Date: 2006-04-06
From: Kincora Hostel 

To: Watauga Lake
Miles today: 8.9
Weather: overcast clouds

This day was one of the worst and one of the best days of my hike, both at the same time. It started with my water bladder. I didn't notice that it was leaking and as I needed water the most I had none. Then I had to climb the frigging steepest mountain since Georgia and I almost thought it would never end. As I finally made it to the top it started to rain and the trail went down in a Gap only to climb up as steep as possible once again. I carried a lot of weight as I bought me a sixpack of Budweiser yesterday to drink a can or two at the hostel. Bob, the owner, saw this and asked me not to drink it but to carry it out because Kincora is a dry hostel. And so I did. That is 4 pounds of extra weight added to my heavy food bag which lifted my pack weight almost to 50 pound. On the downhill not far away from the lake something started to drip on my heels. I reached back to see were it came from and felt that the bottom of my pack was completely soaked. And it was not water! I s! topped to inspect my bag and found 2 of the 6 cans broken and the whole beer all over my clothes. Almost everything except my foodbag and my jacket were soaked with Budweiser. Even the backpack was dripping. I was so upset that I opened one of the remaining cans and drunk it almost at once. After carrying the beer over the whole mountain the cans had broken almost the last mile. Why not before I climbed up so at least my pack would have been lighter? As I reached the picknic area at the lake I decided to wash out my whole stuff in the bathroom but to make bad things worse it was closed. I got so mad that I was close before throwing the whole bag into the lake. Instead of that I opened another can of beer and in a short while the remaining cans were empty. Here I was, smelling like a bunch of drunken Rednecks with no dry clothes to change into. Nobody would give me a ride.A few minutes later a pink pickup truck stopped and a blonde women looking like Dolly Parton asked me if I needed a ride. I told her what has happened but she only laughed and offered to drive me to town. As I haden't eat very much this day and had a couple of beer I felt very hungry. I asked if we could stop at a McDonalds or something like that but she told me that she would know a nice restaurant. So I offered to invite her for dinner and she accepted. The food was good and the conversation even better. After dinner she drove me to a motel where I wanted to do my laundry and stay for the night. Unfortunately the motel had no own laundry but the guy told me there would be a coin laundry close by. The women offered to do my laundry and suggested I should meanwhile take a bath. So I sat in my motel room only with a bathing towel and waited until she came back. She not only has done my laundry but also bought a couple of candles, wine, wineglasses and massage oil and what fol! lowed was an adventerous night whose details I won't disclose. As she had to go to work the next day we ordered a wakeup call for 5.00 am and I haven't got much sleep that night. After a quick breakfast she drove me back to the lake and I wasn't sure if this really has happened or if it was only a wild dream. In fact I had a lot of cold medicine and a lot of beer which probably isn't the best combination. So it could be that my imagination has tricked me. It's up to you to decide what really happened and which part was only a product of my fantasy. But does it really matter? Sometimes fantasies are even more realistic than reality. Have you ever seen "The Matrix"? Then you know what I mean. PS: Maybe I should change my trailname into "Bud Weiser".Nuts