Sunday, March 7th, 2021
My water bottles were frozen in the morning. The temperature didn’t warm up much from last night. To top it off, it was windy which made it feel more cold as we climbed out of camp. After the morning climb, it was mostly downhill the rest of the day.
We met at the bottom at the trailhead parking lot for a snack break. It was mostly bumping along and crossing bridges before a steep down passed waterfalls and over Enloe Creek rapids.
It was a beautiful spot to take a break with the whole crew. This was where I realized I didn’t pack enough food. Frisbee seemed annoyed, but I know he was secretly happy to have an excuse to hitch into the town of Cherokee later. He had been rambling on and on about coffee and pancakes.
Shortly after, we would have to ford our first creek, and it was freezing! The climb that followed would help us semi-dry our shoes and socks. Aside from cold and wet feet, the trail was great so far! However, I was pretty surprised that there was so little wildlife. All I saw since the start of our hike was two birds!
Frisbee and I don’t usually filter our water, so we refilled our bottles at higher elevation before heading downhill to camp. Since passing by the fire tower yesterday, I hadn’t seen any signs of hikers besides a solo tent spotted at Upper Chasteen Creek. We wouldn’t be meeting them though, we were hiking a bit further to camp at Lower Chasteen Creek.
When we got there, we ate and pitched our tarps. While on a bathroom break, I noticed a hog trap nearby, but nothing would rummage through camp overnight. Middle Brother and Chestnut made a fire and stayed up late, while I caught up on some much needed sleep listening to the white noise produced by the creek.
17.1 miles (27.5 km)
Jump Ahead to the Benton MacKaye Trail: Part 3
or
Jump Back to the Benton MacKaye Trail: Part 1
Stubbs Rambles On 