their skin has a neurotoxin that protects them against predators.
Newts can live 12 to 15 years.
Throughout the day I occasionally had to navigate around a fallen tree. It was obvious these were recent blowdowns.
The trail maintenance volunteers from the Carolina Mountain Club will be kept busy for a while.
I stopped for lunch at Flint Mountain Shelter. Dotcom and Queen arrived a short time later. I also met Data and Rambo there.
I asked Rambo if she got her name because she was super tough. No, she said, it was because she carries a large knife.
While at the shelter the weather became noticeably colder. Then as I prepared to leave, it began to rain.
The rain remained steady for much of the afternoon. At one point it seemed to have stopped, so I paused to take off my rain jacket, but as soon as I did the rain started again.
Data passed me on the trail, and as he did he said he was hiking with a hiker named Juice, whose gear got soaked in last night's rain. Data asked if I saw Juice to pass along a message that he was planning to go the hostel that was just off the trail at Rector Laurel Road.
As I arrived at Devil's Fork Gap, Juice appeared, so I told him Data's message.
Just then a beat up, rattly truck pulled up and the driver asked us, "Are you the guy with the blisters?"
Neither one of us confessed to that problem, but Juice decided to let the guy drive him to the hostel.
Rector Laurel Road was a short distance over the next hill, and when I reached there I ran into Data. That allowed me to complete the communication loop by telling him Juice was already headed to the hostel.
After the trail crossed the road it began a long climb, which for the first half followed a stream called Sugarloaf Branch.
Before the trail turned away from the stream there appeared a lovely cascading waterfall. The rain had let up a bit, so I decided to spend a couple minutes stopped here to enjoy it.
The forest floor along the trail was thick with foliage. False Solomon's Seal was one of many plants to carpet the area with green and white.
May Apple was another plant that covered any space that wasn't the footpath. Despite the rain, or maybe because of it, the entire forest seemed to be painted in the same deep shade of green.
After climbing for more than 1,500 feet to the top of Divide Mountain, the trail descended, losing nearly half of the elevation gained before.
This side of the mountain was far less interesting. The foliage wasn't nearly as thick.
Perhaps, though, I wasn't as interested in the scenery because the cold and wet were beginning to seep in.
There was one oddity I found interesting, though. A survey marker was right in the middle of the trail.
Why was a marker in the middle, creating a trip hazard? Could the trail not be routed a couple feet left or right?
Who knows.
After reaching Rice Gap, where an ATV trail crossed the AT, the trail began another ascent. It began to rain again and become colder still. Now I was no longer just cold and wet, I was becoming impatient. I was ready for the day of hiking to end.
Naturally, when you begin to feel that way, the trail seems to never end.
Once I finally reached Hogback Ridge Shelter I was shivering and miserable. I needed to get out of my wet clothes and get some warm food in me as soon as possible.
I had learned recently of a new hostel that was up the trail near Sam's Gap, which was just 2.3 miles away. It seemed like that would be the best solution for my increasingly dire circumstances, so I decided to call and see if there was room for me.
There were so many people here at the shelter there was no way to get completely out of the rain. Standing at the side was the only way I could get out of the rain enough to avoid getting my phone wet as I tried to call the hostel. I was shivering so much that it took a couple attempts to dial the phone. When I finally dialed the number the connection was bad, so I had to try a couple more times before reaching the hostel.
They were full, I was told.
Left with no other choice, I pitched my tent and set off to get water. There again was a problem. The water source for this shelter was down a long trail. It was so long I felt like I was walking back to the last shelter before I finally got to the spring. The distance was said to be a quarter mile, but it seemed much longer.
The only fortunate part of this trip for water was the walking warmed me up a bit. By the time I got back to the shelter I wasn't shivering quite as much and was able to prepare dinner.
Once I hung my bear bag on one of the cables provided near the shelter, got into my tent and changed into dry clothes, I was feeling a bit better. I was still miserable, but at least I had been able to avoid hypothermia.
Comes a time when the blind man takes your hand
Says, "Don't you see?
Gotta make it somehow on the dreams you still believe
Don't give it up, you got an empty cup
That only love can fill, only love can fill"
Been walkin' all mornin', went walkin' all night
I can't see much difference between the dark and light
And I feel the wind and I taste the rain
Never in my mind to cause so much pain
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