Trip Miles:
434.50
Woke up late, 7a.m. Mike was up already. We had breakfast and got ready for what we knew would be a hard day.
Early on we made Laurel Falls. We took some pics and spoke to some locals then headed out for what we thought would be the hard part of the day. 2.7 miles up 2,600' to Pond Flats. It turned out to be a relatively easy hike over many switchbacks.
The backside of the mt. took us to the lake at Shook Branch Recreation Center. We had lunch there and spent a couple hours relaxing. The next part of the hike didn't look very tough in the guide, basically a ridge walk. I guess we didn't look closely enough at the profile because it was the toughest part of the day. Ups and downs for hours, we were all beat. Excuse me, not all. Mike was fine. "Oh well, another hill. We'll get there when we get there." Such a stoic. For me and N it was a killer afternoon, we were wiped out.
Then at the Vandeventer Shelter the water source was 0.3 miles down a steep hill. Not the Jack and Jill kind of hill, but the hill that Satan put on the trail to punish hikers who thought their day was over. Boy, did that climb back up burn the quads. Especially carrying 7 pounds of water.
Well enough complaining, looks like tomorrow is more of the same. Tennessee really knows how to say goodbye.
Night all.
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| Laurel Falls |
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| Watauga Lake |
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