I was up early and walked down the highway to Mountain Harbor Bed and Breakfast which also had a hostel and a small resupply store to get food. I was there at 7:30 and the store did not open up until 9 so I pillaged their Wi-Fi to upload the movie of trail magic. Dan showed up not long after, we got our food, and we hit the trail which passed by a graveyard and a church seemingly in the middle of nowhere. A few miles later we reached the side trail to Jones Falls and I was happy to see some familiar graffiti on the sign "if you skip this, you're a fool" The sun was too strong for a good long exposure shot from the side of the falls with a trail but I thought the other side might work better...only both above and below the big rock were covered with the kind of algae that is as slippery as ice...so I crawled under the rock. A short while afterwards we hit Mountaineer Falls which were not nearly as impressive but had better lighting. And later in the day I walked past some cool rapids and then right before camp I passed the "Hardcore Cascades" which were not at all Hardcore.
Jones Falls. The boulder of the right is about 10 feet tall.
These Cascades are only five feet tall and not visible from the trail.
The next day started off with a heavy rain that luckily died off while I was lazily packing up under my tarp. After a short hike I reached the 0.8 side trail to Coon Den Falls which I went down because I figured that I'll probably never be in the area again. The side trail was overgrown with rhododendrons and seemed sparsely used but had some steep scrambles and was a lot of fun. The falls were way taller and more powerful than Jones Falls and I was glad I made the trip. The trend continued as a few miles later in the I arrived at Laurel Falls which are the biggest I've ever seen except for Niagara. I later learned that there are good cliff jumping spots at Laurel Falls and I was sad that I missed out on that opportunity. The couple of miles of trail on either side of the falls snaked through a massive rocky gorge which was beautiful and muggy as humidity seemed to get stuck in there.
Coon Den Falls with a me for scale.
Laurel Falls
The trail then arrived at Watauga Lake which has a picnic area and a beach where I ate dinner and watched a turf war unfold between some geese and some ducks. There is then a four mile section of trail which is closed to everything except hiking due to bear activity; no camping, checking out the old shelter, eating, playing, or having any fun except just hiking straight through. Of course I saw no bears. At the other end of the closure is the dam which is just a massive amount of rock and earth relocated from a mountainside to plug up the valley. The giant overflow drain made ominous clanking noises as I walked across and marveled at the silly things humans do such as move mountains to create a recreational lake and generate electricity.
Crossing Watauga Dam
Watauga Dam - with some of the mountains they blew up to build it. These signs are markers, if they move then that means the dam is shifting.
The following day had a steep initial climb and then was relatively flat so I decided to hike a marathon. There were no waterfalls or interesting things and the couple of overlooks from the ridge weren't worth it because it was a very hazy day. I also woke up at 5:45 which helped me make the decision to hike 26.2 miles, and I was on trail by 6:30 right as the sun was rising. A few miles in I finally saw my first snake! And a few miles after that the trail cut through a cow field that had some abandoned stables and an old Ford truck decaying next to it.
I hit the Double Springs Shelter where I stopped for dinner #1 and met another Triple Crowner named Boat who was an old man with a giant white beard. He was pretty jolly and would make a good mall Santa if he put on at least 200 more pounds. We hiked the rest of the day and I was fascinated with his stories of hiking the famous long trails, especially the CDT. I hit my 26.2 mile mark at just under 11 hours, not a bad marathon time when you're carrying your food and your house on your back, have to stop to filter water, and cook your own food. I kept going another 2.6 miles to reach a shelter with a water supply and was displeased to find out it was 0.3 miles down a steep hill.
The next day was a short 10 miles across the TN/VA border and into Damascus. I arrived at 1030 and had to wait until 11 for the library to open where I charged my phone and worked on last week's blog post. Dan randomly showed up to print out a shipping label and let me know that the gang is all meeting at a place called "Hey Joe's" for lunch at 1230. I met everyone there and had some beers and tacos before heading to the Woodchuck Hostel to pick up packages, do laundry, some shoe repair, shower, and hang from their hammock rig.
Three states down!
The town recently started enforcing a "no tenting in city limits" policy that has been around for decades but completely ignored as Damascus is famous for being the most hiker friendly town on the entire trail. Some hikers took advantage of this, partied hard, and some got caught digging cat-holes to poop in hostel's yards in broad daylight with neighbors watching from their porch...thankfully hammocking is a loophole to the city ordinance! The next day Billy, Alex, and I rented bicycles to ride down the 17-mile long and all downhill Virginia Creeper Trail. It was an old railway used for hauling lumber but was repurposed to be a sweet bike trail...with ridiculously over-engineered bridges.
12"x12" timbers and 4ft I-beams for a bike path
Alex hit the trail upon returning while Billy and I "accidentally" rode past the bike rental place and went to the grocery store which was about a mile outside of town. We also conveniently had our food bags...almost like we planned to borrow the bikes to get a food resupply. But after returning the bikes we went to a hostel called "The Broken Fiddle" where I barely got my tarp set up out back before a torrential downpour started.
Camping out back like a hobo