On Wednesday I was heading back up to Jerry Cabin Shelter to do repair work on the privy. However, I was getting a ride up from the US Forest Service (USFS) to the Appalachian Trail (AT) and the shelter on the Sam Waddle Section. Since our meeting was early Wednesday I decided to camp at Horse Creek Campground in the Recreation Area. It wasn't far from our meeting place at another recreation area, Round Knob. While I had camped nearby at Old Forge Campground but never at Horse Creek.
I had walked through the campground as an old, mostly paved, trail goes from the main picnic pavilion to the swimming hole. So I had an idea of sites, but I decided on number eight. It was a beautiful site next to the trail and Horse Creek. It was a short walk to get water and to where the Campground Host resided. He was a friendly man named Nathan. Anyway, it was a really pleasant evening and I got to put my new tent, Big Agnes Salt Creek 2P, through its paces (more later). I even got a sunset in with the drone.
The following day I got ready to head out Pete was right about one thing a strange person did surprise us and I gave him a drink of water. The host Nathan would text later that he helped the guy out.
Shortly after I made it to Round Knob my partner for the day, Taylor, a Trail Technician arrived with the ATV for our trip up. I will say it was a different experience to ride up instead of hiking. The road was even rougher than a month ago, so riding made that better. Also not having to carry the larger board and drill was a big plus, too. Once at the AT, we were greeted by a cloud-shrouded trail.
Once up there the main two jobs were replacing a board on the privy and raking it...again. I will say that this time was nowhere close to how bad it was in June. I was better prepared (respirator and rubber gloves) and there wasn't the volume or as many flies. Before doing that job I replaced the board on the front of the privy at the door. It had rotted through so I cleared out the old wood, took out the screws, and replaced them and the board. Unbeknownst to me when Taylor came to check on my progress I had him take the old wood back to the shelter (for firewood). Suddenly he dropped it because there was a Black Widow Spider. I realized I had just had my hand there a few minutes prior...lucky!
We also met a thru-hiker who had set her tent up inside the shelter. Going by the trail name "Serene" she was headed off trail because of all the rain lately. After fixing the upper water's flow we headed back. First I did some lopping and we almost got stuck when the 4WD slid partially off the trail. But Taylor's expert handling of the vehicle got us out of that tight spot.
Then it was time to cut out some trees. Taylor had brought along his chainsaw and we had identified a number of problem trees on our way in. By far the biggest was the old Elephant Tree that Paul and I had discovered fallen on the trail in March. The Carolina Mountain Club had decided to leave the tree because it would be a job and people had detoured around it. But we had a hard time getting the ATV by the tree coming in so Taylor said it would be no problem taking it out. While it did take some time we got it done almost unscathed.
Once back at the car, I discovered an issue, I had a flat tire. With some ingenuity, we got it off and me going. Even with a number of headaches, it was a good overnight work trip to the Sam Waddell Section.
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