This is just a WARNING to anyone hiking between Stechoa Gap and Fontana Dam. My son and I hiked this section this weekend, and we encountered a CRAZY situation with yellow jackets. At around 8pm we had just passed a FULL (8) hiker party at Cody Gap where we intended to tent for the night. We decided to move head on the trail and seek out a more private area to camp. About .2 north from Cody Gap there's a large rock sitting right on the trail. It looks like a perfect place to sit down and take a break, like the many others you see on the AT, so we did. I put both of our packs on the rock, and we sat down to rest and study our map.
We found out quickly that there's a LARGE yellow jacket nest under these rocks! We had to run down the trail leaving our gear behind. We each were stung a few times, and luckily walked away with no issues. When I returned to get our gear it was swarmed and crawling with yellow jackets. I'm not talking a few either.. it was INSANE. A cloud of yellow jackets were surrounding this rock and our packs were covered with them. It was getting dark fast, so I had to act quickly. I had to use a LONG (10-12ft) dead tree limb to fish our packs and trekking poles off the rock and drag them down the trail several yards. I also had to destroy all the stragglers stuck in the nooks and crannies of our packs. By now it's dark and we had to night hike about a mile up the trail before we found a nice tent site and setup camp.
The next day we met a few other hikers that were stung in the same area just walking past the rock, so please be careful on this section of the trail. You WILL get attacked if you go anywhere near that rock, and you cannot avoid it without bushwhacking around it up the side of the mountain.
Takeaways:
1. A long dead limb can be used to successfully manipulate items in/near an agitated nest.
2. Essentials and medical supplies are best carried in a pouch or pocket that never leaves your body.
3. It could have gone bad quickly if either of us had a negative reaction to the stings since our medical supplies were in the packs.
4. Hiking in the forest during late summer sucks for several reasons. Find something else to do during these months.