On Friday, September 16th, 2011, at 11pm, our group of 4 (and Davis’ dad Woody) met at the Cherokee Orchard trailhead. We left 2 cars full of food and water at this trailhead and Woody shuttled us to Newfound Gap for the start of our trek. After getting a group picture made at the TN/NC sign, we proceeded north on the AT toward the Boulevard Trail. Start time: 11:51 pm
Bright headlamps and spirited conversation sped our journey along. Before we knew it, we were leaving the AT to begin the Boulevard Trail. We encountered dense fog for a few miles, which prevented our headlamp beams from reaching the ground. It’s weird what happens to your eyesight when you can only see a white glow about 4 feet on front of you. Eventually, we climbed above the layer of fog and were able to enjoy a near full moon, Jupiter and a sky full of stars. Mountain landscapes take on a different kind of beauty under a full moon.
After nearly 3.5 hours, we reached the top. We stopped at the Myrtle Point trail junction and High Point long enough to grab a photo and then proceeded to the lodge. We spent about 20 minutes eating a snack and filling up our water bladders before beginning our descent down Bull Head Trail.
The highlight of this slow descent in the dark was watching Davis sleep walk. In fact, all of our bodies were telling us that we shouldn’t be awake at 4am! Hiking in the dark has it’s own challenges and it’s really kind of boring since you can’t see anything except the heels of the guy in front of you. We made it to our cars as daylight was breaking.
After refueling, filling our water bladders, and spending about 30 minutes off of our feet, we began the unrelenting ascent of Rainbow Falls Trail (+4,000′). Including a snack break along the way, we reached the top in about 3 hours, marking the halfway point of our journey. Tyler wanted to be sure it was mentioned that Rainbow Falls is the “worst trail in the universe”.
A word about the weather: we couldn’t have asked for better hiking conditions. We had light sprinkles once; temps varied between low 40’s and low 60’s. Short sleeves or no shirt (Davis) were worn on the way up each time. A light jacket was needed from time to time.
After a 20 minute lunch break at the top, we began the rocky descent of Trillium gap trail. There was lots of evidence that the llamas had been on the trail the day before. Once we passed Grotto Falls, we saw many “civilians”, which led us to believe that the trailhead was nearby. Within a mile, we encountered the 2.5 mile connector trail that lead us back over to our cars. This is a relatively easy trail, except for the fact that it seemed to be 10 miles long.
When we arrived at the cars around 2pm, Woody was there with Subway sandwiches. We refilled on water and snacks, including Honey Stinger energy gels and chews, and Woody shuttled us to Greenbriar for the final leg of our journey. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of this trip was getting out of the car and starting to climb again.
We started up the Porter Creek trail/gravel road about 3:15pm, with only 9.1 miles left to climb. Shawn blazed the way along the Brushy Mountain Trail. This trail definitely earned its name, with stinging nettle all along the sides of the trail.
We made it to the top for the final time around 7:30pm and spent about 25 minutes recovering before the final 5.5 mile descent down Alum Cave Trail.
Aching knees and sore feet kept us at a reasonably slow pace. Nonetheless, we averaged 2.7 mph on the way down. The sand and fog at Alum Cave Bluffs made it hard to see where to go. The sand reflected the light in a way that made it look like freshly fallen snow and it hid the rocks causing us to trip a few times. After descending the stairs through the cave, we knew we had about 1 mile to go.
As we followed the river for that final stretch, we were convinced that someone had moved the bridge that leads over to the parking area. We shouted for joy when we finally saw it. When we neared the parking area, Woody was waiting for us with a bucket of KFC and a cooler of root beer and ginger ale.
We completed our journey in 22 hours and 2 minutes, with an overall average pace of 2.4 mph. We were physically exhausted, but emotionally satisfied.
Davis posted on Facebook that this was truly a ONCE in a lifetime opportunity. I think the rest of us would agree… at least until the soreness and bad memories wear off.
Here are our time splits for each section:
That’s incredible ! Congrats to all of you on an amazing hiking accomplishment ! Way to go Davis !