Ground Zero: Hot Springs, N.C.
Your outdoor news bulletin for April 11, the day Apollo 13 launched for the moon and Napoleon lunched for Elba:
Stomach Bug Invades Appalachian Trail
Things are getting buggy on the A.T., and we’re not talking about mosquitos. The U.S. Forest service released a statement warning A.T. hikers near Hot Springs, N.C. of a 24-hour stomach bug being passed around. The viral illness seems to be concentrated in the 70-mile stretch between Hot Springs and Erwin, Tenn. No word on what to do about it, but we have to assume this is not the beginnings of a A.T. trail zombie apocalypse. It’s hard to tell the difference between a sick thru-hiker and a zombie anyway. The full statement is below:
“A number of hikers have been sickened by a severe, 24-hour stomach virus that is being passed between hikers. Shelters to avoid include No Business Knob, Big Bald and Hogback Ridge. A section of the Appalachian Trail runs through the Appalachian Ranger District, Pisgah National Forest, to the north and south of Hot Springs.”
Carytown Gets a Beer Fest
We already mentioned the Monument Avenue 10k today but Richmond, Va. is also making a play to join the craft beer elite with its first annual Carytown Craft Beer Festival. The festival will take place this Sunday, April 14 in…Carytown. The fest will spotlight regional beers paired with local restaurants. Already known for microbreweries like Legend, Hardywood, and 3 Brother, this festival will also include Starr Hill, Center of the Universe Brewing Company, Devil’s Backbone and more. There will of course be live music and a relatively svelte $15 advanced ticket, which includes souvenir pint glass. This is great news for beer lovers in Richmond and beyond.
Recluses on the Looses No More
It was a bad week for recluses, but a good week for law enforcement as they will not have to scour the backcountry looking for these solitary men any longer. First, Troy James Knapp, the Mountain Man of Southern Utah was arrested on Tuesday. Knapp had been on police radar for over seven years for breaking into cabins in the Wasatch, evading officials and basically living in the wilderness with only his survival skills. Then Christopher Knight, the North Pond Hermit, was caught breaking into a cabin in Maine. Knight claims to have had contact with only one other person in his three decades of off the grid living and is suspected of over 1,000 burglaries in the area. These two guys lived out in the backcounty avoiding detection for years, so I have to say this makes the legend of Bigfoot a little more plausible. The question is: how many more of these guys (or gals) are there out there? I guess, at least two more than there used to be.
