2nd Annual Linville Gorge Trip Report

“I hit the road at approximatly 4 a.m. and shortly after called Lonestar on his cellphone to see where he was and to see if he had any questions about how to get to Linville Falls and to give him a report on road conditions for the mountains. At around 5:45 I arrrived at Louise's Famous Rock House Restaraunt, I was the first one there and I had made great time and got there much earlier than I had anticipated so I went on down the Kistler Memorial Highway to locate a goo place for us to basecamp. When I got back to Louise's there was still nobody there so I cut my truck off and waited a little while and after getting cold went to crank my truck back up and it was dead. Having a standard transmission I thought I should be able to roll it down the road and jump it off. Wrong, it didn't work and so my truck was several hundred yards down the hill and I had to walk back to to Louise's. I then went inside to wait on the others. Next Evergreen showed up and when she came in she said that she had locked her keys in the car. She then called and woke her unhappy husband up to get him to bring the spare keys.When Lonestar finally arrived we went to set up basecamp.All set up we left My truck, which was okay now for some great reason, at the Babel Tower Trailhead,dropped Evergreens car at the Conley Cove Trailhead and continued to the infamous Pinchin Tail. This trail was every bit of what a later issue of The Backpacker rag had said about it. By the time we got to the bottom we were shaky kneed and singing Hallelujahs that we had been going down instead of up! The Linville Gorge Trail was next as we headed north along the river. The views and scenery was breathtaking even the areas that had been burned. Some areas were scorched more than anything else and should be rejuvinated by mid summer. After stopping several times to enjoy the surroundings we found a huge rock on the side of the river to have some chow. We had disgussed gear during lunch of all things and discovered that one of us had put (HIS) sock liners on the outside of the Thorlo's. I won't tell who that was. LOL!Dark was drawing near so we had made the right choice by placing vehicles at different trailheads. The trails were very difficult to navigate because of the fire so we from time to time were doing some bushwhacking. After awhile we realized that we had overshot the Conley Cove trail. Conley Cove Trail was every bit as much a ball buster as any trail that I've ever been on in my life and by the time we got to the top we were all exausted. By that time it was almost dark so we went to basecamp and got ready for some more chow. The kind that would stick to your ribs. Evergreen had brought Hamburger meat, rice and fixins for gravy. Lonestar had the wine so we we thought we were in high cotton.After some tall tales,jokes, favorite songs and movies, telling about our kids we decided to hit the sack.We got up Sunday, packed up and headed back to Louise's for a good breakfast. I forgot to mention that on Saturday we ate Breakfast there and both Evergreen and Lonestar had a taste of my Livermush and niether cared for it much. Evergreen and I dubbed Lonestar with a new Trail Name (FREEZE) and we'll let him tell you why! Afterwards we went on a short half mile hike in to see the Linville Falls wow what a beautiful place. We said our goodbyes and headed home. Another great ECT adventure!”

“Sounds nice Spam, except for the car troubles. Hope Evergreen lived nearby so her hubby didn't have to drive far. Can't wait to hear why Lonestar is dubbed Freeze now. Hope it wasn't due to frostbite or hypothermia!”

“Close but I'll leave the telling up to him, it's his story so I'll let him tell it any way he wants LOL!
I also forgot to mention that some knucklehead stole my new Platypus that I left hanging on a tree in camp.”

“I also forgot to mention that last year I forgot my camera so I made sure that I had it this year and when I got there my battery was dead. Major Bummer! Lonestar had his digital camera and promises to have the pics loaded by tomorrow!”

“Thanks for the report. DOwn hill can be the pits, eh!”

“dang! it sounds like y'all had a good time, despite the troubles, or as we hikers call them... adventures!

it had better not have been lonestar messing up the liner socks! AND freezing! pimp dad rad trained that HO better than that! i'll have to smack that beeyatch around and set him straight! LOL!!!!


wally, jen fizz, and i had 7 miles of easy flat hiking. temps wer in the 50s at night and 70s in the day.

i fried some spam in my new titanium cookware. it wasn't as good as the SPAM master's, but pretty good. SPAM would have been so proud, it woulda brought a tear to his eye!”

