Katahdin to Kakadjo Road ME October 3-9, 2018 din

5/20-5/27 2008


TN Waterville School Road to Erwin


with Bruce and Dave
5/20 Wildcat camp area Ascended steep 6 mile hike to camp ground and water. High Tec Boots were too small and developed bad set of blisters! 5/21 Walnut Springs Shelter Hiked up 1500' to Max Patch which has 360 views and windy! Tough hiking with great rewards and water. 5/22 Hot Springs 15 miles hiked up Bluff Mtn to Hot Springs where we camped next to French Broad River, reprovisioned, and ate dinner at Pedlar Inn. Nice outfitter in this town where I should have replaced my shoes. 5/23 Stealth camp site near Allen Gap 16 miles plus 2 wasted! Hiked up Spring and Rich Mountains which were long and rocky. Big lack of water. Got desperate and stopped at Tanyard pond which was terrible source that clogged our ceramic filters. Climbed a fire tower trail looking for water to no avail. But as luck would have it found a spring 200 yards down trail from that point. Allen Gap had a sign to a campground that we attempted to find and went back to trail to stealth site. No water despite rain storm! When trying to find campground ran into local redneck who would not share hose water with us! Scary dude with few teeth! 5/24 Flint Mountain Shelter 18 miles of rocky ups and downs up Camp Creek and Bald Mtns to a steep descent to Flint Shelter which has a running creek next to it. Can bathe and wash clothes. Met two brothers from California who we would see later; they were complaining about trail being tough-- no wonder their packs were way too heavy. They gapped trail to Johnies because they were there before us at the end of our hike section. Also met young couple hiking with huge St Bernard. 05/25 Bald Mtn Shelter 21 miles A tough hike with little water stopping at Hogback shelter for lunch. Hiked past I-26 and once again hiked fast and waterless heading to Big Bald. Near Wolf Laurel ski area ran into trail magic water and decided to eat dinner before climbing to Big Bald shelter. Arriving before dark I met Achilles, a thru hiker from Minnesota who was reading a book perched on a fallen tree. 05/26 No Business Shelter 11 miles This was a easy gradual descent trail past a burned out area that was still smoldering especially near rhododendrons along the trail 05/27 7 miles Johnies at Erwin on Nolichucky Easy hike downhill which I limped down with my blisters and swollen feet. Took showers and met our friends from California. Left my Nike trail shirt which Johnie mailed back to me later that month. We drove to Johnson City and ate at Kootie Browns which was fabulous -- all the local bikers eat there because of the great food. Had to hang my feet out the back window to get relief and went to Doc next day for antibiotics treatment.