Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Mr. Peoples

     I headed back into the woods with warm weather and beautiful blue skies.  The trail meandered around gentle sloped hills and through fields with wildflowers.  I had planned on taking a shortish day in order to stay at a highly recommended hostel the next night.  My goal was for a place called Mountaineer shelter which boasted a waterfall for showering.  Being such a gloriously perfect day of wandering around daydreaming I said "Why not" to the mountain shower.


     After the refreshingly frigid dip I settled into the shelter for the night where I was joined by a large group of other hikers and one puppy.  Evidently the puppy was following two hikers going in the opposite direction when the large group went by the puppy switched directions and followed the group all the way to the shelter.  He was friendly enough and looked very hungry so we all took turns giving him some food.  We named him "George" for no particular reason, he seemed happy with it.  I think we all slept a little sounder knowing that we had a guard dog perched right outside, poised to defend us from rouge people eating bears.

     In the morning we all departed with "George" in tow.  He plodded along with us for fifteen miles until a road crossing where a local couple took him to find his owners and I headed to Kincora, a hostel run by a man named Bob Peoples.  Bob is a legend on the trail for all of the work he does maintaining sections and being an all around warm and welcoming guy.  I arrived kind of late, but just in time to take a thirty minute ride into town in the back of his pickup truck with five other hikers.  I ate at an all you can eat Chinese food place that was both disgusting and filling.  The locals that were patronizing this establishment looked as if they subsisted on nothing but that food.  One lady was so large that she actually had a pouch that hung down to her knees and I was convinced she had a baby kangaroo in it.

     The next morning I did what is called "slack packing".  Bob Peoples dropped me and some others off nine miles from Kincora and we hiked back to it with small little day packs.  It was extremely pleasant to say the least.  First I climbed a mountain called Pond Flats, which was neither flat nor had a pond on it.  On the other side was the Laurel Fork river where I stopped and took a leisurely break along it's rocky banks.

     The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering along the river where rhoododendron's were blooming and other flowers where alive with color.  When I returned to Kincora I did my laundry and showered as the hostel slowly started filling up with a new set of hikers.  In came "The Three Amigos"  who I met right out of Georgia and spent the morning eating waffles and beef stew with "Fal" and "Hercules".  They took the beds in the smaller separate bunkhouse with me and it turns out that we all left to start Thru Hiking the same day.  They are a very fun bunch of guys and we sat around cracking  jokes and farting all night.
Flosser, Frenchy, Tarzan and Meat

     When it came time to leave Kincora, Bob drove me back to where he left me the morning prior and I set off north again, but not before taking a quick dip in Watauga Lake.  The day turned out to be very hot, somewhere in the eighties if I had to guess.  The trail started with a steep climb out of the valley with views back to my little swimming hole for hours.  I came to a shelter covered in graffiti where I took a long nap.  Afterwards, I pushed on through the heat to Iron Mountain shelter where I spent the night.

     When daybreak came I headed out.  I kept giggling to myself throughout the day because when I was at Kincora, Ryan of the "The Three Amigos" got his trail name "Meat".  He began telling a story of how much weight he lost by saying "I have SO much meat between my legs...".  That happened a lot during the day.  I found myself zoning out for long stretches of time, kind of like when you are driving and all of a sudden realize that you don't remember what you did the past couple miles. By mid afternoon I found myself sitting at a shelter trying to decide if I should stay for the night or push on another ten miles into Damascus.  I was really low on food at this point, I only had one dinner and one breakfast left.  So I ate my dinner and then proceeded to eat my breakfast for the next morning too.  So, with my decision made by my stomach I started walking.



     I entered Damascus in the early evening, I have now gone through three states and over 450 miles.




~Frenchy

9 comments:

  1. I don't think I could ever do the AT - can't grow a proper beard.

    Well done on the dog name, I feel like dogs with people names are too few and far between.

    If you get a moment, you should write about things you've learned that were totally counter to what you expected before you began, like a gear choice, or people's attitudes, weather, etc.

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    1. Unless you can grow a beard I don't think you should be making suggestions son.

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  2. Looks like you're having a great time out there man! Wished I could've joined ya!

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  3. 450 miles. You are the man. Frank won't even drive 450 pulling the Tin House. It is nice to be nice. I am sure George appreciated it. March on, Jack the Dog.

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    1. I think that if the dog stayed another day with us he would've gone all the way to Maine.

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  4. I am surprised that George let you leave him,Lulu wouldn't have let you go.450 miles gosh I can't imagine walking all that way. Rock on Matt you are one hell of a fellow.Rowdy is trying to be good without you but he is finding it quite hard somedays.

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  5. Virginia already? Matt, I hope your are brushing your teeth. Love Mom

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    1. I ran out of tooth paste so I've been brushing with sugar granules.

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