moreland gap shelter to vandeventer shelter

an exhausting day. we all decided last night that we’d get up at 06:30 since we were planning a 24 mile day. when the first alarm went off, it had been raining for hours. no one moved. i snoozed until i heard birds calling and then i started my routine of rolling out my legs before i changed out of my sleeping clothes. everyone else started moving right about the time i exited my bag.

breakfast and pack up was pretty quick, and i left everyone just as they were starting breakfast. i deployed my umbrella and got hiking. i immediately called magz, to finalize the location of the box she’s sending me with my new shoes.

miracle of miracles, it stopped raining about a half hour into the hike. i had expected it to rain most of the day!

highlight of the day was laurel falls. getting to it was a bit sketchy. the rocks the steep steps were made of had been smoothed from many past feet, and they were wet from the rain. my shoes have almost no tread left on them, and i slipped a bunch of times. thankfully none resulted in a fall.

i reached laurel falls and stopped for a snack. rocket joined me about 10 minutes later. we chatted for a bit and planned to take a late lunch at watauga lake.

i left and the trail for a moment was just a shelf attached to the rocks next to the river.

i hiked along the river for a bit, crossing it a couple times on wooden bridges. eventually the trail turned and i began the climb up pond mountain.

this climb was a little bit frustrating because i could see watauga lake, but the trail kept turning and going the opposite direction, seemingly for no reason. i could see buildings, and tried for some cell service and found it to be great. i spent a lot of the climb chatting with magz. i know the weekends are more difficult for her, so i try and be in touch more often.

i descended the other side of pond mountain, and made it to the picnic area at watagua lake where i ate my lunch. i also discovered a dumpster and emptied out all my trash. i waited for rocket for a while, but he didn’t show. (i found out later that everyone showed up at the falls and they all went swimming.)

the trail then followed the shore of the lake around the west end and along the north side before ascending up to the ridge that we’ll follow almost all the way to damascus.

around 16:30 i ran into some trail magic by some local folks that apparently do it every weekend during the season. i stuffed my face with all manner of goodies before finishing the climb to the ridge.

once on the ridge the terrain was rougher than i expected and my mental energy began to flag. i decided to listen to a podcast while i hiked the last hour.

i arrived at the shelter around 18:00. there were only 2 already occupied tent sites. thankfully the shelter was mostly empty, so i claimed a spot there. the water source for the shelter was notorious for being .3 miles and very steep. other hikers recommended cameling up at the next nearest water source 2 miles away to avoid it. i opted to do the walk, as i wanted to take my daily bath. it was definitely pretty far and steep. i broke a sweat on the way back up, somewhat negating my bath.

the rest of the crew started filtering in about 19:00, thankfully everyone fit in the shelter.

tomorrow is another big day to put us close to damascus for monday where we have an airbnb reserved.

some additional images from today: