Date- Friday 5/20/05
Start- No Business Knob Shelter
Stop- Erwin, TN
Miles Travelled- 6.6
Spent a noisy night in the shelter as the lightning cracked, thunder rolled, and hail bounced off the tin roof. The weather was too bad for the mice to come out to play. At least it was dry in the shelter.
I think its time to introduce PUDS and MUDS. PUDS are pointless ups and downs. Too many PUDS become mindless ups and downs. Normally they occur when level terraine is expected.
The topographical maps I use have a 50 meter countour interval. This means that the elevation has to change 150 feet before it is indicated on the map. It's amazing how many 100 foot ups and downs can be compressed in a few miles while the map indicated level ground. This was before the long descent to the Nolichucky River and Erwin.
This area is Davy Crockett and Andrew Jackson territory. Both used to come to this area for community activities. In fact there used to be a racetrack here and Andy Jackson used to race his horses here. He insisted in riding his own mounts rather than hireing a professional jockey and never won a race.
Erwin is also noted as being the only town to have hung an elephant. The elephants are still boycotting the town. More on this later
Posted by john at May 20, 2005 11:06 PM