grayghost

Grayghost Obituary

Royal Edward "Roy" Evans
EVANS, ROYAL EDWARD "ROY", 53, of Louisville, died Saturday December 9, 2006. He was a native of Brooklyn NY, a retired employee of the KY Dept. of Families and Children, an active leader in troop and district level Boy Scout activities, a Louisville Nature Center volunteer, a member of the Appalachian Trail Conference and the City of Parkway Village clerk. He is survived by his wife, Mary Rose Benson Evans; his children, Mary Anne, Emily, Brent (Ashley White), Andrew, and Ellen Evans; a grandson on the way; his mother, Eileen Evans; and brothers, Robert, Paul and Michael Evans. His funeral service is 11 a. m. Tuesday at Embry-Bosse Funeral Home, 2723 Preston Hwy., with burial in Calvary Cemetery. Visitation is 2-8 p. m. Tuesday.

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A River With An On Off Switch

It was real quiet when I woke up this morning. Since it was light I was able to explore my surroundings a little bit more and found we were camped on the bank of the Ocoee River. I found it difficult to believe that the Olympic Whitewater events were held here in 1996. There was no river. The bed was a jumble of wet boulders with a small trickle of water flowing among the rocks. Tom and Charles joined me and we looked at this strange sad sight. After a few minutes we noticed that the trickle turned into a stream and then a small river and then finally a raging river filled with rapids, eddies, and waterfalls as the water rushed around and over the now partially submerged boulders. I figured that the water rose at a rate of 6 to 8 inches per minute in the formerly dry river bed.

I then learned that the TVA had dammed the Ocoee River in 1942 and diverted nearly 100% of the flow through a pipeline where it was used to generate electricity as it was fed through a series of hydro-electric power generating plants. The river remained in that state till the Atlanta Olympics when the gates were opened and the river was allowed to run its normal course for the games. When the games were over the river gates were closed and electric production resumed.

Whitewater enthusiasts would have none of that and lobbied for the return of the river and an accord was soon reached. During the spring, summer, and fall the TVA would turn on the river during daylight hours. The rest of the time the river would be turned off so that electricity could be generated. Imagine that, a river with an on off switch.

Todays planned hike was only 8 miles but they promised to be tough miles. The main event was to be a 3,200 foot ascent of Big Frog Mountain. This would be the longest continuous ascent I have done. I guess the fact that it was "only" 8 miles lulled us into a sense of complacency but we didn't manage to get started till after 9. Water was a primary concern not because there wasn't any but we weren't sure whether or not there was any. Tom and Charles started out with 2 liters each and I took 3. Fortunately the temperature was not too hot and it was noted that while we might get a little uncomfortable we were not likely to die from dehydration.

We finally set out and started climbing. Basically we went up. up. up the entire day. For the most part the grade was moderate to steep and we were right to be concerned about water as the few creeks we crossed were dry. The leaves seemed to be at their peak or a little past for color but there were few vistas where we could see an expanse of color. I finally understand the expression of not being able to see the forest for the trees.

We finally achieved ridgeline in the late afternoon. Tom and Charles got there quite a few minutes before I did. I arrived and collapsed on the ground completely spent. We found a small clearing a couple of a hundred feet further up the ridge and prepared a dry camp. I still had a liter and a half of water left which was more than Charles and Tom had combined. I was mildly concerned about the situation but decided that we couldn't do anything about it. The temperature started dropping quickly and the wind started picking up. We estimated it to be 20 miles per hour with gusts up to 40. It just roared through the trees. We quickly set up tents and tarps to serve as windblocks and prepared a quick dinner. After dinner it was sleeping bag time.

November 4, 2005

For the past few weeks I had been entertaining notions about getting out and hiking again but things just seemed to keep cropping up and getting in the way. Then October 28 arrived. On that date I received an e-mail from Tom Dupree, a person I met while on the trail in North Carolina. He told me that he was going down to the Tennessee/Georgia area to do some hiking on the Benton McKay Trail. While technically not the Appalachian Trail it si close enough that I decided to include it here.

The southern portions of the Appalachian Trail are heavily used. To take some pressure off it the Benton McKay was created as an alternate route from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Davenport Gap in the Smokies. The Appalachian trail leaves springer and heads east north east befor curving back to the west while the Benton McKay leaves Springer and goes Northwest before making a curve and heading in a Northerly direction.

It promised to be an interesting hike and I took him up on his offer. There were to be some challenges. The Benton McKay, being relatively new, is not as well documented as other trails I hiked, our main maps were geological survey topographical maps, and a good portion of our planned route went through the Big Frog Wilderness where there were no trail blazings with numerous intersections with other unblazed trails. We hoped to be able to hike about 40 miles of this trail.

