Day 43- Made it Half the Day Before the Rain

April 30-15.9 miles-Boots Off Hostel to Iron Mtn Shelter-AT mile 444.5

First I must do a little recap of last night. Siddhartha came in, so it was the theee of us in the bunkhouse just like at The Station. He packed the fixins’ for S’mores! Unfortunately, it started raining. But never fear, we just used the camp stove! As for a “stick”, we’ll, we used the end of my long handled titanium spoon. I had to school Siddhartha on how to roast the marshmallow so the inside was gooey and melted. The boy lacks patience, and just burns them. 

Getting it just right!

Siddhartha also played some music on his phone, and played the drum along with it. I didn’t much join in on the singing until he played John Denver’s Country Roads. We sang a few other songs too. It was a fun evening. 

Siddhartha on the bongo (no, he wasn’t carrying it, the hostel had it). 

The alarm went off at 6:30 because we had 15.9 miles today that included one pretty good climb to the Vandeventer Shelter. We weren’t staying there as that was only 9.2 miles. 

We first walked around Watuga Lake to the dam. 

Watuga Lake

Sure Foot corrected himself and said this is a red eft, not a newt (that’s a different stage).

Watuga Dam

You can just see Sure Foot. 

We walked across the dam, then up the road for .4 miles. The trail went off from the road, and up and over a gratuitous hill, and back to the very same road...typical AT. 

Follow the white blazes across the road. 

Interestingly, there was no camping from where we started to this point due to bear activity. We saw no bears. 

The climb up to the shelter started in earnest after crossing the road. As we continued to climb, it became foggy, and started to drip a bit of rain. We wanted to eat lunch at the shelter, so I didn’t bother to put my rain pants on. They were just a little damp by the time we got to the shelter (which, btw, we did 1.8 miles uphill, including stopping to refill water, in just barely over an hour). 

A view of the lake before we got up into the fog and couldn’t see it anymore. 

The May Apples are getting bigger, and are starting to get buds. 

Into the fog...

From lunch, we had 6.8 miles to go. It was actually raining now, so I put my rain pants on. The terrain from the shelter was not too difficult. The only thing that is annoying is that the trail finally levels out, but then it is rocky and/or has lots of roots. Makes for slow going even on the flats. Also, I had not put my waterproof socks on today. The grass along the edge of the trail promptly soaked my feet. 

I try really hard not to walk in the grass, but the trail isn’t very wide. 

We made it to Iron Mtn Shelter at 5:20. Guess who is here? Smiley! Also Lightshow, who we met at Standing Bear Farm is back on trail too. There’s another guy here named Ed who is doing a LASH (Long Ass Section Hike) to Connecticut. I can’t remember where he started from, but it wasn’t too long ago. 

We pitched our tents in light rain. My tent is a little slanted, but it’ll do. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow too...yay... We have another 16 mile day tomorrow, but without any big climbs. Shouldn’t be too hard.