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Tramping With the Boy 
By C. P. AMBLER 
F OR several years the boy has implored 
me to take him on a tramping trip over 
Mount Mitchell and other high peaks 
in the section north of Mount Mitchell. All 
spring he has been tramping out from Rattle¬ 
snake Lodge (altitude 4400), carrying his loaded 
knapsack up to 5>ooo feet to the numerous peaks 
within ten or fifteen miles of his home. 
This trip was to be made on foot loaded as 
lightly as possible; to follow the ridges and 
trails, keep away from roads and highways; m 
fact, take the roughest trip we have in the 
Southern Appalachians. 
On Saturday, July 1 7 , the boy, aged fourteen, 
Van Buren Bostic, Tom Fox, of the Bull Creek 
section, and myself made the start from Rattle¬ 
snake Lodge, the boy carrying ten pounds, the 
others twenty-eight, thirty and thirty-three re¬ 
spectively. No shelter, no firearms, and no 
extra clothing except stockings were taken: 
the packs consisting of one blanket each, food, 
one small ax, one hatchet, coffee-pot, frying- 
pan, two canteens, piece of fat pine, map and 
compass. 
In the food line we had plenty of bread, 
butter, bacon, ham, coffee, malted milk, sai- 
dines, canned corn, canned tomatoes, canned 
beans, chocolate, crackers and lemons. A knife, 
fork, spoon, tin cup and tin plate completed 
each outfit. We wanted to take a camera, but 
realizing the work ahead, did not add this extra 
weight. 
The actual time consumed on the tramp was 
two and one-half days, distance by pedometer 
measure, forty-eight miles; distance estimated 
by geological survey sheets, fifty-six miles. 
We crossed over nineteen peaks above 5,000 
feet in elevation, as follows: Lane s Pinnacle, 
Craggy, Craggy Pinnacle, Craggy Dome, Bull 
Head, Blackstock, Potato Top, Clingman’s 
Peak, Mount Gibbs, Hallback, Mitchell, Black 
Brothers, Balsam Cone, Cat-tail Peak, Deer 
Mountain, Celo. 
After reaching Lane’s Pinnacle, we were only 
once again below 5.000 feet, that when crossing 
Balsam Gap, between Craggy and Blackstock. 
The going, with the exception of two miles be¬ 
tween Blackstock and Potato Top, was either 
up or down. 
For the first twelve miles we had good trails 
and plenty of drinking water; from Balsam Gap 
to Potato Top no trail and no water. This 
ridge, while almost level (altitude 5-56o feet) is 
covered with balsam, growing closely together, 
the ridge in many places being but a few feet 
across, breaking away'down north and south 
at an angle of 5° degrees for 2,500 to 3. 000 f ee F 
Over this section many bad windfalls were en¬ 
countered. From Potato Top to Mrtchell (alti 
tude 6,711 feet) we followed the regular tourist 
FOURTEEN-POOL CREEK. 
trail, which we found to be the least interesting 
part of the trip. 
The first night we camped in a balsam leanto 
shack, two miles from the top of Mitchell, at 
Stepp Gap, having made twenty-six miles that 
day. From the top of Mitchell north there is 
no trail. The section is one of high peaks, 
covered with balsam and laurel. The view from 
Mitchell, the highest point east of the Rockies, 
is disappointing, owing to the fact that there 
are some twenty peaks in the neighborhood 
only lacking a few feet in being as high as 
Mitchell. 
Down the north side of Mitchell the way is 
fairly open, but after crossing the first deep gap 
_some 600 feet lower elevation the under¬ 
growth is so thick as to make the ridge all but 
impassable. For mile after mile there is no 
water; the balsam growth thick together; the 
laurel, rhododendron, thorn vines and creepers 
require one either to cut through, climb over 
or crawl under. From the deep gap near 
Balsam Cone (altitude 5,200 feet) we decided to 
leave the ridge, turn east down the mountain to 
one of the streams and come out on Toe River. 
We left the Balsam Cone at 10 A. M. For the . 
first mile it was a continual fight with the 
rhododendrons. In many places we would be 
for several hundred yards in the rhododendron 
branches themselves, bending the same down, 
tramping over the tops, crawling through and 
swinging from one to another. Again we 
would be fiat on our stomachs, crawling under 
the laurel, rhododendron and windfalls. Bear 
signs were plentiful, but no bear were seen 
on the trip. Occasionally we found deer signs, 
but not nearly as frequently as bear signs. 
We finally struck the headwaters of a stream 
at 12 o’clock, not having gone over one or one 
and a half miles in two hours. The geological 
sheets give the length of the stream struck as 
two miles, with a fall of 3,500 feet in this dis¬ 
tance. We later found that we were in Rock 
Creek, a narrow stream in a deep, rocky gorge, 
the banks rising precipitously from the water, 
balsam and laurel meeting overhead, the bed of 
the stream consisting of rocks as large as a 
house, piled one upon the other. In many 
places we crawled under the rocks, on our 
hands and knees in the water; again we were 
forced to take to the side of the mountain to 
get around difficult waterfalls, two being over 
too feet high. Following this stream meant 
traveling in the water half the time, the re¬ 
mainder being over boulders and cliffs, walking 
slippery logs or swinging along the side of the 
canon from overhanging laurel and rhododen¬ 
dron. The experience was a thrilling one and 
enjoyable after our experience in the laurel 
thickets higher up. 
We saw no sign of man until well down the 
stream. The moss had not been disturbed, no 
ax marks, no evidence of fishermen or pic¬ 
nickers, although the stream was alive with 
speckled trout. We did no fishing for the rea¬ 
son that we did not want to spend the night 
on the rocks in the bottom of the gorge, and 
we did not know how long it would take us to 
get to more open country. There was literally 
no place where one could have spread his 
blankets. _ • 
We were from twelve o’clock until five mak- 
