Date: 2003-05-12
From: Watauga Dam Rd.

To: Campsite along the trail.
Miles today: 3.5

start Watauga Dam Rd.destination a romantic campsite on the trail somewhere atop Iron Mtn. We had another great breakfast this morning.A gourmet omelet with green peppers,onions,mushrooms,covered with sour cream and chives,more fresh orange juice,toast,fruit salad,bacon and muffins.I could really get used to this life! I had painted my tent stakes a bright neon orange,and had left them outside to dry yesterday.I went out this morning to get them,and as I came up on the porch,one of them slipped out of my hand and onto the porch.I watched in despair as the stake hit the porch,gave a little bounce and slid between the boards and under the porch!Of course the porch is enclosed all around with lattice.Talk about falling between the cracks!Of course Jerry had to get a screwdriver,take the lattice loose ,crawl under the porch and retrive the wayward stake.I wouldn't have went to all that trouble,but these things are titanium,and not cheap.At least being bright orange it was easy for Jerry to find under that dark porch.Vikki followed us into Damascus to drop our truck off. We picked up some things to do some trail magic before she dropped us off at the trail.She really prepared a feast fit for a king for trail magic.Fresh veggies,cookies,cake,fruit,cold drinks and a couple six packs of cold beer,some Doritoes,hard boiled eggs,and some sandwiches.I have to tell this on Vikki though.She had boiled a dozen eggs to put in the bag and gave us 6 of them to take with us.As I was packing my pack,my food bag which is always on top,needed to be pushed down into my pack farther.I really shoved hard on the food bag and I heard this popping sound.I took the food bag out and opened it up.It was a good thing I had put those eggs in a separate ziplock bag.One of the egs was busted and it was uncooked!Vikki had gotten the fresh eggs mixed up with the hard boiled ones.Of course,I had wrote HB on the eggs for the trail magic and had already put them in the van.We swapped out the eggs in my pack,and got the rest of them to put in the trail magic bag.Of course,in the confusion,we all forgot to take out the fresh eggs meant for trail magic.I did not even think about that until much later that night.We got on the trail pretty late today,but since we do not have a tight schedule,we can just take our time and hike. We found a really nice little campsite with a big rock outcropping .It had a perfect view of the sunset,and should have a great view of the sunrise.We pitched the tent and fixed some supper.The wind was really blowing hard,too hard for a campfire,so we hit the sack early.The temperature also dropped.I am sure the wind had an effect on that. I was really glad to have Jerry next to me tonight.He makes hiking so much more interesting ,pointing out different flowers or birds or views.He stumbles a lot because he is never watching the trail! His feet are really bothering him today,but he insists on carrying most of the weight in his pack.I know he is trying to make it easier for me. The sunset is really pretty tonight,lots of reds sprinkled in between the clouds.Then the moon came out showering everything in a bright glow.It was a perfect hike and a perfect evening.         bumpkintotal miles 3.5