Date: 2012-05-04
From: upper Laurel Fork

To: unmarked campsite past Watauga Lake Shelter
Miles today: 21.7
Weather: clear sky

The fellow who's wife gave me a ride to Roan ended up camping next to me last night. He's 66 years old and complained of swollen ankles. I asked him how much his pack weighed. He said he started at 50 lbs. but now it was down to 40 lbs. I suggested he bring it down further, at first he seemed kind of put off by what I said.It's funny, hikers seemed to get emotionally attached to the things they carry. They will tell you all sorts of reasons why they gotta have this or that. The A.T. isn't like a weekend hiking trip. Most people put on a 50 lb. pack and hike 5 miles to camp. After staying the weekend they hike 5 miles back to the car Sunday afternoon. On the A.T. you have your stuff on your back for hours and hours every single day. It's insane to carry a lot of weight out here. Walking along a rocky, uneven footpath, up and down thousands of feet is hard enough without a pack on. Don't prepare for the A.T. by getting "expert" advise from your local outfitter. You don't want bells and whistles, it's heavy and expensive. You need light and simple. Most big name gear companies aren't making the really light stuff. Smaller garage based businesses cover the ultralight market, some are better than others. I am going to update my gear page and share what I've learned after walking 400+ miles real soon, hopefully by Monday.Anyway I'm disappointed with my Leatherman "squirt", within a week the spring on the scissors broke. It has a 25 year warrantee but I have to print a form from the internet to send it in. I might as well have it sent home after it's fixed because who knows where I'll be. I was thinking I should buy a simple, inexpensive, lightweight, lockblade with a plastic handle to replace it. After walking 20 miles today, the trail came to a road. It looked like someone had left trail magic. There was a small plastic handled lockblade knife with the tag still on it sitting on top of an empty cooler. A sign said "from one hiker to a few more" all the sodas were already gone but there was a knife sitting there for me. The sign also said there was hamburgers down at the lake. I followed the white blazes down the road and across a street into a park with a public beach. It was very nice, I saw a couple hikers and asked about the hamburgers. They said we must be a day late because they didn't see any. I walked up to the bathroom and filled my water bottle from a fawcett. I also looked at myself in the mirror (which I hadn't done in awhile). My facial hair is looking pretty burly, the hair on top of my head is pretty long too. I think I'll get a haircut in Damascus so my head stays cooler. I'm not going to shave though because I made a deal with my friend Matt. Neither one of us are going to shave until we see each other again. The trail continued around Whatauga lake to the shelter, it was full so I continued on. I met a couple guys further down who had a campfire. There was a reasonably flat spot to set up my tent so I camped there. Knoxville and Daffy were good company. Daffy is an ultralighter and we talked gear. I got some good tips from him. The moon was shining bright over the lake tonight.