Date: 2012-04-21
From: Kincora Hiker Hostel

To: Somewhere in the woods
Miles today: 16.0

This morning we were up at around 7:00am, I did not sleep too well due to all the snoring in the bunk house and the local cats that kept jumping on me all night. We headed out of the hostel after eating breakfast and were back on the trail at 8:00am. The trail followed an old railroad bed so it was very flat at first until we got to a drop off where a bridge once went across a river. We had to go down to the river, crossed over it on a foot bridge and climbed back up to the railroad bed. After about a mile, the trail turned and went straight back down to the river, the trail literally went straight down a bunch of stone steps built into the mountain side. We got to the bottom and we were at the base of a big water fall called the Laurel Falls, I do not know how high it was but it was a really cool wide and tall one. The trail then followed the river down stream to a big cliff. I had seen this section of the trail before in pictures so I knew what was coming. The trail went right along the cliff right next to the rushing rapids. The rocks we were walking on were only about a foot wide with the rushing river about six inches below the rocks and a shear rock face on the other side that went straight up. Once around the rock face, the trail followed the river bank and the whole valley on both sides was covered with huge rhododendron plants so it was like walking thru a tunnel. We were making good time on the flat section of the trail until we got to the base of a mountain we had to climb. The trail went up 1700 feet without any breaks and it was a lot hotter up on the mountain than it was down by the river so it was tough. We finally got to the top and found that there was no view whatsoever and we started right back down the other side another 1700 feet down...talk about a PUD, we were not happy. Big Sky and Slim went on up ahead of me because i wanted to go really slow down the mountain due to my bad knee and I meet up with them at the bottom of the mountain. They were sitting in a shaddy grassy spot at the Shook Branch Recreation Area beside the Watauga Lake. We took a short break there then continued on to the shelter on the other side of the creek.We arrived at the shelter at around 12:45 and by that point we had done 10.5 miles so ate our lunch there. I decided to take a long break to rest my knee and feet so once again Big Sky and Slim went on ahead of me. While I was there a thru hiking couple from Reading PA showed up at the shelter and we talked for awhile, I stayed a little longer than I had planned, I didn't leave the shelter until 2:30pm but I still had plenty of time to do the next 7.5 miles as I had planned. By then the dark clouds started rolling in and it looked like it was going to rain. I got to the Watauga Dam and found that I had to cross it. I had not heard any thunder yet but I got across the dam as fast as I could just i in case. Once on the other side, the trail started up the long climb up to the next shelter.I had to climb back up 1400 feet to get up to the tops of the mountains again and by now I could now hear thunder getting closer. I decided to wait it out a bit before going up to see where the thunder storm was heading. I could see that it was raining on the other side of the lake which is were I just had been and it was moving parallel to me so I decided to start up. This time the trail did not just go straight up, it went up a bunch of benches so it was not as hard of a climb as the other one we did today. There were never any close lightning strikes but I could tell that it was a bad storm and soon it started raining in my area so I stopped and put on my pack cover. One bad thing about climbing up mountains with a lot of benches is behind each hill there is always another one to climb. While hiking in bad weather I just couldn't wait to get to the shelter so it seemed to take forever to get to the top.I ran into a section hiker going southbound and he said that the hill I was looking at was the last one I had to climb before I got to the top. The trail went down a little...why does the trail always have to go down before a climb?! In the little valley I saw that Big Sky and Slim had pitched their tents to get out of the rain. They decided to stay there for the night instead of the shelter because they knew that the shelter was going to be full and there was limited tent sites so that meant we would most likley have to go past the shelter to find somewhere for the night. I liked the idea of staying here too and I quickly set up my tent and dove inside to get out of the rain. The rain soon let up so we got out to eat supper and refill our water bottles at the spring that was near by. While we were eating, the couple from Reading showed up and decided to tent with us too.Tomorrow it to be a lot easier with no huge climbs to do so we are going to try and get to the third shelter which will make it a 24 mile day. We will see if we can do it according to the weather and how we feel but there are a lot of camp sites between each shelter so we can stop whenever we need to. Well I am excited about the miles tomorrow so its time for bed...night all.