Date: 2013-06-21
From: Roan Mountain

To: Upper Laurel Fork
Miles today: 13.2

I slept great last night! I really have to sleep in the hammock more often, it was so comfortable. I barely stirred all night long.Kiwi Don was up and gone before I even woke up. He's a natural early bird. Jane and I left camp at the same time and walked to the trailhead together, but she hikes much faster than I do, so I walked alone all day, which I really don't mind. Except I have the song Calvin Crozier in my head, and can't get it out. Guess what today was? Yes, June 21st, the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, also---Hike Naked Day! Lucky for me, I didn't see any other hikers all day long, so I don't know how widely observed it was. Probably not much, among section hikers. But further north, among the thru-hikers!! I'll bet there were a few. And no, I did not participate!Today was a good day. My toe was just sore today, not exquisitely painful like yesterday. Sore, I can cope with. The terrain was widely varied today, which is always entertaining. I did a lot of walking through very thick, very high grass, which is harder to walk through than you would think. It's kind of like walking through water, it is very tiring. The heat and humidity continue to be a problem for me, even though there are no big uphills anymore. But this grassy trail, the trail itself is maybe 6 inches wide and hard to even see. The thick grass is at least hip-high all the time, and shoulder-high lots of the time. It's not possible to stop and sit down in this thick grass, so you have no choice but to keep walking, trying to push the grass aside with your trekking poles as you go, and hoping there are no snakes down on the ground that you can't see. Poison ivy and ticks were also on my mind. Finally, finally, I got out of the tall grass for the most part, and walked along the banks of the Elk River. Walked along the river for a little while. Then, standing in the river, I saw two deer--buck deer! That was exciting to me. I have seen a lot of deer on the trail, heck, I even have a lot of deer in my yard at home, but I rarely ever, ever, see a buck, and here were two of them! I took a quick picture before they bolted, but didn't have time to fumble for the zoom, so it's hard from the picture to tell that they are bucks. Darn.Leaving the tall grass and the river behind for good, and doing a little climbing, I came to Jones Falls. This was a beautiful place, and I enjoyed knowing that it was named for one of my countrymen, a fellow Welshman. Bore Da, Cymraeg! The waterfall was HUGE, I have no idea how high and I am not good at estimating such things, but take my word for it, it was really high. I couldn't get it all in one photo, from top to bottom. I stopped and had my lunch at the falls and really enjoyed spending a leisurely hour there, with my aching feet in the cold water. A real milestone for me today--I hit 400 miles! Woo hoo! I was alone for my celebration, unlike the 100, 200, and 300 mile celebrations. So I had to take my own photo, something I haven't done before, and it turned out--ok. I'll put it up later, so you can see it. I just am not photogenic. Saw two snakes on the trail today. Not poisonous, and not all that big, but I'm just not a fan. They were both on the trail, in the middle of the trail, at two different places, and neither wanted to get off the trail! I just didn't want to step over them, I know it's dumb. But they wouldn't move either, so we were at a standoff for a while. I started to throw small sticks to land near them to encourage them to move, they just scoffed at them. Finally I had to make the sticks land ON the snakes, which just made them mad. They wouldn't get off the trail until they were good and ready. Then they sauntered off, no doubt laughing at me. A little later I came to Laurel Falls, which is very pretty, just not spectacular like Jones Falls. Caught up with Jane at the end of the day, and we both enjoyed each other's company after a long, quiet day. It was indeed a long day of hiking today, and I'm tired. Good night.