Feed the Hungry Hikers! Max Patch, NC

“Party! Did someone say "party?"”

“nowslimmer,come on up. It would be good to see you again”

“yeah Nowslimmer! Aren't you in the area?

i tried looking up the hours for the Pub, but i don't see it listed on their website?”

“smokygirl, you and Az gonna be at the pub or the campsite around 11:00 or so.”

“same here. I'll call 'em.”

“I called the pub. It'll prolly be closed before we get there. It was funny, the girl on the phone said they close when it gets slow, but tonight they might be open until 10:00! My reply, "that late, huh"?”

“Just got back from Kroger. I got a couple of cases of the Champagne of beers, 3 bags of Lays chips, Chex mix, 2 small bags of brownies, a buncha little packs of gum, peaches, and some fixins for strawberry shortcakes (Kampers idea).”

“damn, are we gonna have room in my car for kabinkamper”

“Strap her on the top!”

“Nobody breathe until we get to North Carolina!”

“wish i could have helped you all .
I got sick on wed and have been in the hospital ... oh well maybe next time ..\
I hope to do a hiker feed @ watauga lake or damn..
later..”

“"i have a small bladder!"”

“whats with the bladder. ??
cb did you all have a good turn out”

“OOh,OOh,OOh I Know!!!”

“Pokey Twirl.....


Can you see it from here?”

“Where do you live?”

“we had 7: myself, currahee, kabinkamper, smokeygirl, azimuthcoordinator, ewker, and smokeygirls dad (whom i shall call smokeydad)

anybody get a count of hikers we fed? im guessing 15-20? some hikers had 4 or 5 burgers (lunch and dinner). i brought 12 pounds of hamburger meat and a fifth of jagermeister and it was all easily polished off. curr and kab brought snacks and candy and strawberry shortcake, ewker brought cold drinks and the smokey family brought the grill and veggie packs.

we played frisbee, smoke went to the bathroom 50 times, we laid out in the sun, we looked up at the stars, we listened to terrific blues and bluegrass music, we visited reminisced, and learned how to ride rail cars. it was an awesome time”

“what a great time we had. It was very cool to see the hikers get excited about what we brought.
We had some who ended up hangin out with us and spent the night on Max Patch with us.

Thanks to CB for getting this together.

Here are some pics I took.
http://community.webshots.com/album/319492825utbuzu”

“Very nice. Way to go.”

“had a great time... thanks for putting it all together crash...
oh yeah... we only had to stop 6 times between newport and sevierville...

just kidding...”

“We had a plesant suprise Friday night when we found the others. Nowslimmer had driven up to hang with us for a while. Also got to meet Baltimore Jack.
We closed the Paddlers Pub down Friday night. Got up Sat morning and headed over to the gear store (forgot the name) to look around and have coffee. Then we went to eat breakfast before we went to Max Patch.

We finally got up there a little after 11:00. It took a couple of trips up the trail to get everything up. Nothing like pulling a cooler with 48 cokes, 96 pcs of string cheese and 3 lbs of ice. Damn handle was way to short for me.
The first thru hikers showed up and were over on another section on the bald. They decided to come over and join us and were glad they did. They ended up spending the day with us. It was interesting listening to them talk about going thru the Smokies with all the snow. They were basically breaking trail as they went.
They kept looking for Lion King who never made it. They figured he took a zero day at the shelter before Max Patch.
We saw quite a few section hikers, some stopped, others didn't. As the day wore on we started seeing some thru hikers who had started at Davenport Gap Shelter. They ended up staying with us on the bald also.

Marshmellow and Colorado said they could smell the burgers cooking down the trail. Marshmellow said she thought she was hallucinating at first. She was happy when she found out she wasn't.

I really enjoyed doing this. It gave you a good feeling to know you were helping them.

I am going to try and do it again over Memorial Day Weekend.
last edited: 4/11/05 10:24:40 AM”

“It was cool to see the looks on their faces when we invited them to drop their packs, grab a beer and have a seat, burgers will be ready in a minute. They looked like they belive it. They loved the fact that a week earlier they were breaking trail thru snow & slush in the Smokies and now they are sitting in the warm sun on a gorgeous day eating burgers, sodas, beer,jeagermeister, string cheese, tater salad, candy bars, and strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. We had some great music up on that hill thanks to SmokeyGirl Azimuthcoordinator, and SmokeyDad.
We were treated to a spectacular sunset & sunrise on Max Patch as a reward for schlepping all of that grub up there.
I'm glad we got to go. It was a great weekend.

BONUS: I was finally able to find the backpacker emblem decal to put on my truck. I've been looking for one forever.
I got it at Bluff Mountain Outfitters in Hot Springs, NC. Great shop with great coffee!”

“I wasn't blessed with a big bladder!

Sunday morning, I ran down the mountain with one wipee in each hand calling, "Two sheets to the wind!"

I saw two shooting starts... I started out cowboy camping, but my sunburn and the cool fingers creeping into my bag didn't mix...

The sunset was so beautiful... Don't you see that sun sinkin' low behind the Smokies? Purple and orange...

I felt blessed. You know, one man said that out of all his trail experiences, we gave him the most memorable... I will never forget that! SmokeyPa said that the same dude was telling him that when he started dating his wife, he told her that he liked backpacking, and warned her that if she didn't like it that she would have to deal with it. Well, apparantly, it was a lovely match, because after that he proposed to her on the top of Clingman's Dome. Now they have a toddler together and after he section-hiked ending the last stretch over Max Patch, he was heading home to Chattanooga to them.

What a weekend!”

“Which dude?”

“Smokygirl, are you talking about the 2 older guys who camped behind swan, david and rawhide. The one guy when he heard we had food made a beeline right towards the table...lol”

“Yes.. the 2 older guys - 1 with Vol hat!”

“Did the M&M's get through to the thru-hikers? I know they like them. The thru-hiker I met on the way near the top of Max Patch swallowed two packages of them in less than two seconds.

I did take off from some valuable hiking time(good weather) and drove 150 miles to deliver a small treat. I hope it made it to the hikers.

BTW, Saturday on the trail I saw a very intent dog chasing a deer for over a mile. The dog lost! The dog was definitely following the deer's scent.”

“Nowslimmer, I saw a bag of M&M's mixed in with all the other candy. I know I didn't bring it so it had to be yours.”

“Yes, the M&Ms made it to hungry mouths! It was good seeing you again - I hate it that you had to drive so late, but alas... the trail calls!”

“Of all the leftovers, M&M's weren't among 'em.”

“

“Of all the leftovers, M&M's weren't among 'em.”
Currahee

Thanks. Next time I'll bring more of them.

smokygirl - I need those good days for bp'ing. Now I'm sitting out two days of rain.”

“i was inspired by all those stars we saw at night to bring a telescope to the next hiker feed in virginia”

“Shoot Crash - binocs would have been nice too!!

Nowslim - its nasty out right now!”

“hey smokygirl, what was the name of the radio station were we listening to Sat night”

“WNCW
Western North Carolina
I think the number is 88.7.
WNCW

Also,
WDVX here in Knoxville (number 89.9 and 102.9) has a great blues show on Friday night - called Johnny Mac's Friday Night Blues Attack. I've called in before with requests - he is great!
WDVX”

“I checked out the WNCW website. Cool that they have a playlist of what they were playing sat night”