Date: 2015-05-14
From: Mountaineer Shelter 

To: Wilbur Dam Rd
Miles today: 28.9

As I left the shelter this morning I thought about how walking into Damascus is an important part of my hike. And since I also felt the experience of being in Trail Days for Saturday would be something I couldn't get otherwise, I needed to find a way to hike 67 miles in two days. My first thought was that I'd walk all through the night, get to just a few miles away, sleep, then go the remaining few miles Friday afternoon. The more I thought about that the worse it seemed. My body/mind wasn't ready to be walking for 24 hours, particularly not since most of that would be in the dark. So I continued with the idea of the original goal and thought I could probably do about 35 today and 32 tomorrow (or some variation thereof). As I approached the next shelter for a snack break, there were two girls (Blue Kazoo & Dirty Peanut) already there taking a break. They had started that morning at 6am from just next to the shelter I was at. Apparently they had decided to do the same thing as me. But the pace they were going I wasn't too sure I'd see them again...Along the way there was a blue blaze (side trail) for 0.8 miles to a waterfall. Downhill. I didn't think going 1.6 miles out of my way for a waterfall was a good idea but a) some section hikers I met the evening before said they saw it online and it looked good, and b) Baltimore Jack (a trail legend) said that his second thru-hike was focused on going down the blue blazes specifically for the waterfalls. So even though I was going to be walking many more miles that day than the I should, I took the trail in hopes of a nice swimming hole at the bottom of a nice waterfall. That was not what I experienced. The downhill part of the trail wasn't significant, but there was no swimming available. No spot even to partly dunk my body. I will now be much more sceptical about taking blue blaze trails.I was rewarded with some good swimming spots as I reached Laurel Falls. The river had many a good spots, but I wanted to push on first to see the falls. Laurel Falls were quite pretty, and there was a big enough pool for getting wet (even with the warnings not get close to the falls due to undertow), but there were too many people around to naked swim and I didn't want to get my close wet. So I walked along the river a bit more, had a good dip, ate a bit of food, and dried off. When I started on my way, Blue Kazoo came up behind me. I was impressed but even more surprised to learn that Dirty Peanut had gotten ahead of me (likely while I took the blue blaze to the waterfall).The next stretch of trail was my first exposure to a PUD (pointless up and down). When you leave the falls you're at the same elevation as Hampton TN. When you arrive at Shook Branch recreation area, you're at the same elevation. The distance to walk between the two is about 2 miles. But instead you walk 2.5 miles almost straight uphill, for a lack of view and a poor water source. Only to go right back downhill for 2 miles.I caught back up with Dirty Peanut at the water source at the top of the PUD and she continued on while I got some much needed water, electrolytes, and calories. During the climb I could feel my muscles starting to cramp up. I forgot to remind her before she left about how the 4 mile stretch after the Shook Branch recreation area is closed due to bear activity, and since it was getting late, Blue Kazoo would probably be going through there in the dark. I knew that I wouldn't want to come upon a bear while walking alone in the dark, so I figured if I didn't see Dirty Peanut at the bottom I'd wait and hike with Blue Kazoo. Well it turns out there was trail magic at the lake (thanks Mowgli) along with Dirty Peanut, so it was an easy decision to stuff my face and do some night hiking with the two girls. They slowed my pace down a little bit, and we stopped a bit sooner than I would have otherwise, but we were on pace to make it to Damascus tomorrow!Fitbit-------------Miles: 34.2Calories: 7100Stairs: 671