Nine Days With The Pit Vipers

[Tipi Walter]

BACKPACKING THE CITICO/SLICKROCK WILDERNESS
June 26-27-28-29-30 July 1-2-3-4

Durham Magnus and Brad
The Alabama 3
Water Snake at Wildcat
Copperhead on the Slickrock Trail
19th Nutbuster
Nine Boy Scouts from South Carolina

DAY ONE
The bugs are bad at my first reststop, little black flies are everywhere amongst the jewelweed by a nearly dried up creek so I can't tarry long on the trail.
SNOW CAMP SPRING
The water here on the BMT trail going to Fodderstack Ridge is very low and sort of sad. It's the slow desertification of America, the slow drying up of our portion of paradise and the premature aging of a once bountiful and beautiful land.
OVERNIGHT AT SNOW CAMP
It feels good to once again be on the high ground and out of the oppressive lowlands.
AFTER DINNER
The sun is shining to my right and there's thunder to my left with an incoming wind bringing something interesting. What was supper? Frozen butternut squash with a veggie patty and 3 pieces of toast with blueberry jam and a granola bar.

DAY TWO
Day 2 starts with hot nettle tea and a sudden rainstorm at 6 am, early enough to use the headlamp for stove use but too early to be caught in this quick downpour. How long it lasts is anyone's guess, and I imagine my friend Magnus who is coming to Beech Gap with a friend today from Asheville will possibly be backpacking in the rain as they shuttle 2 cars, one down in Tapoco at the bridge and one at the gap.
WARMTH LAYERS
Despite the sultry daytime temps in the 90s, I'm sitting in the dark at 4500 feet in merino bottoms and 2 silk turtleneck tops with a thick watchcap on my head. Just trying to cut the morning chill.
LEAVING SNOW CAMP
Thru the wet brush I climbed up several hundred feet to the Bob tee where I sit now wet and hot but cooling quick. With a 9 day trip in the works, Shunka and I are loaded down with excessive food but summer gear otherwise--a summer bag and pad, no gloves and a lightweight silk midlayer instead of the usual heavy merinos.
NAKED GROUND FOR WATER AND ON TO WATAUGA CAMP
I did the short climb up to Watauga Camp where I sit now preparing to set up the tent and waiting to see if Magnus passes by on his way to the Hangover.
BIG STORM
Right after a hot lunch of eggs and veggie sausage I pulled gear into the tent and hunkered inside as a mean thunderstorm with rain pelts Four Mile Ridge and this ridgetop campsite.

DAY THREE
MIDMORNING MOVEOUT
I left camp and Four Mile Ridge partway in the morning and climbed up and over Haoe Peak to arrive at the Hangover to link up with Magnus and Brad as they were packing. We surveyed the overlook one last time and then the 3 of us hit the South Lead trail past Elysium Fields where I got in front and left them behind. I breezed thru Big Fat Gap and since I had no water kept going to the high crossing where I sit now after filtering a liter and washing my arms, hair and face before heading down to the Slickrock.
WILDCAT CAMP
At 7:30 everything turned dark and a stiff wind kicked up thru camp and suddenly a fierce rainstorm hit with thunder in the clouds above. BTW, when I got here to swim I saw a banded water snake all stretched out on the rocks so we said our hellos and I took several fotogs. TO BE CONTINUED . . .

FOTOGS
First night at Snow Camp
Hot and sweaty to the Bob
Trail buddy on the ridge
Magnus at the Hangover
Brand and Magnus on the trail

[Tipi Walter]

NINE DAYS WITH THE PIT VIPERS
June 26-27-28-29-30 July 1-2-3-4 2008

DAY FOUR
I get up at 4 am in a sudden downpour to retrieve all 3 food bags and insert them into the vestibule where I zip up the door and let the rain have at it. This time the stuff comes w/o thunder and w/o lightning, just a series of pregnant clouds overhead in the valley dropping a typical spring rain that should've come repeatedly in April and in May.
10 CROSSINGS
I made it down the Slickrock w/o seeing a single serpent, pit viper, python or black mamba. I reached Slisgah Camp(SLIckrock/pISGAH)and checked out all the camps down to the Ike Branch/BMT junction and circled back to set up camp next to the sound of the holy Slickrock.
OVERNIGHT AT SLISGAH CAMP
Dusk slowly comes to camp with the food bags hung and Shunka tethered. All is quiet at 10 pm as I wait for another day of backpacking and the start of the 19th Nutbuster. This trail journal bores me, I have nothing of import to say, no screeds on Syphilization or pollution-rants, nothing worth reading this time around. Click away and find somebody else's journal to read, but good luck as it's a tiresome search wading thru trail journals full of donut commentaries, town trips, motel musings, hot shower soliliques and fellow trail-named strangers endlessly parading.

