Date: 2016-03-30
From: Mountaineer Shelter

To: Black Bear Resort via Dennis Cove Road
Miles today: 16.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Fortunately the weather wasn't as cold as I was expecting last night. I even woke up too hot and had to take off my raincoat. Imagine that. My sleeping bag is a Katabatic Palisade, a quilt with an enclosed foot box: it essentially has no back, so my back has been right on my sleeping pad, and I'm pretty sure that's been where I lose most of my warmth at night. So last night I put down my rain pack cover under my back as an extra layer of rubbery insulation. I think the warmer weather was probably what helped most, but I think the pack cover helped some, too. I knew that new boots were going to be waiting for me at the end of the day, but I still had 16 miles with a blown out sole. I needed something better than duct tape to hold the shoe together and asked, not really expecting anything, if anyone had a rubber band. Rain Man said he thought he did and a minute later handed me the perfect rubber band for the job, wide and durable looking. I thanked him profusely and strapped the band around the shoe. It held pretty well, and lasted me all day, only popping off once. I was out before everyone in the shelter, and moved quickly over the easy miles to Hampton, reaching Moreland Gap shelter 9.6 miles away in just under three hours. A hiker named Stickman stopped me for a bit and asked if he could interview me. After thru hiking a number of years ago, he does a few section hikes each year and interviews thru hikers about their experiences. It took about 2 minutes, and come mid-April I will be part of a YouTube montage of many happy thru-hikers! When I stopped for water just before the last small climb of the day I met Beth, a sobo hiker who began in the Grayson Highlands and will return to start north from there once she reached springer. She has the exact same trippy-looking gaiters as I do. She says she is enjoying the sobo hike so far but says it's hard to just be meeting everybody once. After one more climb, I was at Dennis Cove Road. I knew I had to go to both nearby hostels, one to pick up boots and the other food, and I still wasn't sure I was staying the night, but I started walking up to Kincora first. Kincora is owned by Bob Peoples, a legendary trail maintainer, and does not actually charge, but asks a 5 dollar donation. However, the place is pretty dirty and long in the tooth. I could see my box waiting for me on the porch as I rolled up. I stopped in and saw Doctor Trails, Blaze and Seal Tree, who all stayed the night after a 35-mile day yesterday. Then I opened my box. NEW BOOTS! It was crazy comparing the boots I have worn for 800 miles (including the LT) and thinking that they looked like this when I got them. The used boots were discolored and worn down and squished and pulled in a million places compared to the new ones. The new pair still fit ok, but they'll need some breaking in. I'll be sure to put some extra body glide on my feet for the next few days to try and avoid the blisters. I was thinking that I would just throw the old boots out, but Wolf, who works at Kincora, as well as 10-46, a thru hiker from 2014 doing a section from Hot Springs to Damascus, said that Salomon has a very good return policy for worn-out boots, and that Mount Rogers Outfitters in Damascus would probably replace the boots on the spot if I wore them inside and told them I was a thru hiker and had blown them out on the trail. I think a free new pair of boots is worth carrying my old ones for a few days; I can just ship them home when I'm in Damascus. I hope that all works out and I'm not just carrying worn out dirty boots for no reason. 10-46 wanted some beer and I needed to resupply food, so he and I headed down .7 to Black Bear Resort, the newer, nicer (but not free) hostel/campground on the other side of the AT. It's in a very lovely location along a big creek, and all the little cabins look very nice. I sat for quite a while outside the store trying to picture my next few days. I was considering pushing on 10 more miles tonight and then doing two 20 mile days to Damascus, and I sat for a while hemming and hawing over that possibility before finally examining what would happen if I just stayed the night here. From here I saw I could do an 18, then a pretty easy 22 mile day, then a nearo 10 in to Damascus the next day. Which sounded pretty damn good, considering I would've probably ended up zeroing in Damascus anyway if I'd gone with the previous plan. The next few days' weather are set to be the ugliest stretch I've had so far, so we shall see. I headed in and bought my resupply things (and some beer) from Stephanie, whose parents own th resort and whose kids were playing around in the yard. She was very sweet. I threw all my things in the bunkroom, easily the cleanest bunkroom I've stayed in so far this trip, then headed over to a fire pit where 10-46 was talking to two other hikers. I learned their names - Seeker and Golden Snitch - and shared around my beer. They, as well as another couple I met momentarily, Crumbum and Doodle, had arranged a work for stay deal and had moved and arranged a great deal of mulch earlier in the day, in return for a private cabin for the night, usually 45 dollars each. I ate some lunch, we drank and talked. Eventually I took a nice hot shower and was alerted that a shuttle was leaving for town in ten minutes. I dried off and changed quickly and hopped in with 10-46, seeker and snitch and headed off to Hampton. The road wound down the mountain in tons of switchbacks and the beer was not helping my motion sickness. Seeker and I were both a bit green as we piled out of the van into the dollar general. I bought a few groceries then we all got back in and headed to McDonalds, where we picked up dinner. I briefly facetimed Ali from inside Mickey d's, because I only got reception from town, not up at the resort. We brought our food back to Black Bear and ate it around a little fire that Crumbum and Doodle had made in our absence. Everybody there (10-46 not included) worked mostly as camp counsellors, and we talked a lot about our different camps, the kids, the staff, what we did at night time once the kids were asleep, and the movie Wet Hot American Summer, which every camp counsellor must see. Crumbum and Doodle both worked (and met I believe) at a camp in Minnesota that just has a huge swathe of woodlands to itself. Seeker and Snitch both work at a camp in Maine that seems more similar to Keewaydin. Eventually the conversation turned to an ongoing discussion among Snitch and Seeker of what set of the same animals you would pick in a fight against another set of animals of the same weight, for instance, two 300-pound gorillas versus 5 120-pound German shepherds. We finally agreed to stick to mammals once it became clear that a handful of poisonous bullet ants (crumbum's suggestion) or hornets could bring down just about any huge animal. My pick was just one polar bear, which I think could stand up to just about anything. I got tired before most everyone else and went to journal and get ready for bed in the bunkroom. 10-46 is in here tonight as well. Tomorrow, I'll hope to stay as dry as possible, and will cross Pond Flats and up onto Iron Mountain, the 40 mile ridge that leads from Watauga lake all the way to Damascus.