SIDEQUEST…And Then on to Fontana Dam
AT day 26 SIDEQUEST
The plan was to return to trail and do a 7 mile segment that included a portion known as Jacob’s Ladder. Instead when I woke up at 4 am to pee, Caroline started saying things like I’m so glad you are awake, if we get a car and drive six hours we can catch the eclipse. I told her to book whatever, I’m going back to sleep. When I woke up we had a frantic rush to line up a shuttle to get back to Franklin to get our rental car. But we made it, and drove the Dragon. And the trip to see the eclipse turned out to be more like 10.5 hour drive. Each way.
Regarding “The Dragon,” US 129. Caroline and I were innocently driving through rural North Carolina, and passed into Tennessee. Which was also rural, but somehow we found ourselves on the Dragon . Which apparently is the place to come race your loud obnoxious sports car the eleven extremely curvy miles back and forth while people line up on the side of the road to take pictures to sell, or take a break to pop their hood and show off their car, or just spectate this bizarre phenomenon. There’s a whole local economy built up, with stores and bars and tourist traps. And these two hikers in our rented Nissan Altima just trying to get to Missouri to see the eclipse and driving carefully under the speed limit on this curvy ass road definitely annoyed a bunch of the wannabe NASCAR drivers. As did the state trooper that showed up and started pulling people over .
AT day 27
Driving.
AT day 28
Eclipse in Atkins, Arkansas with four minutes and 16 seconds of totality. It was amazing, and felt like ten seconds. And then more driving.
AT day 29
After a whirlwind trip to see the eclipse we got back to Franklin, NC, a town 40 miles behind us on the trail. It was really rainy, so we decided to take the town day and do laundry.
AT day 30
Shuttled back to Stecoah Gap. Road construction meant a detour to the trail, and it was steep, wet, and very slick. I have no idea how neither of us fell. I was pleasantly surprised that after a few days off, I felt good, and the Jacob’s Ladder ascent I had been dreading went fairly easy. Forager unfortunately had a harder time of it, and when we got to Cable Gap shelter and found no cell service, I couldn’t talk her into doing another five miles. We squeezed into the shelter, and maybe it was my new sleeping pad but I had a great night’s sleep.
AT day 31
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Comments 1
fwiw, it’s actually called Tail of the Dragon. It’s literally one of the best places in the entire world to drive a sports car or motor cycle due to the smooth pavement, relentless turns over such a long stretch, and of course the gorgeous mountain views where it lives. It’s world famous in the sports/driving enthusiast circles. Looks like your day 27 of driving thru the Dragon was a Sunday(?), i.e. the day before the eclipse. I’ve never seen a state trooper/law enforcement on the Dragon as I’ve only ever went in the middle of the week to avoid the crowding/enforcement that you witnessed (presumably) on a Sunday.