I was to drive to Lexington, where Tom lives and works, leave my care there, and take Toms car down to the Ocoee River, near Ducktown, TN and meet a third member of the party, CharlesDeWitt from Nashville, TN.

Well, flexibility is a good thing. I left for Lexington at 10:30 this morning and upon arriving discovered that Lexington only built garages for midget cars. My van would not fit in the parking garages in the area. We decided to leave his car and head for Tennessee in my van. The drive was great. The weather perfect. We stopped for a late lunch at Cracker Barrel down around Corbin. It was the first time I was dissapointed about what I had at Cracker Barrel. Since I was getting out of my rut I decided to get completely out and ordered their fish. It wasn't bad but Cracker Barrel has many better things on their menu. After eating we were hung up in a massive traffic snarl in Knoxville. After all was said and done we didn't actually meet up with Charles till well after dark. No hiking today.

We set up camp in a forest service campground and figured out how far we could go. We shortened the distance. Each of the 3 of us, it turned out, had to be back at our respective homes on Monday night and we had lost the opportunity to hike any on today. We decided on Dyer Gap a distance of about 24 miles. The next chore was to find a place to stash a car at Dyer Gap. We knew that the trail crossed a forest service road there. The questions was finding the particular forest service road and staying on it till we found what we thought was Dyer Gap. There were no road signs or destinations signs saying you are here.

We finally found the place, we hoped, and left Charles car there and drove back to the Campground. On the way back we stopped for a snack at a Mexican Restaraunt in Copper Bottom, GA. We got there at 9:57pm and the place closed at 10:00. The waitress did not appear to be happy to see us. A half hour and 10 of the hottest chicken wings I ever had later we were back on the road to our campsite . Ready for an early start in the morning.

Statistics

I like playing with numbers and over the past couple of days I've compiled some statistics.

I was out for 72 days. During those 72 days there were 19 zero days or days when I didn't hike at all. Most of those zeros occurred when I was recovering from the back injury, which by the way is still nagging at me. There were 53 days that I actually hiked.

The average miles per day were 6.95 when all 72 days are used. The average increases to 9.45 when only hiking days are considered.

I find a more useful statistic, as far as indicating an improvement in conditioning is concerned, to be a comparison of the first 10 days out and the last 10 days out. During days 1 through 10, I averaged 6.8 miles per day and had 1 zero day during the period. During days 63 through 72 I averaged 9.09 miles per day. This period reflected a 33% improvement even though it included 2 zero days and one extremely short (1.5 mile) day to the trailhead where I was picked up.

AAghhh. I fear that responsibility is overtaking me. As I settled in for my planned short stay at home I realized that there was more to take care of than I remembered. At any rate, the water heater and plumbing problems are taken care ofand I am almost ready for the City meeting. Those three things are the main reasons I came back home.

Since then. I remembered that I have to start getting ready for a new year of Scout Leader Roundtables. I was asked to switch from District Activities Chair to Boy Scout Training Chair and I have to get a handle on that position. T top it off, my daughter, who lives in Michigan, informed us that she will have to move to a new apartment in late July or early August and my wife decided that we should help her move. Mary Rose, my wife, also wants me to attend an aviation noise conference (yawn) with her in mid July.

At this point, it looks as if I will have to wait till next March before I get back. Yeah, I'm a little disappointed but I'm not all broken up about it. I did manage to cover 500+ miles this spring and I did so without managing to seriously injure myself. I also managed to lose 55 pounds in the process. I just hope that I can avoid putting it all back on with interest before my return to the trail which will indeed happen.

The Missing Entry

In looking back over the journal, I noticed that I skipped a day. It was a zero day in Erwin. That was the day I was going to explain why elephants are boycotting Erwin. As old stories go, it has been embellished over the years and it has been difficult to separate the facts from the embellishments. The locals really don't want to talk about it because they fear that it reinforces stereotypes about southern Appalchia and its residents.

Prior to 1916 elephants were frequent visitors to the community. In September 1916 the Sparks Circus came into town. As was customary, there was a circus parade down Main Street. One of the circus' main attractions was Mary, a huge elephant, who the owners claimed was even larger than the more famous Ringling Bros Jumbo.

Well, an inexperienced roustabout was assigned to lead Mary during the parade. As the parade progressed, Mary stopped to nibble on a watermelon rind. The handler hit her over the head with a stick in order to get her moving again. She easily picked him up, threw him into a wooden stand and stepped on his head. People panicked and ran away screaming but the elephant never charged the crowd and immediately calmed down once her tormentor was dispatched.

However, word quickly spread about this mad, murderous elephant and mayors in the surrounding towns refused to let the circus into their town if the elephant came. The circus was stranded in Erwin.

The owners came up with a solution and staged a public execution of Mary. She was taken to the railroad yard and was hung by her neck from a railroad crane. Over 3,000 people came to watch the show. Mary is currently buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in the railroad yard and elephants have boycotted Erwin ever since.

Date- Wednesday 6/8/05
Start- Old Orchard Shelter
Stop- Fox Creek Trailhead @ VA603
Miles Travelled- 1.7

Spent a quiet and contemplative night last night. I knew it was going to be my last night on the trail for a while.

For the past few weeks I have been receiving reports telling me that things are not running as smoothly for Mary Rose as we had hoped. Things are falling apart at home and she really needs me there for a while. I have to get with Herman Wyssbrod and Jeremy Whitmer and get the Boy Scout Roundtable Calendar prepared and I have to find out and prepare for my role in Scouting for the coming year.

Its not just these responsibilities that bringing me home. I admit that I miss Mary Rose and my sons and daughters and I am looking forward to seeng them and being with them for a while. I am definately not looking forward to the mountain of work facing me but being with the people will be great.

I intend to return and finish this hike, it's a wonderful experience; I just don't know exactly when. If I can get everything wrapped up at home and with Scouts in the next 2 weeks or so I may go back even though hiking will become more difficult and dangerous. If not, I will be returning next spring.

The increased danger revolves around the change in the season to hot weather. Bears and snakes are already starting to become more active and visible and the seasonal springs are already drying up making water harder to find. The heat and scarcity of water make dehydration and heat stroke nore likely to occur. I will be far behind the groups of fellow experienced hikers who have learned to count on each other to help in case trouble arises. We have already faced a lot together and helped each other through the difficult times: frostbite, hypothermia, broken bones, blown knees, numerous sprains, aches, and pains are all things that have come up from time to time with one or an other of us and as a hiking family we've overcome these obsticals. This family will be far ahead of me and I will only have relatively green, inexperienced day hikers and weekend hikers wh don't have this sense of family and camaraderie that my hiking family has. I would really rather not have to depend on the Commandos should I run into some type of difficulty.

Despite these increased risks, I still want to return. It's wonderful to fall asleep within 5 minutes of laying down because the mind is free from worry and the body is physicaly exhausted. Everyone should try it sometime. Waking up to the song of birds is so much better than the buzzing of an alarm or th silence of a still sleeping house. Feeling and gaining energy from the power of a storm, even while hiding from it, makes me feel almost invincible. It's also a great weight loss program and less expensive than Jenny Craig (I've already lost 55 pounds). I find that I have more energy, more confidence in my decision making, more assertive, and am more alert than I have been in decades. I like the new me better than the old one and I don't want to slip back into old patterns and habits.

Yes, I will surely return.

Date- Tuesday 6/7/05
Start- Thomas Knob Shelter
Stop- Old Orchard Shelter
Miles Travelled- 11

Well, the Commandos got up early and left a big mess when they departed this morning. Capt, White Crow, and I picked up what we could in order to carry it out to properly dispose of.

Today's hike wound through Grayson Highlands State Park, a park known for both its beauty and feral ponies. Well I wasn't too impressed with Grayson. The scenery may or may not have been beautiful, I wouldn't know. My eyes were glued to the ground watching where I placed every foot as I walked over the most rock filled sections of trail I have ever been on.

To top it all off I was assaulted by a horse, well a pony. I had heard about the ponies and expected small things about waist high. They are feral but are not timid. They are known to approach people and lick their arms and legs for the salt. Well they are larger than waist high shoulder high is more like it and they are very strong. They are easily capable of knocking you over. Well I got a thorough licking: legs, arms, and neck. The beast just wouldn't be denied. There was no way I could push it away and I didn't want to hurt it. I finally crossed a crevasse it must have considered too big to cross and it stayed on its side glaring at me.

The ponies are not native. There are no native horses in the Americas. The herd was placed there in the 70's by park officials looking for a cost effective means to control vegetation growth. They tried goats and sheep but those critters ate the poisonous mountain laurel and died. They then tried the ponies and found that they thrived. Each year there is an annual round up. Each is examined by a vet and surplus ponies are auctioned off.

During the afternoon I reached a large clearing called, "The Scales", where there was a forest service campground. At about that time the sky darkened, the wind picked up dramatically, and the thunder rumbled. Another of those severe mountain thunderstorms was almost upon me and I was in one of the worst possible places; a high, treeless spot with no time to get off.

Looking across the field I saw what looked like a privy and headed for it. It was a privy, not the most desirable shelter but better than none. Within minutes the rain was coming down so hard I couldn't see more than 50 feet and the wind was blowing so hard I could hardly crack open the privy door to peek out. The crack of lightening and the boom of thunder filled the air.

