Date: 2009-05-20
From: Mountaineer Shelter

To: Kincora Hostel
Miles today: 15.7

Last night was another especially cold night. I had to completely bundle up at 3 am, hoping that the sun would come soon enough. Scavenger woke up earlier than I did and, therefore, was on the trail by 7:30 am. I like to have a warm meal, so I didn¢t get on the trail until just after 8:30 am. But, I did manage to leave before Dangle, Collins, Nano, Scree Freak, and Walking Home ?At first, I was moving quite slowly as I was taking some video and pictures of the beautiful scenery. I walked along a creek for a mile or so and I just loved the sound of naturally flowing water. I didn¢t even realize it before I left, but today was the day that we were going to hit the 400-mile marker. Sure enough, it completely snuck up on me. After crossing Laurel Fork River and climbing up a small hill, I came across a long stick in the ground to draw attention. There, nestled nicely into the dirt was a collection of small twigs that were in perfect alignment of the number 300! Yahoo! Only 1,776.2 more miles to go! Since I took my time for the first few miles and realized that Walking Home and others were right behind me, I absolutely took off on a 3+ mile per hour pace. During this time, there were still some ups and downs and, every so often, we were rewarded with an incredible vista of the mountains in the distance. I did come across my first snake out on the trail. The air was very hot and dry and the snake was out close to the trail taking a sun bath. As I passed, it jetted to the side and stopped perfectly at a point where I could admire it. It was a good 4 feet in length and far from striking distance, so I did touch it with my trekking pole, allowing for it to turn so that I could see it¢s head and how it was sticking out it¢s tongue, sensing that a large body was directly in front of it. Snakes are beautiful creatures and I certainly did not want to cause any harm to the little fella, so I did just let it go. I arrived at the Mountain Laurel Shelter about 10 miles in by noon. I was getting hungry and thirsty as I had run out of water for the last few miles, so I went down to the water source to fill up my platypus bottle and Gatorade bottle. The water source was quite poor and I ended up getting a ton of sediment into my water. Now that I had iodine crystals and not a filter, I wasn¢t able to rid the water of this sediment and I just had to suck it up and gulp it down. Chef, the Dude, and Walking Home caught up and we chatted for a bit before I completely took off. I didn¢t carry any water for a while because of weight, so I was really cruising. On the way down to Kincora, I ran into a couple Grasshopper and Katie, who were just descending southbound from Damascus. Grasshopper did the trail in 2008 and I really enjoyed listening to his experiences out on the trail. Interestingly enough, I remember Pippi and Hamburglar telling me at Trail Days about a friend who had just received the imprint of the AT map tattooed on his back. It wasn¢t until I saw Grasshopper¢s back when I managed to connect the dots and realize that it was he who they were talking about. Kincora Hostel is a great place. It¢s only a $4 suggested donation and is run by Bob Peoples, who is in his 13th year of business of helping thru-hikers. It is a perfect backdrop to have a hostel and we are all gracious of him allowing us to stay here for such a reasonable price. There were about 20 of us staying at the hostel and we somehow managed to get some trail magic of hamburgers, brownies, chips, soda, and spaghetti. It was quite an evening. 10 of us even loaded ourselves into the back of Bob¢s pick-up truck and drove the 8 miles into Hampton, TN to resupply. I was only in need of a few things, since we were planning on getting to Damascus by Saturday. Instead, after seeing the food at Big Lots and an 8-pack of Balance Bars for only $3, I decided to stock up on a ton of bars (and other types of food). Only after I left the store did I realize that my eyes were too big for my stomach and that I had way too much food. On the way back to the hostel, I began to get a bit nauseous because of the long and windy mountain roads. There were just so many switchbacks! I should also mention that this was stuffing myself full with two greasy cheeseburgers, a large plate of spaghetti, two bags of Cheetos, and a ton of soda. I¢m glad that I didn¢t throw up on everyone. On the way up, Bob also showed us that because of all the rain we¢ve been having, one portion of the AT had completely flooded and was entirely under water. If we would follow all of the white blazes, we would have to ford the water up to chest-high. We¢ll see tomorrow if we decide to ford it or not. Arriving back at the hostel, we all organized our foods and shared stories about life, surfing in Costa Rica, going crabbing in the Florida Keys and in Maine, and a whole bunch of other crazy stuff. I¢ve written a lot tonight and because breakfast will begin at 7:30 am and we plan on doing two 25-mile days, I better get some sleep. Good night y¢all!