Date: 2003-05-23
From: Kincora Hostel - Dennis Cove Road

To: Vandeventer Shelter
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: broken clouds

Erin says:I woke up at 7am today! Okay, so I probably woke up because I could hear other hikers up and about downstairs at the Kincora Hostel. And the smell of pancakes (!) came wafting into our cozy little room. So I got up and found AWOL in the kitchen making pancakes on the griddle for everyone. YUM! And there was fresh coffee waiting in the coffee pot. So I grabbed some pancakes and coffee and feasted in the living room. I also read a magazine for a while. Then I woke Craig up so he could get some pancakes before they were all gone. When Spoon came downstairs, he announced that he had 18 eggs in the frig to use up... would anyone like some scrambled eggs? Sure. So Craig and I had a second breakfast of eggs and toast too. Pretty fantastic. We even brewed more coffee so we'd have some to take with us on the trail.We headed out of the hostel at 9am. It was great to get an earlier start for a change, and even better with stomachs content and full from eating "real" food. We hiked to Laurel Falls in the Pond Wilderness. The falls were really pretty - you have to hike down many steep stone steps to get to the falls and Laurel Creek. We were tempted to take a swim.Then we hiked Pond Flats, a trapezoid-shaped mountain. I bombed up and down the Pond Flats in 2 hours and 20 minutes - about 6 miles total. I felt great! Then Craig and I were treated to a hike around Wautaga Lake. We stopped at the Wautaga Lake Shelter to take a 2-hour break. We ate a hot meal of Thai Sesame Noodles courtesy of Lipton. After our break, we hiked on crossing the Wautaga Dam. One last steep up and we finally arrived at Vandeventer Shelter. We got here before dark! Some of the hikers that we stayed with at the Kincora Hostel are staying here at this shelter. While Craig searched for a tent spot, I chatted with Tipperary, a wonderful 56 year-old Irishman. It turns out he's a priest and has spent 21 years living in Brazil and another 10 living in Nigeria. It is pretty cool to meet such interesting folks on the trail. He and I chatted about Sinead O'Connor - I figured that being a priest he would not like her. Turns out he thinks she's great!This shelter is very crowded. Craig and I had to eek out a tentspot in front of the shelter. There is a gaggle of youngsters staying here - I'd say about 15. They are from some private school in the area I guess, and I think they are "at risk" and doing some sort of outward bound trip. Craig and I are nestled in the tent and the kids are all right next to us having a group meeting with their group leaders. It is 9:30 pm and they are still up and talking. We're trying not to listen to the group conversations, but they are practically right on top of us. We hear strains of "my dad left when I was 6" and "I don't feel like sharing right now" and "I'm trying to be more open when I meet people" and "sometimes I want people to think I'm a gangster". There is also one boy who has a very loud cough. All of this brings me right back to my days of crisis intervention. I'm not so impressed with the group leaders though, their responses aren't very empowering. Thankfully it just started to rain. We'd been hearing distant thunder booms all night. The rain has scattered the kids and they are finally headed off to bed!