Day 64 - 3rd June - Trout Creek - Catawba - Catawba Mt Shelter - 15.8 miles

The climb up to the Dragon's Tooth stands out as one of the hardest climbs on the AT. The rocks are very uneven and the path is ascending, descending, ascending - soul destroying. And all I want to do is get there. The Dragon's Tooth is a spectacular monolith, and when we finally arrive, we find Grizzly's group spread over the whole area, having spent the night camped there.

Alison stanidn in front of the Dragons Tooth

There is a steep descent and we have a close shave - an accident which nearly terminates our whole trip.  I fall off the cliff which is the path and luckily get wedged in a tree. Digby lunged to grab me as I lost my balance, missed and then fell himself with no tree to break his fall - I watched him roll down the cliff from my wedged position. Luckily we were both OK, just a bit shocked.

The path descends from the top of this cliff on the right. Alison wedges herself
between the tree trunk (the one on the right) and the cliff when she falls.

 We are determined to reach the 'Home Place' a restaurant famous with hikers,  for dinner tonight. We have a steep climb along a ridge followed by a traverse of a valley and a cow paddock, with a zigzag trail to the gap. It is a very hot day and we run out of water on top, and start to get stressed. We finally arrive at the road around 4.15pm. It is difficult to hitch so we decide to walk the one mile into the small village and have cars zinging past us. We arrive at the corner store absolutely dehydrated and both drink 2 litres of Mountain Dew (a soft drink with more calories than Coke) before we walk the last 400 metres to the Home Place.

We arrive at 5pm - we are sweaty and smelly and starving. There are loads of people in their best clothes for family celebrations. It is an old farmhouse and we are made to feel welcome. We eat as much as we can - seconds come for all courses at no extra charge - no wonder hikers love the place.

Surrounded by food

As we are getting ready to depart and head back up the mountain, a family offers to drive us. They are waiting for the rest of their group to arrive. We accept gratefully and it meansn that we are able to walk the 2 mile along the trail to the campsite as the sun is setting.