Date: 2012-05-11
From: Dennis Cove Rd. - Black Bear Resort Hostel

To: Vandeventer Shelter
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: clear sky

We woke up at 6:00am to Gummy Bear's Friday alarm.  There was a lot of early conversation and I deleriously put my earplugs in until 8:00.  We didn't leave the hostel until 8:30am.  I was late and it was a mad dash to get it all together.  I found everyone near the coffee and decided a half cup would be worth the styrofoam cup.  Everyone had tired eyes.  We walked a half-mile down the road to the trail and continued on.  We crossed a few streams and walked through some manmade canyons of 30-foot high blasted out rock.  You could see all of the different layers and I wondered why somebody wanted this section flat so badly.  This part of the trail had a lot more conifers and a closer proximity to a medium size river full of round boulders and jutting bedrock.  It reminded me of vacations on the Yuba river with my family growing up.  We hiked down to Laurel Falls and spent twenty minutes admiring it reflecting the soft morning light.  We hiked on along the water for awhile before the trail took us up high again.  At one of the forks, Tail Dragger and PaPa Bear decided that they were going to yellow blaze since they had already done this section.  This particular section is the Pond Flats mountain - 1800 feet up and 1800 feet down without a view.  Josh, Gummy, and I hiked the mountain.  We were going to meet Tail Dragger and PaPa Bear again at Watauga Lake after their 1-mile hike to the road to hitch in.  Josh ditched Gummy and I.  He was flying.  We hiked up and over in a few hours and arrived at the lake to find a police officer talking to Tail Dragger and PaPa bear while Josh stood in his under armor shorts near the shoreline.  You could've made up a hundred stories about what might have been going on down there.  As it turns out, nobody we knew was getting arrested.  When the officer left, Gummy and I joined Josh for a swim.  It was so refreshing.  We also found a rope swing and Josh couldn't resist.  I haven't seen a smile that big in awhile.  We eventually hiked another four miles over to where Gummy's car was parked and headed to town for Chick Fil-A and an Ingles grocery store run.  I have been dreaming about Chick Fil-A for weeks after meeting Wild Bill, the Professor, the Detective, Mange, and Cheetah.  Gummy Bear made good on her promise.  It was very thoughtful of her to offer and extremely understanding of everyone else to put their arrival at home back by a few hours to allow this to happen.  There were three other hikers sitting at the trail crossing and they were extremely excited by the offer of a fast food run.  I ate a couple of sandwiches and some waffle fries and picked up 4 pints of NB Pale and 4 pints of Fat Tire to bring back to the trail.  We spread the food and drink around and although everyone was pretty stoked, you could start to feel the pull.  PaPa Bear had a seven hour drive and they all had to shuttle around to gather up their cars.  I know that feeling and so we hugged, wished them well, and waved goodbye in the afternoon light.  I will definitely miss their energy down the road.  Josh and I packed up and climbed another five miles to the next shelter under the shade of maple and poplar.  We found a book at one of the little springs.  It was partially hidden from view and must have fallen off the log.  I had read this book, Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card, and I flipped through to see where this person was.  Page 350 was dog-eared.  The reader was almost done and this was a pretty action-packed section.  If it was anything else, I probably would've left it.  But this was something like book eleven of a thirteen book series that tells the story of Ender's Game from another character's perspective.  Josh put it in my bag and we climbed for another hour before we cruised along the ridgeline.  We made it to the shelter before sunset and enjoyed the views of the light changing on the lake from a high point up on some big lichen-covered granite behind the shelter.  We had both packed in a beer and with raised cans and full hearts, we toasted to the fortune of meeting such tremendous people out here.  We both commented on hoping to see them again.  I had also packed in some sliced cantaloupe (thanks to Gummy's good eyes in Ingles) and broke it out to share.  Such a simple life but ultimately fulfilling in this moment.  Missouri Mule, Knief, Doc Tyvek, and Buzz were milling about the fire.  I discovered that Buzz was the reader I was looking for and returned his book.  With hammock pitch set just right, I fell asleep under a purple sky of fast-moving clouds watching the waning moon slip through them.  I woke up a few times and noticed the glow had shifted through the trees.  Morning was coming and I drifted off again.