I've tried to find trail journals I could copy and take out with me to read, things that would captivate and intice, but quickly they all merge nto one big touristy travelogue full of aches and pains and zero day descriptions. When I get back I'll once again pick a year and go down the list desperately hoping to find a journal I can read from front to back and keep my interest. Many are written by newbies to the world of sleeping out and backpacking and so describe mundane events and emotions too wearisome to read. Others are just a long stifling litany of trailnames of other backpackers they meet on the trail as I topple forward in a near coma. But I'll keep searching for that perfect backpacking journal and when I find it I'll let you know.

DAY FIVE
ON THE TRAIL UPSTREAM--COPPERHEAD!
I left camp and the BMT by passing thru Stiffknee camp and pulled 5 crossings before stumbling over and nearly onto a stretched out copperhead on the trail--Shunka walked right past her and I caught the blowback but danced backwards right at the last second and got to hang out and talk to my beautiful copper and tan brother/sister snake. After stomping my feet 3 times, Miss Snake took off and quickly found her way into her home under a crack in the rocks.
ON THE ROCKS
I'm sitting at Wildcat Falls on the big rock and I see my banded water snake buddy sticking his little head out from under his rock home and we say hello to each other. He reminds me of a snake who lived at the Pisgah swimhole and who'd stick his head out by the waterfall and watch me and Johnny B swim. He was our companion and buddy for years and I think of him now as I see his relative doing the same at this swimhole.
OVERNIGHT AT BURNTHOUSE CAMP
Rain seemed imminent so I left Wildcat and humped it up the beginning part of the Nutbuster to arrive at this high island camp between 2 creeks where I sit now eating and looking at the tent. I put up a small 8 stone cairn in the middle of camp to be toppled over by the first irritated hiker or redneck to see it.

DAY SIX
I'm up at 2:30 am to tackle the torso, seize the sycamore, observe the oak, manhandle the mesquite and pee. All references to peeing herein described are real and actually depict the aforementioned act of urination, hence the metaphor of the mesquite tree with its dangling peapods, etc. Budding authors and chroniclers take note, the joy of writing comes with accurately describing each bodily orifice and its operation, etc.
ON THE NUTBUSTER TRAIL--19TH TIME
The water is nearly gone on section 5 of the Nutbuster and the open cove is now a sunny briar filled hemlock graveyard as every towering behemoth is now dead but standing. So, with more sunlight reaching the ground, the briars, weeds and brambles take over. The always dependable springs on this trail are 80% gone and it is sad.
OVERNIGHT AT NAKED GROUND
I pulled into Naked and feel good about it--very good. Boy, that trail needs work!

FOTOGS
Water snake at Wildcat
Shunka swimming in the Slickrock
My Hilleberg on the Slickrock
Heading up the Slickrock trail
Miss Copperhead looking good

[Tipi Walter]

NINE DAYS WITH THE PIT VIPERS
June 26-27-28-29-30 July 1-2-3-4 2008

DAY SEVEN
Another morning comes to another day of backpacking and I look forward to packing later and moving up a 500 foot hill to the Bob to check out the spring and then from there it's anyone's guess.
REVIEW OF THE PROLITE 4 LARGE
This is a great lightweight sleeping pad and though thin can be inflated fully and firmly to allow a sitting person to not feel his butt touch the ground. Though made of thinner denier than the regular thermarests, it seems touch enough to handle all tent conditions when an inside tarp is used in addition to a floor. Winter useage is the only time this pad might not be ideal as it's R-value insulating quality is low, hence the need for a regular 1.75-2 inch Expedition/Trail Comfort or Trail Pro mattress. Another advantage to the Prolite pad is its ability to be folded in half and rolled making it easier to stow in the pack and not having to hang it on the outside.
LEAVING NAKED GROUND
I was on the trail by 9:30 in comfy temps under a sunny sky and I sit at the beginning of the Bob Wall by the Horse Cove trail junction. July is rattlesnake month on the Bob so I fully expect to see one up in the tall grass or down by the spring.
OVERNIGHT AT SOUTH COL CAMP
I'm in the shade in cool temps and feel good about backpacking here to the Bob for one of my final nights of Trip 79. No rattlers here but I'll do a thorough search later when the sun is overhead. I love the rattlers and like Doug Peacock I can understand the need for such dangerous animals in the wilderness. Like the grizzly, a rattlesnake gives a natural peril to the outdoor world. Both are unpredictable and both can be anywhere at anytime.
CELEBRATING DEPENDENCE DAY
July Fourth brings another holiday and another Dependence Day, a day allowing Americans to reflect on our drooling addiction and dependence to oil, electricity, cars, TV, computers, indoor couches and all the rest. I'm as addicted as everyone else.
SUNSET ON THE BOB
The end of Day 7 comes slowly and coolly under the shade trees at 5260 feet. South Col Camp is a friendly place to spend the night, due mostly to these shade trees all around.
THE MIGHTY HEMLOCK IS GONE
The southern forest will miss the mighty hemlock. I'll miss the mighty hemlock. Most of my backpacking memories include the mighty hemlock in snowy repose, but those memories also include days of rain and a green forest trickling with a thousand small streams. We've entered a new era, a time of drought and meanness, of rattlesnakes at 5000 feet and snowless winters, of weeks without rain and bare rock. I can only think back to the start of my backpacking life when it was not uncommon to be out in a 96 hour rain, when it was hard to move in deep snow, when Sorel pack boots were a winter necessity.

The eastern forest may soon be like the California forest, and by October the entire Appalachian chain may be burning with a thousand fires, and Miss Nature will declare war on everyone, even on Uncle Fungus. She'll show me small pockets of relief, like here at South Col or down at Buckeye Camp, but when I move I'll be moving thru a war zone with a tight-lipped Mother Green by my side. She let the hemlocks go and she won't have a problem with the humans. We are fleas and she'll rub us off her back.

DAY EIGHT
DAWN ARRIVES IN COOL TEMPS
Paradise comes in small packages, a morning frost here, a cooling breeze there, and I take it with thanks.
LEAVING THE BOB
I'm all packed up and sitting by my pack on the bald after getting 2 full liters of water for my journey down to Snow Camp. It's hot up here so I gotta move.
BACK AT SNOW CAMP
I made it off the Bob w/o incident and dropped off 700 feet to arrive at a breezy and shaded campsite beneath the last vestige of hemlocks and hardwoods. The BMT here looks quiet and empty as usual, it's a forgotten unused trail and will stay this way as long as the head honchos keep it free from shelters.
TRAIL SHELTER SCREED
Shelters are the bane of forest foot travel and wilderness backpacking. They are one more attempt to tame the wilderness and to keep the rolling couch potatoes(tourists)partway attached to the still-warm teat of Syphilization. They draw in moths of lazy comfort to the flame of man-made edifice, never allowing a person to be totally immersed in the outdoor experience. ULers love them but go figure, it means less weight for them.

The alcoholics love 'em and love the roaring nearby firepit and the drunken morning hangover as the wooden shelter becomes the next best thing to their neighborhood bar. The only thing missing is an electric outlet for their sodden karaoke. Shelters might have been fine back in the 1930s and '40s, when all of America was more rural and wild, but now sprawl invades the long trails and the last thing we need to see is another man-made exit booth on the foot propelled hiway. Haven't we seen enough of man's cleverness?
MY LAST NIGHT
Sunset and twilight finally comes to this high camp and I sit in the tent away from the few mosquitos and noseeums that sense my presence. They can't get thru the yellow netting which suits me.
RIDGETOP UNIVERSITY
This ridgetop university is where humans really learn about god and our place in the universe and every single creature we see crawls over the pews and prays in this natural cathedral. The orange newt I saw last week is exactly like me, and we both are crawling over the same beautiful body that so captivates us. We want nothing more than to rest on the soft surface of Miss Nature's breast, and the only real difference between the newt and myself is that it's my duty to protect the newt as any warrior would protect his children and his land.

DAY NINE
I'm awakened by the stink of east Tennessee air and so I get up and grab the pen and paper and write it down. Suddenly I don't wanna be here anymore. In about 6 hours I'll have enough light to move down the trail and so will end this backpacking trip. I lit my last stick of incense and it blows into the tent helping to change my mood.
I SEE THE FIRST LIGHT OF DAY
Yes, I'm up and see enough light in the sky to start packing and moving. First thing is stuffing the bag then rolling up the fleece jacket and silk midlayers. I won't bore ya with my routine, suffice it to say everything gets packed up and I'm ready to hit the 5-6 mile trail back out to Beech Gap.

FOTOGS
South Col Camp
Boy Scouts on the Bob
Two bugs wanting their privacy and happy to see me go
Saying goodbye to the woods

[_terrapin_]

Good stuff there, Tipi. Pictures and thoughts, both.

[ed bell]

Good stuff there, Tipi. Pictures and thoughts, both.I'll second that. Always a pleasure to check out your trip reports, pictures and commentary. One of the things I like best is the fact that these posts come straight from your trips and you seem to always try to share each trip with us. I know I comment almost each time you post a trip report. Mostly I do it to "bump" the thread so more people see it, cause it's good stuff. I thank you, again, for taking the time to share your experiences.

[Mr HaHa]

I third that. I appreciate your observations and thoughts. I also agree that the southern hills seem so terribly dry.