Date: 2016-04-11
From: Laurel Falls Campsite

To: Vandeventer Shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: clear sky

Day 50!!! - Laurel Falls Campsite to Vandeventer Shelter 4/11/16 15.4 milesI had a bad night. Woke up at 2:30am with a migraine. Ughhh. Around 6am I got the motivation to get my bear bag down so I could take Tylenol and ibuprofen. It eventually kicked in so I felt better but very tired so slept in til 8:30am. Good morning. The campsite was amazing and being right on the water was so nice. Listened to a lot of Ray Charles while getting ready. Boosted my mood for sure. Gorgeous day. Sunny and 65 degrees. Went up 3 miles right away to the Pond Flats. On the way up we ran into two middle-aged women with the same exact packs as us. They were Deb and Bangles. They told us they were old college buddies from Georgetown University. I was behind Deb for a by and found out that she is an attorney for a corporation. She lives in Florida now. We stopped and took a break with them a mile from the top. It was great to talk with them, very fun ladies. They are slackpacking the entire trail so Bangle's husband is driving a trailer to a predetermined spot each day. So jealous. Cheetah and I carried on up the mountain and over. Interesting bc it is almost exactly an equilateral triangle as far as grade and mileage. On the other side it descended into Watauga Lake where there was a beautiful beach. Farasi, Freud, Snap and Corncob were there.We laid there for about 2 hours in the sun. Cheetah took her clothes off and jumped in. I just soaked my feet for a bit. While Cheetah ate lunch I took a 45 minute nap on the picnic bench. The sun felt wonderful. We finally convinced ourselves to get going around 3pm. We had 9 miles to go, 6 of which were hard uphill. The first 3 miles were around the lake which was beautiful scenery. The trail had a lot of broken glass from beer bottles unfortunately. I imagine this is a fun part of the trail for locals to come and party. I was tired but my legs were moving well. Was a little ahead of Cheetah, Corncob, and Snap. Once I hit the dam I turned around and saw Snap and Cheetah taking pictures so I pushed ahead thinking they would catch up soon. Immediate steep uphill. I set I my mind that I had 6 definite miles of it. I put in my earphones and turned on some rap music and got going. I refused to stop until I made it to the stream 1.7 miles from the shelter. I felt good on the main uphill but my energy petered out on the puds that took me on a roller coaster ride of the ridge. I finally came upon a couple tents and realized I was at the stream. Freud and Farasj were still there filtering water. I must have booked it bc they had left an hour and a half before me. There was a group of three flip floppers there as well and they were asking about Cheetah and I. They had heard we were from KY. Two older gentlemen that were uncles to a 23 year old girl. The girl was from KY (Greyhound). They had started south of the Shenandoahs and are headed south for Springer. Once they hit Springer they will start north to Katahdin from there initial starting point in VA. Greyhound is from Union, KY, wow! Same town as Cheetah. She also had gone to Georgetown College and know Madelyn Brown and Finnja Ramke. Such a small world. Corncob, Cheetah and Snap showed up about 25 minutes later. Corncob went on to get the last spot on the shelter. I headed out a little after to get there and set up my tent before it started raining. I was so worried I started running for a bit. Luckily no rain.Got to camp and set up. Good group. Otter and Smalls from TN, Blue and Cap'n Red from St. Louis, Freud and Farasi from GA, T from Asheville, Mambo, Rhodo, Snap, Corncob, Elusive, etc. Small fire and then bed. Rain started around midnight.