“Vehicles are having a rough time this year so far. I'm glad everything worked out and you had fun. Great report Spam!
I thought Rad was gonna be with yall.”

“Where'd you go Rad?”

“i went down south to providence canyon. jen wanted to go camping, but she has been fighting a cold for five weeks, so she needed warm weather and i wanted to give my knee a break. when i told wally, he said he'd meet us there.”

“How cold did it get this weekend Spam?”

“16 degrees at 6 am on Saturday and low 20's last nigh But most of us were warm enough! LOL!!!!!!!!!”

“I just talked to Rad, he mentioned that I should let y'all know I got back home ok. I did, just de-thawing.

As for "freeze", I had a older down sleeping bag that was semi-untested in coler conditions. Well, know it's FULLY TESTED, and it won't make it out on the trail again.

I went to sleep and slept for 2 hours, waking at midnight with a REALLY bad headache, and shaking uncontrolable. I was sleeping on a Therma-rest in the down bag, with a blanket for a liner, johns, and wool socks with a Nalgene hot water bottle (thanks Spam). My mid-section was SO COLD, I was having trouble thinking, But the Medic training came back to me and I knew I had to get up and get warm.

I got up got dressed, the rest of the way, woke Spam, let him know what happen and that I would be in the truck. Evrgreen woke up and was very concerned. So I went and started the truck and warmed up, slowly, then turned the truck off and sleep in warmer coditions. I should mention my truck is a Blazer, so I had a lot of room.

As for the socks, that was ME too! All I can say in my defense is, RAD TOLD ME IT WAS THAT WAY!, NO not really. I left my house at 3AM after 4 hours of sleep and getting dressed in the dark.

Spam and Evergreen thought I needed a trailname given to after I told them Lonestar was my idea. But on the way home I rememberd that Rad gave it to me after My first hike with him. I'll let him cover the reasons why. So, SPAM and Evergreen, thanks so much for thinking of me, but as ya'll know know, you can aways tell a Texan, but you can't tell him much.

If the rest of the TT'ers are anything like SPAM and Evergreen, I'm really looking forward to meeting more of y'all.

SPAM don't for get the Compass!

Still to come, pictures and

THE EVERDREAM TREE!!!!!!”

“I guess you all know what the next gear purchase will be!”

“yeah, i called him LONESTAR because the first time he put on the pack that i loaned him, he got his picture taken. he was... posing, i guess. well, it looked wierd, like he was a movie STAR hiker! LOL!!!!

and being from texas, i thought that lonestar fit.”

“he still thinks that it's just the texas thing. i don't have the heart to tell him the truth. LOL!!!!”

“Great trip Report Spam and Lonestar, it souned cold but fun and well worth the little problems. So, what did you do with Evergreen? Did you two leave her out there? I haven`t seen her post yet.”

“SO, it's Lone Star, rather than Lonestar. Good one, rad!

Where are you Evergreen? We'd certainly like your side of the story.”

“She may have given up ship for tonight already we are all very sore and tired. IOt was definatly one of those trips that you need to be in good shape for. One of the other campfire discussions last night was the different parts of our bodies that were hurting! LOL!”

“Lonestar
Most everyone here learned the hard way about using the right gear. I can tell you stories that would scare the Hell out of any rookie. Just remember that ya gotta learn from those MISERABLE times. I have!”

“Freeze, I like that. Has a Superhero ring to it

Liners on the outside, ROTFLMAO that is too much!!!!

You the man!!!”

“Tough lessons are the best lessons.”

“It was a cold lesson to have to learn, but well worth it.

Evergreen was very silent till we ran into a EVERDREAM tree, after that she kind loosened up.

This morning she was real silent, y'all should have given her the trailname churchmouse.

Several times durring the hike I called SPAM "grunt". He had told me that he was was regular infantry. I was a medic and did alittle time with some leg units, so I explained to her it wasn't an insult but more of a complaiment. SPAM is A-typical grunt, he runs ahead scouts it out, sits and waits for the rest of us to catch up. Of course I never saw a grunt with a tent that sleeps 10! He could have sub-let half of it out and never known he had neighbors.

