(click on the links in the text for more photos)
(click on the links in the text for more photos)
Photos and Text by Will Skelton
Amazing what you can sometimes pack into one day. Five hikers (Will Skelton, Diane Madison and her Black Lab, Lucy, John Finger, TJ Tolnas, and Taylor Pickard from Kingsport) did a long (13 mile or so) loop in the Rogers Ridge Scenic Area in the northeastern corner of TN on March 24, 2002. We had a great hike, perfect sunny early spring weather, although unfortunately the fun was not shared back at home by several friends and spouses; see below. We went up the Rogers Ridge Horse Trail to the grassy balds of Rogers Ridge, then descended to Gentry Creek and following it back out. Scenic highlights were the balds which allowed incredible views, and Gentry Falls, a double falls, with a ledge descent required from the upper to the lower which with all the rain the lower falls was really two falls. We "wheeled" the entire route, double checking the entries in "Wilderness Trails of the Cherokee National Forest" for a revision of the book currently being worked on. The only negative was an ORV that illegally came over the balds; the driver even admitted it. But he was pretty nice and had some information about the " blind man's house" on top of the visible bald over in Virginia. Built by a blind (not just "going blind" as some rumors have it) psychiatrist from Charlotte, he and his wife moved up there one year; she left him snowed-in that winter; his sons had to rescue him; she divorced him; he put the house up for sale; last few years it has been vandalized; windows out, etc, but recently someone has fixed it up. The blind guy had these huge picture windows and would sit in a chair behind the windows for hours.
We were quite late getting back to Knoxville, which caused not a little concern by Judi Gaston about John. She called Roger Jenkins, who called several people who called several people; John Dunlap even came by my house to see if TJ and John's cars were still there; the highway patrol was called to see about wrecks; plans were made to call the county sheriff who hopefully would go and see if our car was still at the trailhead parking lot. We were actually fat (most of us could lose a few pounds), dumb (no idea about the concern) and happy (that good feeling after a good meal and a good hike). The explanation for our late arrival around midnight, in addition to the long hike and dinner afterward was, quite simply, the "NASCAR Nation," as they like to call themselves. The traffic on the interstate going up was stop and go, 10 miles an hour or so, for several miles west of the Bristol Speedway exit. A long day hike, but we were out by 7 pm, just a little later than expected. Then we just had to have dinner at Quincy's in Damascus (there's a story there too, see below), and it was 9 pm by the time we left the restaurant for Knoxville. We thought the NASCAR Nation and their funny cars would all be gone, but somewhere before Morristown we caught up with the motor home portion of the Nation from all over the country, amazing, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana, driving home in motor homes, thousands of them. So again stop and go at 5-10 miles an hour for about 10 miles. Finally after the I-85/I-40 split, we were home free. We did agree that phoning home is the buzzword for future late return trips.
The Quincy's story: for those of you who love eating at Quincy's in Damascus, you've now got only
memories because, in the words of our
waitress, they planned to go out of business on March 29 because the owners are "just TARD." Sold out
to, she says, a bunch of Arabs who are
very religious and don't plan to sell beer; plan to operate it with their family members and don't want
any local
help; doesn't know what they're
going to call it or what kind of food they will serve; she was a bit pessimistic about their future. In
any event we considered ourselves very
fortunate to have one final pizza at Quincy's.
