Fontana Dam, NC to Garenflo Gap, NC

Day 11, Sunday, October 8

Roaring Fork Shelter to Garenflo Gap, NC, 8.3 miles

The temperature is 28 degrees when I get up at 7:00 AM. Come on sun. It's cold. I boil water and make a hot breakfast of grits. It helps! We pack up and get out of Dodge by 8:20 AM. We've got a long day ahead. We leave some food for Larry and leave him behind at the shelter.

We cross Lemon Gap a few minutes later and begin the climb up Walnut Mountain. We reach the top before 10 AM. There is a small shelter at the top that's not mentioned in my book.

I spy an apple tree near Kale Gap and stop to pick up some apples. They're almost ripe and although sour, they taste pretty good. The climb up Bluff Mountain is long!

Near the top we see a campsite to our right at approximately noon. There is a red Kelty sleeping bag spread out on the ground with a big lump under it. I walk over and look around. It doesn't look quite right. The lump under the bag turns out to be a clothes bag full of things that the sleeping bag is covering. There is a tarp under it that is soaking wet. It looks like someone just left all of his gear behind scattered on the tarp with the sleeping bag thrown over it. I don't want to disturb anything too much so we continue on.

We walk up the hill on the trail and find a huge pile of fresh bear scat in the middle of the trail three hundred yards further up. I decide to walk back down to the campsite and look around some more. I look around the site in circles about 50-75 yards away from the site, but I don't see anything else unusual. I walk back over to the gear and poke it around some more.

The top of the sleeping bag looks relatively dry, but the interior looks wetter. The clothes bag looks relatively dry. There are eyeglasses lying there out of their case. Food and toiletries lay scattered on the tarp under the sleeping bag. I try not to disturb things too much, but I don't find any identification or names on anything. Finally I give up and walk back to the top of Bluff Mountain. I meet Mike halfway. We decide to move on and report what we've found in Hot Springs.

If the climb up Bluff Mountain was long, the hike down the other side is even longer. The trail is in good condition, but it is very long and downhill and beats muscles up that are already tight from the cold. The temperature hasn't climbed above 40 degrees yet, and when you stop hiking for a minute it is chilly.

There are several trail relocations over the next several miles that don't agree with my book. It feels longer than 3.7 miles down the mountain and probably is. We finally reach a US Forest Service road and rest, eating the last of our snacks at 1:30 PM. I read the trail book and tell Mike and Bob that we will reach Garenflo Gap in less than a mile. They can decide then if they want to stop. I'll leave my pack with them and finish hiking to Hot Springs and pick up the van. Then I'll drive back and pick them up at the gap. Or we may be able to get a ride out at the gap.

Less than 20 minutes later we meet a girl day-hiking with two dogs. We talk for a few minutes and continue downward. We reach Garenflo Gap shortly after 2 PM and rest there trying to decide what to do. Two southbound thru-hikers pass as the girl with the dogs comes back to where she has parked.

I ask her for a ride to the road below and she obliges. We climb into the back of her truck and enjoy the bouncy cold trip back to civilization. At the highway she stops and we start to get out of the back of the truck. I ask her if she knows how far it is to Hot Springs. She doesn't know, but thinks it is less than 10 miles. I groan. When she offers to give us a ride to Hot Springs, we readily accept.

Riding in the back of the truck is cold, but it will save us some time. We reach Hot Springs and bail out thanking her for the ride. I walk up the hill to the USFS parking lot beside the closed Jesuit Hostel and get the van. It feels good to sit down.

I take a wrong turn on the way to Waterville to pick up Mike's car and end up driving twenty miles up a dirt road that leads to Max Patch. My brother and I argue about whether this is the right way or not. He was right. It isn't. But at least I know how to get to Max Patch by road now. After backtracking back to the highway, we finally reach Waterville at 4:30 PM. We decide to stop at Mountain Moma's grill for a final cheeseburger plate. We leave for home shortly after 5:15 PM. On the way home Mike decides to head to my fathers to spend the night, and Bob decides to spend the night with me before heading back to Raleigh tomorrow. We reach home at 7:30 PM.