Date: 2003-05-10
From: Moreland Gap Shelter

To: Kincora Hostel, Dennis Cove, TN
Miles today: 0.0

Ah, I came back here at Bob¢s place to get some time away from the masses. This place has really filled up; it looks like there are nearly 20 of us here. After crashing last night around 8:30, I was awake at 6. That doesn¢t mean I was actually able to drag myself out of my space in the shelter. I lay around until about 7. Then I finally got up, got my stuff together, ate a hot breakfast and set out for my six mile hike in to Kincora. It was an all right hike. We started with lots of steep ups, followed by lots of steep downs ¢ about half-dozen or so of them before we came to an ugly dirt road that we followed up to a cell phone tower. After that, though, the scenery improved. It didn¢t compare to the scenes we saw yesterday. After leaving Apple House Shelter we crossed 19E, then another road. The trail there was totally littered and gross. It¢s an area desperately in need of garbage pick up. We had a steep climb to start but descended in to some beautiful forest. At one point before Jones Falls, we hiked up and over a mountain that you could tell had recently (or still was) a mountain for farming. We hiked over it and along a dirt road. Along the way I saw a guy living in the woods there. I think he was just as sketched out about seeing me as I was about seeing him. He was hesitant to say hello, which naturally drew my suspicion. I picked up the pace and trucked it out of there quickly, catching up to SeaBee rather quickly. He, or anyone else I told about the man, hadn¢t seen him.The trail dropped in to some deep vegetation ¢in the heart of the forest. The trail here was relocated and you could tell by the almost black soil that we walked on, that the project was recently completed. All total, the relocation added an additional six miles of trail to our hike to the next shelter. It took us past Jones Falls ¢ which were absolutely amazing. They must have started 300 feet above us ¢ over this huge rock face, with water spraying this way and that. You could tell, too, that the falls were new to the trail ¢ the area hadn¢t yet been trampled, the rocks still had moss. There weren¢t soda cans buried along the side of the trail. It was nice to know I was seeing something pretty close to pristine. I guess when I think about it, it is a double edged sword that we walk with and in nature. To ¢know¢ and ¢educate¢ others about the beauty of things out here generally means putting it in a guide book and widely distributing it ¢ so that any old joe or jean can come out to enjoy it. And enjoying it is good but it is also bad because so many people don¢t know how to treat nature: they leave trash, trample off trail, intentionally hurt plants or animals. When ¢tons¢ of people flock to see this ¢natural beauty¢ it ends up impacting it ¢ making it less natural. By coming to see it, even we, hikers (who are more respectful than others), alter its (nature¢s) original state.I guess that this is sort of what James, the ridge runner in the Smokies, meant when in one of his shelter registers he wrote about seeing all these thru-hikers with their high impact on the trail. When thousands are starting, and even hundreds are finishing, there IS going to be wear and tear. So, from that side note, back on to the trail yesterday¢¦after Jones Falls (about 51/2 miles in) I hiked on down through the deep forest, then along the river, then up a little more. Around 1:30 I was desperate for lunch. I had just said to myself, when I get to the next water source, I¢ll stop for a lunch break. Low and behold, I heard running water. This would be the spot. Deciding even before I rounded the corner, I turned the corner to find another waterfall! Mountaineer Falls weren¢t as grand as Jones but had a natural peacefulness to them. Many of my hiking friends were stopped here for lunch, too ¢ Alpha and Trench, SeaBee, Takereasy, Gazelle. I actually made a hot lunch ¢ mac and cheese, green beans and onion. It was a filling meal and made the first couple of miles out of lunch a little slow. After lunch we crossed the last road indicated in the databook. By now I was draggin a bit. I had hiked 8 miles before lunch and I thought by now I must have walked 10 or so. I hiked on, crossing lots of little streams and covering terrain that had not been rerouted. It carried me straight up, then directly down hills and mountains. There was nothing gradual about it. I was feeling pretty tired around 4 when I reached Laurel Fork. I stopped there for some stretching, to splash in the running water, to check my databook (desperately trying to figure out exactly how far it could be from the Moreland Gap Shelter), and to regroup and remotivate to keep going. There was a delightful camping spot right beside Laurel Fork I was oh so tempted to set up at, but I figured there was only another four miles to the shelter. It turns out it was actually another six or so. There were more of the straight up, straight downs that tested every last bit of my endurance. When my patience for finding the shelter had run out I checked the map (accurate now only because I was on the old trail) to see that I¢m no more than 300 yards from it. Figures! I didn¢t even bother with my tent or a hot meal that evening. I just crawled directly in to my bag and fell asleep between Wounded Knee and Smoky.Kincora Hostel¢s been great, I guess. I pulled in around noon, did laundry, showered, did some journaling, stretched. Around 4 we left for Elizabethtown, TN for a Chinese buffet and grocery shopping. I managed to spend $30 at the Winn-Dixie. How? I have no clue¢¦ Gazelle and I sat out back here, again, to get away from the super-submersion of people in the front of the hostel, and had a great conversation about independence v. community on the trail. It was neat sharing my very raw, vivid emotions with someone else. She says part of her journey is learning to find joy in every circumstance. I wonder what my journey is about. This evening I spent a good bit of time talking with Bob Peoples. After that, though, I didn¢t really find a group of people that I wanted to socialize with. I came in, resorted and repacked my pack. I have now settled in to my smell bunk (there¢s definitely an odor to hostels that is unmistakably hiker). Sometimes I just don¢t feel like I ¢fit¢ in around other hikers. Sometimes I feel like that¢s Ok and sometimes I feel like it¢s not. It¢s almost like I¢ve lost my conversational ability or maybe I¢m just less willing to put up with BS and insincerity. Or maybe I¢m full of excuses. Sometimes I find it hard to laugh and I¢m not sure why. Or maybe I¢ve forgotten how to make myself laugh. How do we define what is funny anyways?As for tomorrow, I¢d like to head out of here pretty early and hike the 12 miles or so to the Watauga Lake Shelter. It¢s supposed to be a pretty steep climb out of Dennis Cove, but I¢m ready for it ¢ 15 lb food bag and all. Perhaps I can go swimming in the lake there, too.