Day 54-Another Cold, Windy Day on the AT

May 11-15.7 miles-Lynn Camp Creek Campsite to Davis Farm Campsite-AT mile 577

The cold is starting to annoy me! It was another cold day with a healthy dose of wind. There was occasional sun, and no rain (although it rained a bit overnight), so I’m grateful for that. I’m sure that when the temps begin to soar, and the humidity is high, I will long for these cold days, but not right now!

We hit the trail at 7:00am. With 15.7 miles and 2 big climbs (plus a bunch of smaller ups and downs), we needed to get going. Also, Sure Foot needed to take it a bit slower to hopefully keep his shin from hurting. 

The first thing we got to do after climbing up and over Lick Mtn, was to ford Lick Creek. The bridge was out. 

We took our shoes and socks off, rolled up (or took the legs off) our pants, and braved the cold cold water at 8:45 in the morning. In the end, it was kind of refreshing once the socks and shoes were back on. 

We had a number of other creek crossings. Most did not have bridges. One involved walking a moss covered log, and another called for using some smaller branches that were laying together. 

I made it across this one without getting wet. Sure Foot, on the other hand, managed to sink into the mud on the far bank. Oops!

We crossed a road, and started the 5000 mile climb up to Chestnut Knob Shelter (okay, maybe not 5000 miles, but it was a good 5+ miles). The beginning was kind of usual trail going up. Then we broke out onto the ridge line and into grass. 

There was even a pond!

The view from the ridge line. 

This was probably an old road. 

We went through some more woods, and the trail was this. 

It’s like walking up a rocky stream bed. 

Finally, we popped out on top of the mountain, and could see the shelter. 

This is an unusual shelter in that it has a door. 



Inside it was, while not warm, nice to be out of the wind. We ate our lunch. Two guys, Night Train and Caruso came in shortly after us. They had gotten off the trail for 6 weeks, and had just gotten back on at the Pat Jennings Visitor Center near Marion. 

Sure Foot and I headed back out into the wind and cold. 

View to the valley from the shelter. 

Now we descended down the other side. It was steep at the top, but then leveled off for bits. 

Still walking the ridge (that’s why it was steep because there’s no way to switchback).

Once at the bottom, we started a series of ups and downs. Some were longish, some were short. I stopped counting at 25. Night Train and Caruso caught up to me. Caruso had done the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. We passed the time hiking up and down talking about our experiences on the GDMBR. 

At a road crossing, we had 1 mile to go to the turn to the campsite. Night Train and Caruso were going on the Jenkins Shelter. If it wasn’t 3.5 more miles from the turn to the campsite, we would have gone there too. In hindsight, I wish we had done the extra miles. Because...Davis Farm Campsite was .5 off the trail down a very steep trail. The campsite has barely enough room for our two tents. It is the old Davis Farm house foundation. It must have been a very small house! However, the view is quite good. 

Just beyond that fire ring is a good drop off. We can hear the cows from down below. 

Sure Foot said his shin was feeling not too bad. I hope it stays like that because we have even more miles the next two days.