Date: 2017-09-28
From: Woods Hole hostel

To: Dismal Falls
Miles today: 13.5

Footprint was not happy that we were intending to leave and cunningly connived to delay our departure by giving awesome foot massages as we sat in the sun on the porch. It was a devastatingly simple but effective strategy. I've been hiking with Team KRT long enough to know when they're tempted to give in to the vortex effect of a nice place and I rated the chances of leaving today as about even.But I also knew that after one unplanned zero day here, we probably ought to escape the vortex and keep heading south while the weather was still good. As I put it to the others as I watched them waver towards indolence: "I don't want to be hitting snow in the Smokies!" (Since I'm updating this journal four months afterwards, I can now state that subsequent events showed I had a point!) And we did eventually leave, despite Footprint's vocal protests, around 11am. But it was a close run thing and I waited until I could actually see the others put on their packs and start hiking before I dismissed my concerns about a failure to launch. Simpleton and Jameson were also seemingly about to leave but we got a text later saying they hadn't. Neville had talked Simpleton into taking more days off to let Jameson's injured paw heal. It was the right decision but it was odd not to have been able to say goodbye to someone who'd been a member of our tramily for a while.Once back on the trail, the hiking was undemanding, following the ridge for about six dry miles and then heading down a valley. The vegetation has started to change too, with thick stands of rhododendron becoming more common, with the result that the AT sometimes appeared to be more like a tunnel than a trail as it worked its way through the thickets.I stopped for a break at Wapiti shelter and found, from glancing through the register, that it might more accurately have been dubbed Heartbreak Hotel. A week or so earlier, there was an entry from a hiker I knew -- let's call him F -- who wrote: "The last seven miles [from Woods Hole] were the most difficult for me so far on trail. Every step I took the better I felt, or at least that's what I'm trying to convince myself. Lying here alone, nauseous, an empty stomach and a broken heart. Tonight's sleep will be minimal at best." And a couple of entries later was another hiker we knew -- let's call her D -- who wrote: "I've lost both my hiking partners within a few days and I'm heartbroken. [F] and [B, who got off trail], I'm grateful for the miles I spent with you. Hiking with people is always a compromise in some way. I guess now is the time for me to be selfish on this trip and hike solely for myself."And a few weeks before that was an entry from Bookworm, the nobo we met in the Shenandoahs who'd been averaging seven miles a day over the past four months, who was talking about the emotional effects of splitting up with his hiking partner, although there was no matching comment from the other side.I hiked on, finding cruisy miles down to the turnoff to Dismal Falls, where I met the others. The falls weren't roaring, as befits the long dry spell we've been enjoying, but they certainly weren't dismal either and they provided a place for us to chill the beers we'd carried from Woods Hole and also a great place to cook. After cooking, we wandered back to an excellent campsite a couple of minutes away.Life is good.AT fact of the day: One of Team KRT's idiosyncrasies are the bird calls we've been using to communicate whether we were ahead or behind the others on trail. Sriracha is "Caw!", Sweetblood is "Coo!" and mine has been "CaWAA!". When I first got to Dismal Falls, I glimpsed some hikers just off the trail and gave out a "CaWAA" -- only to discover the hikers were a bunch of confused looking section hikers wondering why I was making bird calls at them...