It was a rough lesson, but didn't any static from the wife when I came home and told her the story. Of course I might have streched the truth more then I should have. But buying a new sleeping bag won't be has hard to explain now. I like to think of it as purchasing safty encouragement and altering assistance.”

“Evergreen is pretty quiet at first. By the next time you see her she'll get know ya better and then ya can't get her to shut up. LOL!”

“Hey all !

I just caught the tail end of the news this morning, a hiker fell to his death about 30 mins after we left from there. He was filling his canteen and fell 200 feet. Somewhere in the vicinity of Shortoff mtn. ( a trail on the other side of the river )
Makes you more thankful the trip went as well as it did.

I will post my version of the trip report later. =)”

“Well, I`m happy now, I thought they`d left you out there in the wood somewhere. I look forward to your post.”

“Evergreen, could it have been one of thos idoits we saw climbing up to that look out point? I noticed they had some gear.

Is the report on any online news pages?”

“Dang, lonestar!
Get a dog! LOL!

It got down to 16 at Providence Canyon when I was there late Dec. My Walmart bag woulda been ABSOLUTELY USELESS were it not for sharing it with Belle...

I was surprisingly warm.”

“Lonestar,
No it wasnt one of those fools that fell.
The Shortoff Mtn Trail is farther down than where we went in at Pinchin and on the other side of the river.

I should have brought my dog. I could have pimped him out to Lonestar for the night..LOL”

“LOL! Eg”

“LOL, there Evergreen!”

“Ok here it is..a woman's perspective of the 2nd annual LG Trip:

When I found out that I would be keeping company with 2 Army men My first thought was a weekend filled with TEN-HUTS, cadence calls and boring old duty stories.
I was wrong! whew.

I really didnt know Spam that well but we had a chance to chat while waiting on my quite irate husband to bring me my extra set of keys. Should I take this and Spam's truck breaking down as some kind of bad omen and head home? I do have to admit I did think about it..ONCE !

Lonestar made it to Linville with no problems..My first impression of him was not of the one I was dreading. He and Spam are both super nice guys. I knew I was in good hands for the rest of the weekend. =)

The base campsite was nice all except for the traffic..Even in the middle of the night trucks running up and down the road. Sometime around midnight ( I think) some fool redneck thought it would be a good place to blow the cobwebs out of what was left of his muffler. It sounded like he was trying to blow the engine up. I didnt sleep to well after that thinking we were gonna be attacked by the deiverance's familys cousins.

Now on to the hike.
All I can say it was worth every agonizing step back up out of there. Saw many great campsites along the river. but would be a killer to haul a pack down and then back up.
We only strayed off the trail about 3 times and thanks to Grunt Spams trailnose we were back on track in no time.
I did come across something very interesting on one of our side trips. Lonestar took a pic of it..Ladies..hold on to your socks..its the funniest thing I have ever seen. Sad to say the men didnt think it was as humerous as I did. Look for the Everdream tree..LOL

We couldnt have asked for more perfect weather for our trip. Sitting on that boulder taking in the sunshine and listening to the roar of the rver I thought what a shame that this haven was only 20 mins awayfrom my house and I have never been here before..I surely do plan on a return trip in the fall and possibly spring.

As for the haul up back up out of there, if I was a man I would have said it was a true ball buster.
Lonestar was a real gentleman and made sure I was making it ok. Thanks for the chat and keeping me going pal.
I did get to hear some cadence on the way out. Believe it or not it did help keep me going. Not a bad idea after all.

We came out a little short of where I left my car so brave Spam took his life in his own hands and caught a ride with some good ole boys to find my car. Being a car full of drunk men I gladly handed my keys over to him.
Just as soon as Lonestar and I started to sit down here drove up Spam..we were only a few yards from the car..lol

The fireside chat was very entertaining and Spam and Lonestar, if I ever meet up with your wives be careful I have the goods on you two now. Only if your better halves knew what you say about them away from home..lol
I like learing about these TT people..somethings I would care not to have known,( like favorite singers ) but still its fun.

