Once upon a time in a land not so far away, there was a place called Hairntville where lived a couple named Hoppy and Birdie. After living together there in peace and harmony for many years, they decided one day that they would be married, so a Hairnt wedding was planned. It was to take place the week after Trail Daze and people would come from far and wide to be there. Some came for Trail Daze and stayed the whole week until the hairnt wedding and offered their help to make the wondrous event be possible. After much planning, preparation and hard work by many, the happy day finally arrived. It was to be Saturday May, 21, 2011. When I arrived in the early afternoon, there was already many people there. Some of which I had not seen in many years. It was obvious that they were planning on camping all night as there was to be much celebrating to come. Everything had been transformed since I was there a week prior, into a form of magical fantasy land designed for a grand event. There was definitely LOVE in the air ! The trail up the hill to the upper field had been mowed and decorated and the field was also mowed and had rows of canopies and seats with views of the surrounding mountains that made for such a serene setting. There was a long trailer covered with all sorts of food to which I added my famous Trail Beans to. Pirate even brought his world renowned SPAM tray. It was going to be a meal fit for a king, queen, and all their royal friends.
Birdie and Hoppy
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Posted on 24 August '11 by RAT, under RATtreks. No Comments.
This year was the 25th Annual Appalachian Trail Days held in Damascus, Virginia, known as ‘The Friendliest Town On The Trail’. The first one was started to celebrate 50 years of the Appalachian Trail going through the center of town. I look forward to this event every year as it is the only time I get to see so many of my closest hikertrash friends and trail family. Of course it was not the same due to the recent losses of ‘Okeepa‘ and ‘PawPaw‘ but knowing they would want the celebration to carry on, we did it up right in their honor.
Hiker Parade (Photo by 'Khatmandu')
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Posted on 18 August '11 by RAT, under RATtreks. 1 Comment.
On Saturday April 30, 2011, my avid waterfall enthusiast friend Dave Aldridge, offered to take us to Gentry Falls, an awesome double falls located in Johnson County, Tennessee. He had previously helped the Forest Service do some trail work there by painting new blazes on the trail leading to them, so he knew how to get there. I had been wanting to go see these falls for quite some time now so I looked up some information on the internet which gave some interesting background of the history of the the creek and falls, and the surrounding area but the only information I could find on the current route to the falls was actually incorrect. If you believe what I read about the level of difficulty in getting to these falls, you would probably not even go !! It was a really nice trail that was not hard at all. Dave picked us up at Hairnt-quarters that morning and we made the hour long trip through Elizabethton and Mountain City and then towards Damascus, Va. until we reached the turn off at Laurel Bloomery. We had to wait on some cleanup crews that had the highway blocked just before Mountain City as they were cleaning up some massive storm damage caused by the recent tornadoes that had passed through this area a few days earlier. After making a slight miscalculation and going up the wrong road, we quickly located the right route and it was not long before we were parking at the trail head. It was a sunny and warm day, not exactly conducive for taking photographs of waterfalls, but a wonderful Spring day to be in the woods nonetheless.
Gentry Falls
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Posted on 3 August '11 by RAT, under RATtreks. 1 Comment.
My name is 'RAT' and I love the mountains and waterfalls of the East TN. area where I live and I hope you enjoy this blog about my outdoor adventures.
