Date: 2009-05-11
From: Abby's Place

To: Damsascus
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: light rain

When I awoke in the shed at Abby's place, Billy was already awake. He said very quietly, "I feel better this morning, but I feel completely drained. I think this is where my hike ends." I offered to take a zero while he recovered, but he had thought out all the options, and had made up his mind. He went up to the main bunkhouse to try to find a shuttle, and I packed up. What was there to say? I shook his hand, and walked out into the cold rain alone. Later a hiker passed me, then I passed an older lady and a boy with a dog. The rain continued to fall. The trail got fairly easy, and began skirting streams and a small river. After 5 or 6 miles I came to Moreland Gap shelter, where Bear and Budz were packing up to leave. They said I had just missed Bronco. I asked if they had seen Lion King, and they said they had cowboy camped with him last night, and got soaked when the rain came. Budz said he was really going to be p!ssed if his last pack of smokes got wet. I moved out after lunch, and walked down through the dripping forest, eventually caught up with section hiker Cash, who liked my umbrella. I pointed out Mayapple flowers to her, the first ones I had seen in bloom. Like the Nolichucky River area, this part of the trail was essentially a rain forest. Soon I noticed fancy pink Mountain Laurel in full bloom, the first of the trip. A few miles later, I emerged at Dennis Cove Road, and turned up the road for the .3 roadwalk to the famous Kinkora Hostel. When I arrived, as I was walking up the drive way, Bob Peoples stuck his head out the door and yelled for me to go around back and make myself at home. I noticed people sitting on bunks in the garage. The back porch was packed with people, and I noticed Bronco, Mr Parkay, Skipping Stone, PuddleJumper and other familiar faces. Baltimore Jack was standing at the top of the stairs like a big Jewish Aunt Jemima ready to sling pancakes, and he herded me inside and told me to throw down on a bunk upstairs. Bob Peoples came in, and Jack introduced me. The inside was hot, steamy, packed with people, and smelled like the big pot of beans cooking on the stove. The upstairs was even more crowded. I found one empty bunk. As I went to get my mail drop, more people were streaming in, and Jack was setting them up on the front porch. It reminded me of grade school in the winter, when it got hot and steamy from everyone's wet coats drying out in the classroom. I also remembered how everyone soon had the same hacking cough and fever. I didn't hang around. It was a relief to be back out in the cold air. The rain had almost quit, and it felt good to be walking. I ducked into the woods beside the roaring Laurel Fork River, and walked through notches in a rock wall that looked like they were cut with a giant crosscut saw. The trail led down to the falls, but I took the high-water route, and walked the top of the ravine around to the Laurel Fork Shelter. I still wasn't ready to stop, and Cash caught up with me and said there were campsites down by the river. We followed the trail down to the rushing river, and crossed a series of bridges back and forth over the 30 or so yards-wide rapids. After about a mile I came to the point where the trail turned up Pond Mountain. I backtracked about 100 feet, found two trees the right distance apart and hung my hammock. Later I walked back down the trail and found Cash had hung her Hennessy hammock about 50yds from me, and another hiker had hung his 50 yards on the other side. None of us wanted to start the climb up Pond Mountain this night. I fell asleep to the sound of the rapids only feet away from my camp.