At Davenport Gap, we emerge from the woods where the pavement ends and walk the wrong way

April 25, 2000 -- Day 25
Destination: Davenport Gap/Mountain Mama's
Today's miles: 15.7
Trip miles: 234.7

I'm actually writing on the 26th. I was too tired to write last night. We hiked through a river of rocks, roots and mud all day yesterday as the cold rain continued. But I've never been one to call rain, snow or any weather "bad." Even though I've now hiked and/or camped in the rain for twenty out of my twenty-five days on the trail, I still refuse to let the weather get me down. That's where some of the hard-headed "ram" in my trailname comes in. That's also where the great attitudes of my hiking companions have helped a whole lot.

When we hiked out of the Smokies to the quiet road at Davenport Gap, we took some photos of our soaking wet, muddy, tired selves at the North Carolina-Tennessee border sign, then began walking towards Mountain Mama's. Or so we thought. We didn't see the small sign tacked to a tree a short distance up the road ... in the opposite direction. We figured we should follow the pavement instead of the dirt. The blacktop ended right where we came out of the woods. We also figured that, since the mailing address for the place is Newport, TN, we'd go into Tennessee according to the sign right there at the state line. The Data Book and Thru-hikers Companion both indicated 1.3 miles east of the trail, but the road ran north/south. Hmm.

So we walked a couple uphill miles. Two cars passed and we flagged them down, but the occupants knew nothing about a place called Mountain Mama's. Finally we came to a trailer with a pickup parked outside, and I knocked. At first, the man who opened the door was leery of the soggy people standing at his door, but he soon realized we were lost little backpackers and told us to throw our packs and ourselves into the bed of his truck. He drove us back the way we'd come, past the trail crossing, and another 1.3 miles further to Mountain Mama's. Oh well. We got a bit more exercise today than we'd planned on. Can't hurt.

Mountain Mama's hostel and country store is a fine place to resupply, but I'm it's no five-star hotel The washer and dryer have been broken for a long time, but it's only a few more days to Hot Springs, so that's not a big deal; the clothes will just get stinky again, anyway. And I know it's tough to keep anyplace clean that's frequented by hoards of dirty hikers, but peeing, etcetera, in the woods and tenting is much more sanitary than my current surroundings.

I guess my review of Mountain Mama's is being clouded by the fact that Marie and I and three other hikers got sick after eating at the short order grill. As I write this the following day, Marie and I are feeling better, but we had a lousy night. Those of us who got sick ate chicken sandwiches and burgers, all with mayo and lettuce, and the meat was grilled in the same grease, so it's our assumption that the food was the culprit. We all ate at about the same time, got sick at the same time, and had the same symptoms. In the morning, Joker mentioned this to the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Thigpen. We thought it reasonable that he informed them, in case they'd want to check the mayo and lettuce perhaps, but they didn't seem to think it was as reasonable as we did. I mean, even the cleanest restaurants can come up with a bad batch of something once in a while. Right? And the grill here look does clean enough. Who knows, though, maybe Mr. Thigpen's diagnosis is right; maybe we all just have a "dag burn summer cold." 'Nuff said, I guess.

--Ramkitten