After a few minutes I saw someone standing out in the storm with a map. It was one of the commandos. Talk about not having enough sense to come in out of the rain. I ran out and suggested that he come in to someplace warm and dry and he joined me in the privy. He told me that he had gotten separated from his friends, knew where they were heading, and that he was trying to find a short cut in order to catch up with them. He was soaking wet and shivering. He wanted to leave and catch his friends so they wouldn't worry and look for him. I told him that it was dangerous outside, that he was in a relatively safe place, and that if his friends were smart they would also be hiding in a safe place. He didn't have any dry clothes but he did have a rainsuit that I had him put on to help seal in body heat and the shivering soon stopped.

After a while, 3 more Commandos appeared. I went out and got them and put them in the now crowded privy. With all the people in there it started getting quite warm.

After about an hour the storm abated and I got ready to leave. They were discussing heading for their cars and leaving for good. I didn't say anything but I thought they had a very good idea. I never did find out what happened to the other 2 commandos.

Date- Monday 6/6/05
Start- Lost Mountain Shelter
Stop- Thomas Knob Shelter
Miles Travelled- 12.2

The day was as difficult as I thought it would be which made it easy. It's a mental and emotional thing. I can handle a difficult day if I'm prepared for it. I sometimes want to throw in the towel when the day doesn't go as easily as I expect.

There were some bright spots. When I completed the long climb up Buzzard Rock I ran into a large group of high school students and their chaperones getting ready for a lunch break. I was invited to join in, an invitation I eagerly accepted. It was the best trail lunch I had since I started.

I got to see a different sort of animal today. The trail wound through a pasture complete with cows, calves, and bulls. I was a little nervous but I made it across without incident.

In the shelter tonight with White Crow (from Louisville), Captain Morgan, and 6 teenagers who are out for a couple of days. The teens were a mixed group of ROTC high school students and enlisted men just out of basic. They were wearing camouflage and will be referred to as the Commandos. They were nice kids but didn't have a clue as to what the were doing.

The shelter was a pig sty when Captain Morgan, White Crow, and I showed up. Gear was strewn across the shelter mixed in with empty cans, food wrappers, and cigarette packs. I made a comment to the effect that it reminded me of some tents I'd seen at summer camp. We got to work and got the kids to clean up the place and compact their stuff. One of the Commandos overheard my comment about summer camp and we got into a general conversation about Scouting. He told me that they were all current or former boy scouts and that he was an Eagle Scout. I rolled my eyes in despair.

I talked to Roy today. He was at Damascus, Va. He had expected to be there by Memorial Day but he was running a few days behind but it was not a big deal. He said he had hiked 18 miles today to get there. He talked about how he was now able to do 18 miles and not feel it much more than the 5 mile days when he first started on the trail. He is going to have to leave the trial in a week or so. Seems that he has work to do back here in Louisville. He is planning to knock out a few more miles in the next few days so that he can reach the 500 mile mark.

A little side note here. I'm sorry that I haven't keep the blog as up to date as I should have but I was out of town for a week, just about the time the updates came in. I took a train trip (AMTRAK train 7/27, the Empire Builder) from Chicago, across the northern states to Spokane, then down to Portland. It was pretty flat through N. Dakota and Montana until we reached the western part of Montana. If you ever ride through there on train, be on the south side of the train. Met some hikers on the train that were going to Glacier Park. They were planning 70 to 100 miles in the next 7 days. At Whitefish Mt. we met a young lady (probably 25'ish) that had been leading hikes at Glacier. Said she leads hikes from 1 night to a week.
We left Portland on Amtrak�s "Coast Starlight" and rode it to Emeryville (Oakland Ca. area.) Most of the trip was over 4000 feet in elevation. I could tell that there were some really nice views but we were up in the clouds that day and hard to see what was out there.
The last leg of our trip was on Amtrak's "California Zephyr". It goes through the Sierra Nevada's about 2 hours after departing Emeryville. Tour guides from the California Railway Museum boarded the train to announce points of interest and historic events. Be on the north or west side of the train if you travel this route. As night fell and the mountains fell behind us, we traversed Nevada. I woke just south of Salt Lake City the next morning. Just about the time the sun was able to touch the peaks of the mountains we approached Colorado. The next 500 miles were mostly within 100 yards of the Colorado River. Either side of the train will give you a great view but the north side is probably a little better. Let me just say it this way, "There are no bad seats through this region." After we reached Denver, things flattened out and dusk was only about an hour behind.

If you have the time, it's a great way to see this part of the country. We made the trip in 7 days, spending 1 day and night in Emeryville. As a veteran, it cost me $290 but regular fair would have been $343. We "backpacked" food and snacks for the trip, ate one meal in the diner and one in the observation car "snack area."