Hi All,
This is my first trip report, so hopefully it's not terrible. I've been lots of places out west (mostly in CO and UT), but this was only my second "real" trip since moving back east. A good friend and I spent 4 days wandering around the TN/NC border, mostly in the Blue Ridge mountains area...here are some thoughts and photos:
Packing the truck before we head out:
We took off from my place in the south hills of Pittsburgh, and headed south on I-79/77 until we reached Damascus, VA. In Damascus, we fueled up and turned off of the highway onto Government Rd., which was a fairly remote (for the eastern half of the US) gravel road/two track:
The plan was to take Government Rd. and some other smaller roads to South Holston Lake in northern TN. We made it to the campground at the lake around 4:00, and proceeded to set up shop. Our site was located about 30 feet from the shore of the lake:
We made some lamb chops for dinner, and they were awesome. Caught a good sunset, drank some beers, and went to bed.
The next morning, we headed out for a quick paddle on the lake (sorry no pics, didn't take the DSLR onto the water with me), then drove toward Dennis Cove Rd. This road crosses the Appalachian trail, and has a couple of opportunities to hike to waterfalls. We parked at the Dennis Cove campground, and hopped out to hike to Dennis Cove Falls:
There were a few sketchy "bridges" to cross on our way to the falls:
We then drove to Watauga lake, with plans to camp there for the night, but there were no drive in sites available. We continued on to Old NC Hwy 105, which is a rough gravel road that climbs a ridge overlooking the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area:
ctd below
This is my first trip report, so hopefully it's not terrible. I've been lots of places out west (mostly in CO and UT), but this was only my second "real" trip since moving back east. A good friend and I spent 4 days wandering around the TN/NC border, mostly in the Blue Ridge mountains area...here are some thoughts and photos:
Packing the truck before we head out:
We took off from my place in the south hills of Pittsburgh, and headed south on I-79/77 until we reached Damascus, VA. In Damascus, we fueled up and turned off of the highway onto Government Rd., which was a fairly remote (for the eastern half of the US) gravel road/two track:
The plan was to take Government Rd. and some other smaller roads to South Holston Lake in northern TN. We made it to the campground at the lake around 4:00, and proceeded to set up shop. Our site was located about 30 feet from the shore of the lake:
We made some lamb chops for dinner, and they were awesome. Caught a good sunset, drank some beers, and went to bed.
The next morning, we headed out for a quick paddle on the lake (sorry no pics, didn't take the DSLR onto the water with me), then drove toward Dennis Cove Rd. This road crosses the Appalachian trail, and has a couple of opportunities to hike to waterfalls. We parked at the Dennis Cove campground, and hopped out to hike to Dennis Cove Falls:
There were a few sketchy "bridges" to cross on our way to the falls:
We then drove to Watauga lake, with plans to camp there for the night, but there were no drive in sites available. We continued on to Old NC Hwy 105, which is a rough gravel road that climbs a ridge overlooking the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area:
ctd below
