I woke up in a Marriott hotel bed so needless to say I was warm, comfortable and had a good nights sleep. Trigger and I shared a room, while Cushy and Wait a Minute shared another. I was up fairly early for breakfast at the hotel. Everyone was up pretty early actually as we had a big day ahead of us. Our goal was 20 miles. Cushy was on point with planning and had a shuttle ready to take us to our starting point for the day. But first, we needed to check in to our “home” for the week. We were staying at a bee farm in Erwin, TN called Cantarroso Farm.
We pulled into the gated farm and could see bee hives lined up as we drove down the dirt road to the owners home. We passed several small cabins as well. When we arrived at the house one of the owners greeted us. She walked us over to our cabin we’d be staying in. We dodged the chickens running around and offloaded some of our gear. We didn’t need it all since we’d be coming back here later this evening. We hopped in our shuttle and off we went.
Our shuttle driver was very friendly and knowledgeable about the area and hiking in general. He told us about several other trails he’d hiked in the US as well. The roads winded through the country and we could once again see the tops of mountains frosted with ice. We knew we’d be climbing up several of them so we dressed accordingly. Before we knew it we had arrived at our destination… Devil’s Fork.
The start of our hike was up a hill. It was gradual though, so a bit of warm up you could say. We were moving fast and making good headway. Snow partially covered the ground from the storm a few nights ago. The frozen trees and branches glistened as the sun reflected its light through the ice coating them. I stopped to take a few photos and lost sight of Trigger and Cushy ahead of me. I figured I’d catch up with them soon.
I came to a blue blaze leading up to what I thought was a fire tower. They often offer great views. I wasn’t sure if they took the blue blaze or not so I went up there to see and check out the tower. It ended up being a communications tower instead, which was locked, and not climbable. I didn’t see the others so I snapped a few pics and went back down to the AT.
There were quite a few beautiful views including one from White Rock Cliffs. I took more photos as I made my way through the mountains. I came across one with a plaque on it. It was called Howard’s Rock in memory of Howard McDaniel, a master trail builder.
I met another hiker that was wearing a kilt and went by the name Highlander. We hiked and chatted for while. We were on the exposed ridge line part of the trail. If weather is bad you can take another trail that doesn’t go up on the ridge line. Fortunate for us the weather was nice this day. We hiked until we came to a shelter. We met Kentucky Red there eating lunch. I ate a quick snack and headed up the trail to catch up with the others.
I came across a headstone in the middle of the woods, In the middle of nowhere. I wondered why it was there. Reading it, it sounded like this person hiked the AT, loved it, and wanted his ashes spread on this spot. Pretty cool.
I continued on my hike until I came to a weathered wooden sign that read Shelton Graves. Another blue blazed trail off the AT. I went to check it out. The trail led to an open area in the forest. Grass covered the ground and in the middle of this beautiful sanctuary stood a few more headstones surrounded by flowers. Shelton graves was a memorial for two union soldiers were killed while visiting family in the confederacy during the civil war. Someone still maintains this memorial all of these years later. Amazing.
In the final stretch of our planned 20 mile hike of the day was a shelter. It was right off the AT so I could see and hear everyone as I was walking by. Cushy and Trigger were hanging out waiting for me. There were quite a few others there as well. I met Pops and Book Bag. Cushy actually met Book Bag a year or so earlier on a completely different trail called the Long Trail. What a small world.
We hiked the last few miles together landing us on Log Cabin Road. We all sat and snacked and talked about our day while we waited on Wait a Minute and our shuttle driver to arrive. They both arrived nearly at the same time so we hopped in to head back to the bee farm.
When we arrived we went in the owners house. It was a beautiful farm house on a river. You could hear the sounds of river and see it clearly from their front porch. They welcomed us into their home, and gave us candy bars and then beer. We got to know them, got the “low down” on the place, talked about the next few days plans, asked where to find some dinner, and parted ways for the evening.
We made our way to a fast food restaurant called Pals. We were greeted by a very energetic, very young girl in the drive through window. She must have been 14 or 15. She was very positive and upbeat. We ordered hot dogs, hamburgers, and fries, and even stopped by a gas station and picked up some beer on our way back to the farm. We stuffed our faces, guzzled down a few beers, and then realized we could barely hold our heads up any longer as we were so tired, so we crashed on our cabin bunk house beds and fell fast asleep.
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