We parked at Alvarado and walked back to mile marker 5 (where we stopped last time, coming from Watauga). The Alvarado station is almost exactly halfway between mile markers 8 and 9.
We crossed the South Holston trestle over the "confluence" (love that word) of the middle and south forks of the Holston (very cool). We walked across some beautiful countryside, and through sections that had been blasted out of rocks. There was very little traffic on the trail yesterday, and despite being a little chilly in the shade, the weather was perfect.
I didn't take the camera, mostly because we walked the longest distance we have walked so far and I didn't want to slow us down, and because we carried a pack with water and snacks, and I didn't want to add any more weight than we had to. There is a bench and a really flat rock just past mile marker 5, so we stopped there for a snack.
On the return trip the boys decided to time themselves running for a full mile, so they ran from mile marker 7 to mile marker 8 (in eight minutes, in case you were wondering).
We left at 10:40 and were back at 1:10. We drove to Bristol and ate pizza at the Mad Greek. It was a really, really good day.
If you're keeping score at home, we've covered points 8 to 6 on the map below (since we've always done a "there and back" walk, we've actually covered it twice.) For our next trick, we may take two cars, park one at Alvarado and the other at Damascus, then walk straight through (about 8 miles).
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