5/21/99 Laurel Creek Lodge - Day Off

After covering 76 miles in 4 days, my body was ready for a break. Normally, when that happens it means about 10 miles and a trip to a town for real food. But when you find a place as great as this one, with wonderful owners like Denis and Mary, you just HAVE to take the whole day off!

Pan, Little D and Fun Tracker were jetting in the morning while John ( Pink ) and I planned to lounge around - me to rest my ankle and him to rest his shins. Breakfast started at 7:00 and it was all you can eat cereal, coffee, juice, bagels, muffins and cinnimon buns. Yes, I had at least one helping of everything! As the three motivated ones headed out, Dennis is telling John and I about this blue blazed trail ( a trail that touches the AT ) that in fact used to be the AT before a relocation a few years back. Turns out that this trail goes by a great waterfall. Not as nice as Laurel Falls, which I forgot to mention yesterday when I passed it!

Let me talk about this for a second, since I don't know HOW I forgot to mention this ( yes I do, this was the 5 free alachol day ). Just before the climb to Pond Flats, the trail goes by the Laurel Falls. It is a very awe inspiring site not because of the height of the falls, which is I would guess in the 50+ foot category, but the WIDTH of the falls, which must have been more than 100 feet. Before you was standing this giant wall of water. I sat in front of them for a while and there was a strong breeze coming off the falls because of how much water was coming over. It was so loud you could not even hear yourself think ( WARNING: Inside joke for all you Zork fans out there ).

OK, back to today. So these little falls on the blue blazed trail ( over 100 feet high, but only 5 feet wide ) are only a ½ mile walk away, but the trail is in tough shape. John, in real life, is a lumberjack ( more on this later ) and I have done some trail work so we got recruited! For two or three hours, John and I cleared blowdowns on the trail. John was armed with a gas powered Stiel 28 chainsaw; I a pair of hedge clippers. Oh yea, I got to carry the extra gas too. Anyway, it was a fun time, the trail looks great and the falls were very nice. We got back to the lodge around 1:00 to have a few beers and a delicious lunch prepared by Mary. ( Chili-cheese burger, YUM! ) By 2:30, I was napping down by the river. What a great, relaxing day.

Then, when I did wake up and get moving again, Dennis let me borrow his fishing pole and bait to try my luck in the stream ( 1 crab, no trout ). Then, before dinner, Mary let me use her laptop to jump on the internet and get my mail. Do I ever want to leave here? Well, yes, tomorrow morning after breakfast of course.

HIKER PROFILE: John, aka Pink, is from North Carolina, in his late 40's and a tree surgeon by trade. What that means is that he a the guy who straps on climbing gear and hangs in the air to make the difficult cuts. He has wanted to hike the AT for over 20 years and has not had the opportunity until now. He is divorced and his son in is his last year at Chapel Hill, so he put his house on the marked and hit the trail. Since he had so much time to sell it, he put it on the marked to $12,000 more than he wanted and two weeks ago got the asking price!

Well, its almost 1 AM now, and I am bushed after that late night soak in the hot tub! Should be about two days to Damascus and I hope the weather holds out. Livin' large.

-Chomp

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