June 12 Mile 699

Dragon's Tooth! It had inspired fear in me ever since I had read about it in one of my AT books. It was described as having to hang in the air while hiking there, dangling over a valley 1500 feet below or words to that effect. And today, we were finally coming to Dragon's Tooth!
We camped about 5 miles below the top of the mtn where Dragon's Tooth shot up on the air. We had our earliest start ever, knowing that it would be a hot day and wanting to do about 14 miles and get to the town of Catawba where we could get food resupply and eat at an all you can eat restaurant , called the Homeplace. We were out of food.
So we hiked off at a little after 7 AM on a Saturday morning. If I was at home I'm sure I'd be fast asleep. We hiked up Cove Mtn for what seemed like forever, climbing over rocks and more rocks. The last couple of days when we get to the top of the mtns it's like hiking on a sharp edge of a knife. They have you hike the ridge line, but you are at the very top. The trail goes on the top rocks that are sharp and you look down on both sides at trees that are growing sideways. It is a very weird view of the world. Hiking up and up I knew the guidebook must be wrong on the distance as it was taking forever. Finally got there at 10:15. And where is it ? Saw a sign for a side trail and hiked down a bit. Is this it? A big pointed rock sticking up about 50 feet in the air among all the other rocks. Some local folks had climbed up it, not me. We stayed there a bit, in the cool shadow of the Tooth and then decided to move on. What would I face going down? Would I fall to oblivion? Then I realized, here the AT acts as a trail down to a parking lot for folks to come up here on weekends, how scary can that be. It wasn't. There were some steep rock faces to slide down and some rebar handles bar to help you climb down. But we survived! Passed the Tooth!
After the Tooth we ended up in a gap with a stream. Some other thru hikers we had recently met were there. We have met some very nice hikers lately: Trail names: Yum Yum, Herro, Mineown, Cliff ( a retired postal employee- his name from the postman on Cheers) Bam Bam, Peaches, Ripple, and Country Gold. Anyway, several of them were by the stream and told us they learned it was about to storm. And they were right! Just before we could get our rain gear on, I wanted to treat ( purify) water we had taken from the stream. But my new purifier bottle was stopped up and with the rain pouring down, we decided to forget about the water. So we hiked for about 5-6 miles with no water! Not good! At least the rain made it cooler, as it was a very hot day up to that point. Ate a spoonful of peanut butter and half a soft taco shell for lunch in the drizzle.
Finally the trail brought us down to the highway that is about a mile from the community of Catawba. Tried to hitch, but it was a very busy hiway. Hiked down to Catawba- a P.O., a general store gas station, and a restaurant. Before this hike I took all gas stations and stores for granted. No more. What an oasis!! Food and somthing cold to drink.! The owner charges $3 to camp on his property, which was fine. But it's right on the highway, so it was noisy all night. But he had a place to recharge my phone, a water faucet, a dry carport to stick our wet stuff, and a portable toilet. We were set. But I got to thinking, as a thru hiker you do things you would never do in your normal life. If I wanted to go camping, I wouldn't do it at a gas station side lot next to a busy highway.
After I drank a large Gatorade and ate a bag of Doritos, we were off to dinner and it was the best on the trail so far. It's called the Homeplace, an old house that's a restaurant on weekends. All you can eat for $14, including tea and dessert. It was terrific. And such a nice place, Here I come in, no bath for a week, a beard and wearing a baseball cap to hide my hair. Plus my clothes, since we were caught in the rain weren't the nicest. I must have looked a sight compared to the well dressed people there celebrating graduations and anniversaries . Went back to our tents and tried to sleep, but the highway noise was unending. Didn't plan on that. But all in all, a great spot to stop and eat!