Date: 2003-04-30
From: North of Elk River

To: Dennis Cove
Miles today: 20.0

I did about 20 miles. From just south of the Elk river to Dennis Cove.About 10 in the morning I just ended up sitting on one of the little bridges making some oatmeal which I despised and hated. A couple of thru hikers passed by including Blue Skies and Mountain Dew and a couple others as I was sitting making oatmeal on the bridge. Also, Oopoola, was one of the other hikers. Anyway, I¢m sitting there on my bridge eating my oatmeal, deciding what I was gonna do because I was feeling so bad and feeling so down and feeling so hurt. This guy comes running down all smiling and stuff from the direction that the hikers had just passed me. He comes running down with a brownie in one hand and an orange drink in the other and is saying something to me which I am not listening to because I am so distracted. Then I realized he came running down there to give me a soda and the brownie. He says to me ¢Oh, by the way, I¢m parked up by the road there and if you want to leave your pack with me I¢ll give it to you 10 miles up the trail and you can hike without a pack¢. Which was a pretty incredible thing to say. So I grab my stuff and I hike up to the road and there he was sitting by the van with two other guys, two other hikers that I had just passed, that were all hanging out there drinking sodas and eating candy bars. The guys name was John. John tells me he¢s from Laurel Falls Lodge¢¦about 10 miles down the trail and that if I wanted to leave my pack with him he would be glad to carry it around on the road and I could slack pack which I found to be very suspicious. I basically told him, I would love to do it except I didn¢t know who he was and I would never see my pack again. He did end up convincing me and two of the other hikers and we all slack packed and it was very strange. I couldn¢t even walk right. It had been so long since I¢d walked without a pack and used trekking poles that the trekking poles kept flying up in the air. I couldn¢t keep my balance properly. When we got to Dennis Cove road I was actually planning on staying at the Concora Hostel . That¢s where my mail drop had gone to. But basically John had made me an offer that I couldn¢t refuse. The reason being is..the place the was running¢¦Laurel Falls Lodge¢¦apparently the manager that had been living there had mysteriously disappeared the week before and he had to take over the place and to top it all off it had been just recently sold. They were in competition with Concora so he had been luring people over there. I felt kind of funny going over to Concora to get my boxes and stuff and went back to Laurel Fork and several people I knew were at Concora including once again, Big Paw, who¢d been hanging out there. Mr. Ed was there and quite a number of people. I ended up being glad I didn¢t stay at Concora. I¢m sure it was great. You know, the people there are doing their hostel thing by donation only which they recommend 4 dollars a night when you stay there which is ridiculous. Especially since they cook for you. They cook you dinner and breakfast and supply you with a shower and all that. But the people at Concora bought Peoples, which was the name of the Concora Hostel, which was their house and they had converted a section of it into a bunch of bunks. They probably sleep, I don¢t know, 25 people there. The place is always full from the word I got. The reason being for the hospitality and the quality of food. The place is always filled up. But it was very crowded. People everywhere. But at Laurel Fork it was the total opposite. At Laurel Fork there were these little cabins just spread out all over the place with 2 bunks each. Little tiny places. Just really nice. John offered to let me stay in one of them for 15 dollars a night which was a great price and I did do that. I ended up staying there a total of 5 nights beginning that night. The rest of the nights he offered to me for 6 dollars a night because Eddy was staying with me which was good. That evening John shuttled us over into a little town, I don¢t know what the name was, I¢ll look it up later, and we went to the all you can eat Chinese buffet which wasn¢t great but adequate. Then we ran to Eagle store right next door and got some beer and some more snacks and food. I had come to realize that part of my problem was that nutritionally I was shot. My energy reserves in my body had run out completely. I had lost a tremendous amount of weight in a very short time. Basically, what was happening was that I wasn¢t getting enough protein on the trail. So, right at this time, I was beginning to have cravings. Large cravings for meat. I started listening to them. I ate tons and tons of food during the days that I stayed at Laurel Fork. As much as I could possibly get. I ended up gaining about 6 pounds.