We had a good dinner, which I had to do most of the cooking. Men just naturally assume that women cant leave their household duties at home..geez. I was expecting to hear one of them hollar out.." Hey woman get me a beer!"
Good thing they didnt.

The next day we went to Linville Falls. All three of us just sort of ambled along the trail .I was extermly sore, yes I admit it, and had a hard time going down the steps. but like the the trail the previous day it was well worth the pain.
The falls were iced over and was themost amazing site to see. I cant for Lonestar to get his pics posted. I hate that I forgot my camera.

After hugs goodbye and take cares I headed home hating to leave this area. I think this should be a yearly trip same as for RRG.

=)”

“Sounds like all three of you had a good time.

The beer thing reminds me of a joke...

A man comes home from an exhausting day at work, plops down on the couch in front of the television, and tells his wife, "Get me a beer before it starts."

The wife sighs and gets him a beer.
Fifteen minutes later, he says, "Get me another beer before it starts."

She looks cross, but fetches another beer and slams it down next to him.

He finishes that beer and a few minutes later says, "Quick, get me
another beer, it's going to start any minute."

The wife is furious. She yells at him, "Is that all you're going to do
tonight? Drink beer and sit in front of that TV? You're nothing but a lazy, drunken, fat slob, and furthermore . . ."

The man sighs and says, "It's started . . "”

“You went and saved the best for last. I liked all three trip reports, it kinda fills in the blanks and paints the whole picture of a great time with good people. I can`t wait to see the pictures.”

“LOL Skiracer, I think I`ve been there!”

“Sorry it was so long..LOL

Good thing I dont go n like that in person..LMAO”

“I'm glad it was long. Good to get another person's perspective.

Thanks, Evergreen.”

“thanks for the nice report.....looking forward to the pics....
hmmm everdream tree? as a tree-hugger...i can hardly wait to see...”

“The tree..its one of those things you have to see to believe..
Let me know if youd like to hug THAT tree or not..lol”

“Lonestar, hurry up with those pics. i-am-om's imagination is running wild!”

“Apparently, so is Evergreen's...but, she's already seen it!”

“My imagination's running wild, too.
I'm gettin' a branch!

okay...
a twig.”

“It sounds like the "Everdream Tree" may deserve a link to the photopage.

Nice trip reports!! Fun to read. Can't wait to see the pics.”

“All I can say..its a true woody..lol”

“And mine now is not... truly.
lol”

“LOL
Nothing but a little viagra wont cure babe.”

“Came to work and thought being a holiday, I'd have all the time in the world to do the pics, well AT&T has a router out on the Net that is causing trouble for our customers and we are dealing with irate travel agents that can't get into our systems.

But I'm working on the pics as fast as I can. They will be up shortly, and I might add, they look good. Everdream will be a BIG hit, I must say. Back to the pics.

I'll have to comment on EG's report later when I have time. I got warm and didn't need a dog, thankfully.

pics....pics....”

“Evergreen - how close are you to Greenville? The job I just started put me on a project which will ship there in April. I'll have to go for a few days at least.”

“Im about maybe 3 hours or so..
Not sure but iffin you want to meet up let me know.
If you can manage the time away Id love to show you Grandfather Mountain. My favorite place to hike. =)”

“Can't wait to see those pictures Lonestar and I really hate that you're having to work today! LOL! I think I'm going up on the Blueridge Parkway to see what I can find. I'll check back this evening.

I just want all of you that DIDN"T GO to know that you really missed out and that you should go ahead and mark out the same weekend for next year to go. We have done both ends of the Gorge now so it's time to knockout the Sandy Flats area. I'll probably have it scouted way before we go.”

“I never thought I'd find going downhill difficult, but I must say it was hard on my left knee. I really think the poles helped. The uphill I thought was even easier then other times I've been out. Of course the company was good. I have a question, I'm going to ask it in a new thread.”