Cut up and Bruised in Appalachian Trail Blowdowns

This morning I woke up around 6am and was exhausted still. So I rolled over and fell back asleep for another hour. There was a time change last night so it actually feels earlier than it is. Which has me feeling very tired today. I had heard the guys get up and leave the bunkhouse so I followed suit. Then headed over to the kitchen area for some breakfast.

They had a ton of different cereals to choose from, donuts, fruit, and coffee. I had a couple bowls of captain crunch, then Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and then Frosted Flakes to finish it off. What a way to start the day. I still had a bit of work to get done so I did some writing and video stuff quickly. Then got packed up and ready to head out. I finished off the last of my half gallon of chocolate milk before we set out.

It was sad saying goodbye to Ricochet. I can’t believe he has to get off trail again. The wound on his foot is really bad though. It’s basically a gaping hole in the side of his foot, which was super infected just a few weeks ago. Even though it healed alot during the month he was off trail, it got irritated and set him back all of the healing time in just one 20+ mile day. If he kept going he would risk major injury or infection. The timing of us running into him for his last day on the CYTC was pretty perfect though. I’m glad we got to finish it out with him and spend a night at Boots off Hostel together before he heads home for a while. I bet he’ll be back out on some trail later this year though! It’s still really early on in the hiking season. There is a world of time to get some thru hike in. Just maybe not the CYTC.

Ricochet, Punisher, and myself.

Around 9am we said goodbye to everyone and set out. Lucky Moon who works at Boots Off was such a delight to meet and spend time around. She is the absolute sweetest human and is so gentle and kind in the way she talks. Being at Boots Off felt like visiting with family. They were so warm and welcoming to us. I had such an awesome night there and it was hard to leave this morning. We debated doing a slack pack so that we could come back and spend another night. But it just made more sense to set out and keep on going.

Watauga Lake!

The first handful of miles after leaving the hostel were really cruisy. The trail weaves around Watauga Lake which was beautiful. There were a couple small hills but it was mostly flat for the first part of the day. Then you get up toward the dam and get the best views of the lake. From there the trail follows road briefly. Then you get back on the trail on your left and begin climbing. The climb was pretty gradual to start. There was just a small hill to start. Then we began a longer gradual climb up. 

Views off of the dam at Watauga Lake.

This section of the AT has actually been rerouted and they are adding in switch backs! I think that has occurred on a few sections of the trail south of here. I definitely don’t remember doing this many switchbacks on the AT. The trail used to be really steep along this one section of climbing. Now it’s a much more gradual climb up winding switchbacks.

Crossing over the dam.

It took about an hour and a half to get up the climb toward the shelter. When we got there another hiker was hanging out who is going southbound. His name was El Flaco and he’s done the AT a couple of times, along with the other triple crown trails. We walked to him for a little bit before continuing on our way.

Big Laurel Branch Wilderness. This section had the worst remaining blowdowns on the entire AT!

From here we knew we had some nonsense coming our way. Apparently about 4 miles of blowdowns haven’t been cleared up ahead. Because it’s a wilderness area the trail maintainers aren’t able to use electric chain saws. All of the maintenance has to be done with handsaws. Which meant for 4 miles there wasn’t any trail maintenance at all. It didn’t start out too badly. There were dozens upon dozens of downed trees to climb over. But pretty much all of them were easy enough to step over. It just got worse and worse from there though.

A section of clear trail in between the endless blowdowns.

Sections of trail would be so covered that you had to go up and around the trees off the trail. Or climb up and over, or under, the big logs. There were areas with 5-10 trees all down at once, which required a bit more maneuvering. And then after a few miles we got into the thick of it. There was a hill that was absolutely covered in blowdowns. There were easily a hundred trees down in a few hundred yards. It was wild to see. Even the section that we accidentally went through yesterday wasn’t as bad as this. We didn’t even know where to start.

When you’re going northbound and encounter this section of blowdowns, the best course of action was to go to the right of them. We still had to climb up stacks of trees all piled on one another. I think the worst part was all of the thorns and briars though. My legs were getting cut up by having to walk through thick briars. At times that was the only way to get around the large trees and root balls. I scraped and bumped my legs on a lot downed trees as well. By the end my legs were scratched all over, bruised in a few places, and bleeding in a few places. But all in all it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

It’s hard to see all of the bruises that I got, but boy were there a lot! Around my knees mostly, but all over my legs.

I can’t even imagine what the trail was like toward the end of 2024. Those southbound hikers were brave souls coming out into all of this. Even dealing with bad blowdowns for only about 4 miles was brutal. It didn’t take as much extra time as I had imagined, which was awesome. But it was still pretty exhausting. You had to jump up and over so many logs, climb around, jump off of them, etc. It took a whole lot of work! But not long after the really bad patch of trees it began to improve. Eventually the downed trees got fewer and fewer. Then we turned a corner and began to see sawdust on the ground! That was a beautiful sight.

From then on there were hardly any blowdowns to go around. Just about everything was completely cleared out. That was an absolute delight. Then it was just smooth sailing for the rest of the day! After another couple of miles we passed by the Iron Mountain Shelter. There was a hazard marker on Far Out indicating it had been destroyed in hurricane Helene, but I’m not sure why. It was completely unscathed! And looked just how I remembered it.

Taking lunch at Iron Mountain Shelter.

We decided to stop off there for a lunch break before continuing on. I still have so much food in my pack! Probably 3 days worth I would say. We ate a bunch of food at Station 19E and then Boots off Hostel last night. So I just haven’t gotten into my food as much as I had expected to. That means I won’t have to buy as much in town though, which is always nice.

Crossing over some foot bridges along the trail.

I wound up eating a ton of cheese, tortillas, and 2 sweet bbq beef packets by starkist. Those are killer! I can’t do tuna anymore and don’t really love the chicken packets most of the time. But the beef packets are so flavorful and are perfect on a tortilla for lunch or dinner. Then I did some stretching and got ready to head back out.

Earlier in the day we were contemplating going 30 miles. We didn’t leave too late and now the sun is setting even later than it was yesterday. But the time spent navigating through the blowdowns definitely killed some time. When we left our lunch break we were about 17 miles in for the day. There was a shelter in about 7 miles and one in 14 miles. And the closer one was definitely seeming more appealing. Otherwise it will be another long night to get to the other one. We’re also quite close to Damascus! Even if we stop at the earlier shelter for the night we’ll still only have 18 miles to go to Damascus. I can’t believe that we’ll be in Virginia tomorrow! We will have walked from Key West to Virginia in 69 days.

The iconic barn with the big AT marker!

Leaving there I was feeling fantastic. I was fueled up and ready to go! And the trail for the next hour or so was a delight. It was shockingly flat and so easy to navigate. We flew along, making great time. Which felt incredible. It can be hard going slow, especially when it’s just due to the terrain.

I loved this section, which was vast field blazed by large rocks.

Around 6:30pm we got to the Double Spring Shelter and decided to call it a night there. The next shelter was about 7 miles away, which we could have done. But there’s no need! We’re only 18 miles from Damascus as of tonight. And Punisher’s friend Will is going to put us up at the Broken Fiddle Hostel tomorrow night.

I got set up for the night in the shelter and made a ramen for dinner. Then we watched an episode of Alone on Punisher’s phone before calling it a night. I got some writing and video work done over the next hour or so as well. Tomorrow will be a nice easy day to get to Damascus. And officially leave Tennessee and enter into Virginia! Our 6th state of the year, only 18 states remain for the year.

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