Date: 2005-05-31
From: Troutville and Roanoke

To: Peaks of Otter Campground
Miles today: 12.0

Another Not-so-Tall Tale by Deb:When we woke up this morning we weren't quite sure how we were going to work out the hiking and rental car thing. We found out at breakfast that Scholar's father was visiting her and hence there were two cars available. The problem was that we were a little late waking up and plans had already been set to slackpack just about all of the other hikers that were staying at the Comfort Inn along with us. Packs were already being loaded, people were already being shuttled. Domino made a beeline to find Scholar and figure out a plan. Before I knew it we were quickly packing up our stuff so we could drop our car, Scholar and her father at the endpoint, ride back with Troll and Anchor in the second car, shuttle a few more hikers, stop at the post office and the outfitter, and finally make it to the trailhead. My first day of real hiking.The first few hours (I'll speak in terms of time since I have no sense of distance whatsoever) were mostly uphill, sometimes more steep than others, oh, and I got a taste of those mindless switchbacks I've been hearing so much about. It was warm, but not nearly as hot as the weather I'm used to, yet, it didn't take long to break a sweat. Me, being the flatlander Florida native that I am, well I started huffing and puffing, trying to keep moving at a reasonable pace. Gee, this whole altitude thing can really be a pain. It seemed like I was going sooo slow, yet here I am gasping for air as if I was jogging the thing. Oh well, I blame it all on my lower-than-sea-level upbringing. Domino let me lead the way for a while to avoid early burnout for me trying to keep up with his lightning fast hiker's clip. When is the climb going to finally even out?? Or go downhill for a change? Will it ever?I quickly realized that hiking the Appalachian Trail is not always so scenic just because of the whole mechanics of hiking. You kind of have to look at the ground several feet ahead of where you're stepping at all times. This would become ever more apparent throughout the day.I saw lots of wildlife of the insect variety right off. Some bright green, leafy looking caterpillars, rust-colored millipedes, chartreuse beetles, and several kinds of butterflies. The terrain varied from woods, to woods and then woods with rocks under your feet. We finally found a short stretch of somewhat level ground and then passed Scholar and her dad, deemed 'The Professor' by Domino, traveling south. They told us of some trail magic a ways ahead of us. I was certainly looking forward to a bit of a rest. We walked for about another hour and came upon Bassline sitting on a log by the trail magic: cans of soda arranged in the AT symbol and some Star Crunches and other snacks. Perfect! We sat and partook of the magic and chatted with Bassline about today's section and where the other hikers were. Soon we were off again. It wasn't long before the downhill part started to kick in. I soon realized that downhill slopes were not my friends. Oh, where are the uphills when you want them? Down and down we went, or so it seemed to me. The outside corner of my left knee started to burn a little bit, a familiar feeling when I run and don't get enough stretching in. Hm, not a good sign, and certainly not even something I had considered when I had my delusions of grandeur, ideas for a few days of hiking with Domino. It started up on the right kneed as we came to Domino's 1/3 of the way mark. We stopped so he could draw a 1/3 pie in the middle of the trail for the hikers coming up behind us. Pictures were taken and it wasn't long before Troll and Oblivious had caught up to and passed us. We started off again, and again downhill to a small stream. The knees were a burnin' so I decided this was a good place with some flat ground in order to stretch out the ol' IT bands, hopefully reducing some of the pain. We started off again, going up a pretty steep and switchbacky area and the rocks were getting progressively more prevalent in the trail. I must admit I was cursing them relentlessly as Domino sang "On every mountain there's a token rock bed..." More downhills! I grinded my teeth and began hiking with Naked and Turkey to try to take some of the strain off my knees. I was so busy navigating rocks and sucking up the pain that the rhododendrons flanking me in every direction hardly phased me. Finally, in the last half hour or so that we were out there, I was moving at not quite a snail's pace. My knees felt as if they were metal joints that had frozen up, paralyzed by rust. It was such an effort just to bend them, let alone step down and down and down amidst all those !@#$ ROCKS!! Yeah, I cried, and Domino said that someday I'd remember this and laugh. Yeah, he took pictures, too. I can't say I am laughing about it just yet.After considering sitting down and sliding my way down the rest of the trail to the road where we would finally be done, I crawled down out of the woods. Most of the other hikers were already there. After lurching across the road and over to the overlook, Scholar and The Professor pulled up with several pizzas! Wow! They gave us one pie and we all piled into the cars, headed to the Peaks of Otter campground where Domino set up the tent as I tried to lurch around helping as best I could. I knew that would be the end of my hiking for this trip, but I tried to be optimistic and just wait until the morning to make that final call. I was very disappointed as I knew that there were still two more 14 mile days ahead, far more than my knees could handle even if they did feel better. That night Domino built a fire and Gypsy and Touk sang some songs.