Date: 2009-04-22
From: Moreland Gap Shelter

To: Dennis Cove (Laurel Fork Lodge)
Miles today: 6.1

Nice! Woke up to seeing snow on my tent. Yep, that's right....snow!! The book said the shelter was a cold and wet one due to the way it faced, so Mr Buffalo Man and I set up our tents for added warmth and protection from the wind. Well, the book was worth a million bucks last night. I woke up to people in the shelter complaining about how cold it was! I felt bad being so comfy in my tent and sleeping bag. 30 degrees outside, 42 in my tent, and 70 in my sleeping bag. I wasn't in a hurry to get out of my bag so I grabbed my thermometer and threw it down by my feet.Up and out of camp at 9 pm with a short 3-hour hike into the lodge. Beautiful hiking day as the sun came out and warmed stuff up to make it a perfect hiking morning, temps in the 50's, sunny, easy terrain....good fun!!Laurel Fork Lodge has to compete with an A.T. Trail legend hostel called Kincora. Laurel Fork Lodge is a very comfortable place! Cabin for 4 for $30 total. Cabin has 4 beds, chairs inside, an actual porch with benches, a picnic table and fire ring....right on the bank of the Laurel Fork (a stream). It has a kitchen building where we cooked a pizza for lunch and hung out watching a couple of movies.It's resupply was lacking but we made a list of stuff we needed and one of the employees went to town to get the stuff for us. The people here are very cool! This has been the most comfortable place I've stayed at so far. Very nice atmosphere. I hope they do better business in the future.OK..time to catch you up on some people on the Trail. As you are well aware, Goof, Mr Buffalo Man, Sunnuke and I have formed a pretty strong team, and really enjoy hiking together, so we'll be together for a while barring some unforeseen circumstance. Over the past few days, since Beauty Spot, we have been hiking with a couple from Columbus, Ohio; Top Shelf and Gezza. They are staying at the Kincora Hostel tonight. They hike a little farther than we do, so I'm not sure how long we'll be seeing them. We've also been hiking with Wicked Wahini and Yeta. Yeta is a section hiker, a hiker who plans to do the whole A.T., but over a number of years. She is out for 45 days and after this year, she'll have completed about half of the Trail.The young group of about 8; Hammock, Col Mustard, Miss Scarlett, Newt, Squeegie, Sam Wise, Repunzel and Doc are all about a half-day or a day ahead of us. I really enjoy that group most of all so far, as they have such a great spirit and energy about them. I'm never sure how we'll do in terms of keeping up with them...they have the potential to do long and fast days, but also take time to enjoy the sights and down-time. Miss Scarlett always leaves notes in the shelter registers saying "Bison, catch up." I must be getting old....if I were 25 years younger and saw that note from a cute 20-year-old, I would have night hiked the first day to catch up! I think we'll get to see them in Damascus as most hikers tend to take a zero day there. As I think I mentioned before, one small problem with hiking with them is that the numbers get large for camping space when you add their 8+ to our 4, and anyone else who is in the area.Skittles and Moonwalker are a couple of days ahead of us and we'll most likely not catch them. They are two very nice women and were fun to be around. Their hiking partner, No Nails, had some ankle problems and had to get off the trail shortly after Hot Springs. She plans to meet them in Damascus and hopefully re-join them there. I hope she can. She'll then make up the missed part of the trail after reaching Katahdin.Ian and Kendra (Mudslide and Pudgie Pie) have slowed down and are right around where we are right now. We hope to see them again, except for the unfortunate circumstances. Ian has hurt his foot and they had to take a few days off. Hopefully he will heal quickly and they can be on their way.Amanda (Plunger) and Daniel (Mr. Right) are about a week ahead of us, but we will never catch them as they hike quick and can put in some major miles....they did 33 miles in one day slackpacking. Slackpacking is where you leave your pack someplace like a hostel, then the hostel people will drive you up/down the Trail some distance and you hike back without your pack...to your pack. Plunger has a Journal on TrailJournals.com now so you can check out their adventure.We run into Hodgepodge and his crew once in a while as they hike about the same distances that we do. I really like those guys, but our group dynamics don't mix to well. The get up at first light...like 6 am and start hiking before we even get up....of course, this annoys us! And we usually don't get into camp until 5 or 6 pm and don't get to bed until 9ish, which really annoys them....as they tend to be in their sleeping bags by 6 pm. As people, we really like each other, but our groups definitely hike different hikes.Weatherguy got off the trail for 6 days to be with family...he lives in this area....so we got to see him again for a couple of days. He's a very nice guy and nice to be around. He's a retired Air Force Weather Man so always has good weather info for us...bonus!Spike and Little Engine; Spoons, Patch, and Haley; Old Goat and Check-Six; Sir Richard are within a day or two of us.