Day 58: On the tooth of the dragon

Hiked 20.6 miles, tenting at Four Pines hostel.

Since I didn't have much water last night I had just snacked for dinner.  This morning when I woke up I decided to hike the threeish miles to the next shelter and kill time by cooking my dinner for breakfast.  While there I caught up with The Tribe who had camped there last night, along with GQ and a ton of other people.  Did I mention that The Tribe is a group composed of Mowgli, Animal, Scarecrow, Beetlejuice, Goatman, Candypants, Twopack and Gump?  If not, now you know, and knowing is half the battle!

Early morning fog on the mountains

Looking back down ridge we walked yesterday

We crossed the Eastern Continental Divide today!

Once Dip'n'sip, Srocket and Why Not caught up to me, we made plans for where we wanted to end up today and headed out.  The climb up Brush Mountain was tough but not horrific.  At the top was the memorial to Audie Murphy, the most decorated veteran in World War II.  He died in a plane crash near here and the monument is great and the overlook from it is spectacular.

9 AM photo

Audie Murphy Memorial

Overlook from the Audie Murphy Memorial

It was still a little early for lunch and Dip'n'sip indicated that on his map there were some vistas about two miles further.  These vistas never appeared and by the time I got to the bottom of Brush Mountain I was ravenous.  Luckily there was a nice stream at the bottom so we stopped there, ate lunch and soaked our feet.

Srocket is embarrassed or something

Lunch spot

From here it was a 1500 foot climb up to Dragon's Tooth.  The climb started out nice and easy with almost excessive amounts of switchbacks.  Then we got up higher...  The upper part of the climb had us going up steep inclines with huge boulders.  I would say it was our hardest climb so far on our entire journey.  Certainly it was the first time in almost 700 miles that I've felt my quads really burning, though I had some dehydration going on from the heat so that didn't help anything.  The big problem was that for part of the climb we were walking along a ridge which on the map looked flat but was composed of fifty foot sharp ascents followed by sharp descents, rinse and repeat.  It was about 5.5 miles from the river to the top and the last three of it was the longest three miles I've done on the trip.

Mid-day view

Looking down at the valley from the ridgeline

Mid-day panorama

After all that work though the top of Dragon's Tooth was completely worth it.  Dragon's Tooth is a stone monolith about 30 feet tall that sticks up well above the trees.  It is an impressive sight from the ground but I bouldered up to the top and got one of the best 360 degree views since probably Clingmans Dome.
Everyone on the trail today was trying to make it into to Four Pines hostel to get the shuttle to the Homeplace Restaurant.  It was getting late and we were all worried about missing the shuttle so I didn't spend as much time up there as I would have liked.  We booked it down the descent which was even tougher than the ascent.  In fact one of the thru hikers from 2010 that I met tonight says it is one of the top three toughest descents on the whole trail.  In places there was rebar in the rock to use as ladders because the faces of the rock were just that shear and tall.  It would have been a fun descent if not for already being exhausted and worrying about making a deadline.

Overlook on the way up to Dragon's Tooth

Me on the top of Dragon's Tooth

Vista from the top of Dragon's Tooth

Four Pines hostel is just a guy Joe who allows hikers to stay in his garage, barn and tent in his yard.  It is a big farm and is a pretty area.  It is donation based so it has limited services but he does have a shower in the garage to use.  As I said before we are in the midst of an enormous bubble and given that the Homeplace is only open Thursday through Sunday people are packed into the hostel, probably about 40 total.

The Homeplace is a famous restaurant on the AT and some thru hikers from past years have argued it was the best food that they had on the whole trail.  I wish I had taken pictures because it is situated in an old enormous farmhouse on 63 acres of beautiful land.  It is an all you can eat, but slightly different than most.  The food is served family style at your table and all you pay for is the number of meats you want and your whole table pays together so you have to agree on what you are getting.  All sides are unlimited and free.  It is southern style cooking so for meats we had fried chicken, pulled pork and roast beef and the sides were standard southern fare like pinto beans, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, biscuits, etc...  Poor Srocket had only about two things she could eat, in the south even the green beans have meat in them, but at least they gave her a discount.

The food was not quite what it had been built up to be I thought but it was a neat experience.  Joe picked us back up in his truck the same way he dropped us off.  I'm getting really used to riding in the beds of pickup trucks on this trip!  Why Not took a spot in the barn and the other three of us are tenting.  Before bed I hung out in the garage and talked to Timon, the thru hiker from 2010 that I mentioned earlier.  He did a section hike of the AT last month and is now traveling north in a car doing trail magic, a really interesting and nice guy. Tomorrow we get to visit Macafee Knob, one of the most iconic sights on the trail, I'm really looking forward to it!