Date: 2004-05-02
From: Kincora Hostel

To: Watauga Lake Shelter
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: light rain

I dedicate today to the class of 2003. If they could wake up to pouring rain nearly continually for three months and still have the gumption to pack up and head north to Katahdin, I have to salute them.Once again after taking refuge at the Kincora Hostel in Dennis Cove, I headed out at 1:30 pm, clean and well rested, into foreboding weather. Why? Because I cannot wimp out everytime it rains.While I was at the hostel, though, it rained lightly off and on. Nothing drastic. And it was warm enough to hang out on the porch.The profile showed that the first five miles we do some heavy elevation up to a plateau that resemble the top of a Mayan temple. But Bob Peoples drew me a more accurate picture since he maintains the trails around these parts with the Tennessee Eastman Hiking Club. His drawing did not incude a plateau but had the trail go straight up to a peak. That made me feel so much better-heh.I headed out feeling good and past some pretty nice waterfalls of the Laurel Creek gorge. I also past Palmtree slackpacking. This was when the light rain turned into heavy downpour. Yet we managed to chat for a bit about who's ahead and such. He warned me I had "one hell of a climb ahead."To get out of the storm I hung out in the Laurel Creek Shelter for a half hour. I figured I had time and the storm will pass shortly. At 3 pm, I headed out again into a droopy forest and began the notorious climb.This was worse than Roan Mountain. For starters, the fog was thick. The forest was growing leaves and encrouching upon the trail. But mostly there were no breaks on the way up. I had never felt so unsure that a climb would end.It did however, but I was now cold and wet. The rain never let up so I quickly donned extra layers and headed downhill again.As I approached US 321, I experienced my second full fledge wipe out on the trail. I can remember every instant of it because it happened in slow motion. I landed on my right knee and then, superman style, on my face. I told myself to just lay there a moment and feel the pain. It was somehow funny there on my side, twisted in my backpack, with large droplets falling all around me. I had to unstrap myself from my pack again to get up and assess the damage. The waist band of my pack was torn almost asunder (two more days to Damascus, please hold out), but most dissapointedly, my pole was slightly bent. Guess I won't be collapsing those for awhile. Otherwise, I was fine and spirits were good.Five minutes later I found trail magic--cans of soda. Now I was smiling. I had two miles to go before my shelter for the night.I walked along Watauga Lake for a bit. Not a pretty site when it is raining buckets. And I came upon the shelter sooner than I expected. Michigoose, Lefty, Blue Sky, Sir Fix-A-Lot, Wizard, Easy-Duzit along with two new guys, All Right and Nobody, were all crammed in the shelter cooking. Catdog and Hawk were in their tents. Catdog unzipped her tent to greet me and Wags stuck her nose out as well.Wizard was kind enough to make me hot chocolate while I changed and sorted through my stuff. Somehow I cooked dinner and got ready for bed. The rain is pounding on the roof. I hope it stops tomorrow. But for now I'm warm and dry and ready to sleep.