Date: 2009-05-21
From: Kincora Hostel

To: Campsite past Vandeventer Shelter
Miles today: 20.5
Weather: few clouds

At 7:00 am, I awoke to the wonderful smell of breakfast. Several people, including Chef and Scavenger, were up early with some old timers cooking some potatoes, toast, eggs, eggplant, and the greasiest bacon imaginable. After eating several plates of this yummy, but not-so-healthy trail breakfast, Scavenger and I said goodbye to everyone and then headed down the road to catch the AT again. From there, we walked to Laurel Fork Falls, the highest waterfall on the AT that I have seen thus far. It was a very difficult descent to the falls, which was incredibly rocky. As I reached the bottom, I could feel the cool mist coming off the waterfall. The sound of rushing water was wonderful music to my ears and therapeutic to my soul. I asked Raspberry and Raindancer, two Peace Corps volunteers from The Gambia in western Africa, to take a picture. The next big section was probably one of the toughest yet on the trail: Pond Flats. People have said that it is the most pointless section, considering the fact that it is literally 2,500 feet straight up and then dropping straight down on the other side of the mountain. Many hikers end up yellow-blazing this section of the trail, meaning that they walk one mile around the mountain and reconnect with Watauga Lake on the other side. As we arrived at the top of Pond Flats and began to descend, Scavenger and I had been talking when all of a sudden, he jumped out of his skin. Then, I just heard a very loud and distinct rattle: A RATTLESNAKE! Scavenger had nearly stepped on it, as it was taking a sunbath on the trail, which is atypical of rattlers and snakes in general. It was a fat one, nearly 4-5 feet in length and it had slowly curled itself up into a ball, completely in defense mode and ready to strike. I normally like to get closer to observe these beautiful creatures, but this time, I kept my distance. After we let this wee bugger in peace, Scavenger and I wondered what we should actually do if we were to be bitten by a poisonous snake. We suspected that it would be best to remain put and to stay calm and that the hiking partner should run off and find help. If the victim were to walk fast, this would increase his/her heartbeat and spread the venom to other parts of the body, at a much quicker rate. Only another 45 minutes later, we came across another snake ¢ this time a 5 ft. black snake. It must have been snake day! Arriving at the picturesque scene of Watauga Lake, I immediately stripped out of my clothing and jumped into the cold, but ever-so-refreshing lake. Although it was a weekday, there were many high-schoolers out in their bikinis and many of the guys showing off their tattoos. The lake was a bit cold, but it was incredibly refreshing, as the sun was really beating down on us. If we had not been pushing big miles, heading towards Damascus, then I would have liked to have stayed longer. We took off walking again after 1.5 hours. It was going to be the last tough climb in a long while and, as we ascended the mountain, we were walking directly alongside this beautiful blue lake with green rolling mountainous hills all around. It was beautiful. We did come across Sir Packs-A-Lot, a thru-hiker of former years and two of his close friends. He was telling us how Peregrino de Santiago, a crazy, but relatively friendly guy from Ireland (one with white hair and a 6-inch chin beard of white hair) tried to hit their small dog with his walking stick. They yelled to him as the dog ran in front: ¢The dog is not harmless!¢ and in pure Irish fashion, he raised his stick and bluntly replied: ¢Well, my stick is not harmless!¢ motioning to hit the dog. I just thought that the entire episode was comical. Passing along, my energy began to spiral, so I stopped to cook dinner with Scavenger. Dangle and Collins caught up to us and we all set around having useless, but hilarious dialogue. Gaucha, a girl from Ohio, came along and joined us for a short bit. As I pushed on again, I couldn¢t help but stare at the beautiful sunset to the west. The trees overhead did not provide a good enough view, but you could still see this giant fireball descend over the horizon. The stars were nearly out and it was just such a beautiful evening. Since we wanted to keep going for a big-mile day, we had to night-hike for an hour or so, but decided to stop since Scavenger¢s headlamp was a girly light; I truly think that the moonlight had shown more than his headlamp. We slept underneath the millions of stars twinkling above us. We needed to get some rest since we would be starting on the trail at 6:30 am.