Date: 2008-05-06
From: Dennis Cove, TN

To: Vandeventer Shelter, TN
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: clear sky

Today was a really long day for me. Parts of the terrain were a lot harder than I had heard and expected, so it caught me by surprise. The hike up to Pond Flats was the only real climb I had expected, and it was indeed a real climb. There were a bunch of other steep and/or otherwise difficult parts, but even with them I managed to make this my longest day at 17.5 miles! I'm thinking of shooting for 22 tomorrow. The terrain between here and Damascus, VA is supposed to be a lot easier than we've been seeing, so it might be doable. Of course, that's what was said of today's hike, but at least the map profile confirms that tomorrow should be easier.I said a temporary (hopefully) good bye to Crabby and left Kincora Hostel around 8:00 this morning. Crabby's headed to his brother's wedding and some R&R, but we're hoping he'll catch up to me at some point. I'm gonna make it hard for him, though. I realized this morning that I left my journal at the hostel. Sucks...it probably had a week's worth of entries in it that haven't been put online yet. I left a message with the hostel, so they'll call me if they find it. I'll call Crabby, too, and get him to look for it when he goes back there to return to the trail.I ate lunch at Wautauga Lake Beach today. I was under a shady tree and it was a very pleasant place to stop, so I stayed longer than I wanted to. Oh well, breaks are good. A while later, I followed the trail over Wautauga Dam and missed a turn into the woods at the top of a long hill. I ended up going all the way down the other side before realizing I had missed the turn. Time for another break. The blazing sun, so I sat in the shade to rest. I realized then that I was running out of water. What a drag. I rationed my water pretty strictly until I finally reached a spring about a mile before the shelter and gulped down a quart. It was torture. I'll have to keep an eye on that with the hot weather. I should've gotten more water at that spring. When I went to the water source at the shelter, it was a REALLY far walk down an endless steep hill after a long day. It took me an hour and a half to get water from the spring, filter enough for myself, then get more water to bring up to the shelter to spare others from sharing my fate. Needless to say, that was appreciated.There's been a bear visiting this shelter for the past 3 nights. Everyone seems to be a little desensitized to that now. I wouldn't mind seeing a bear...I just don't want it stealing my food or getting too close.Two twins from Michigan, Time Cop and Danger Snake, are trying to hike the 48 miles from Laurel Fork Shelter (near Kincora Hostel) to Damascus, VA without stopping to sleep. They just came through here and almost made me believe they'll do it. Crazy fools.Wildlife sightings: I saw a big bumble bee (you know what I'm talkin' about...one of those huge fuzzy ones) caught in the web of what I'm pretty sure was a black widow spider today. I just watched and let nature take its course...can't interfere with that stuff. The big bee was going crazy trying to free itself and the spider looked like it didn't know what to do with such big prey. It kept running toward the bee and then running away and hiding when it got too close. Wussy little spider. Anyway, my mom will be glad to hear that the bee got away. I'm sure both bee and spider were relieved as well.