466.     Bounding through the Mountains
A very short leg stretcher, less than 1/4 mile round trip, on the Benton MacKaye Trail in western North Carolina.

This box got its beginnings from the "Simple Gift" personal traveler by Blue Delft of PA. By obtaining that particular stamp, we also got to pick out a logbook that was meant to be planted in our upcoming travels. I picked out one with trees and a bounding deer on the cover, carved a very simple stamp to match, and decided to plant it along the Benton MacKaye Trail, which had in recent years been extended from Georgia to the Great Smokies through Tennessee and North Carolina, the extension of which I was finally getting to head back down to hike in the spring of 2012. (I had certainly been waiting many years for this, since I had backpacked the original BMT from Springer Mt. in GA to back near the TN border after my second "thru-hike" of the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia way back n 1985!)

Anyway, my first thought had been to plant the box about midway along a 5-mile section of the trail that starts out by straddling the TN/NC border, shortly above a place where bikers frequently mount a campaign to make "deals" to "slay the dragon". However, the second half of that particular trail section turned out to be rather fire-ravaged and scruffy (although there was some evidence that trail maintenance could be coming soon), so I decided to leave the box close to the other end of that section near the "Fugitive Dam", so called because it was used in the 1993 film by that name, starring Harrison Ford - giving this box just a touch of mystery to figure out exactly where to go rather than having it all spelled out!

Once you have found your way to that place (which also has the same name as one of the main mountains along the Appalachian Trail between Wesser and Fontana Dam) park in the small parking area along the road near the spillway. Carefully cross the highway and head to an old partially cemented road starting northwards up the hill. Where the old road makes a sharp hairpin left, look for a green BMT sign on a tree uphill to the right. From there, spot a large dark "double layer chocolate cake" boulder just across a tiny little stream. Go gently off trail to its right side (avoiding the poison ivy on the left side) and look down behind several small stones to find a deer "simple gift". Hope you enjoy "bounding through the mountains" and thanks for replacing everything with care.

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