Welcome to Virginia!!

That next morning after cowboy camping Puddin' and I woke up to all the morning dew soaking our sleeping bags and everything around us.  We probably should have known not to camp in the grass but after that trail magic and being so full the soft grass just looked so inviting.  Oh well, you live and you learn.  We all (Sleeping Beauty, Nova, Fatty, and us) decided to hike about a mile up the trail to the top of the bald so we could lay our stuff out in the sun. We had some breakfast while we were waiting.

Our stuff hanging in the tree to dry out.

Seemed to be the easiest way to dry our stuff out.  Pretty funny.  

Time for some breakfast while our stuff was drying

We knew that some rain was coming that evening, but the change in weather brought the temperature up for our hike during the day, and it couldn't have come on a better day.  We passed a couple of waterfalls and a river followed the trail for a good section.  We couldn't resist jumping into all of them! Hiking with Sleeping Beauty has been great because he loves getting into the cold water just as much as we do.

At Jones Falls

Puddin' climbing up the falls

Fatty washing the stank off of herself

Sleeping Beauty loving that cold water

MC happy as can be

No, Sleeping Beauty isn't naked, just in his undies.  That little hole was the perfect little spot to take a bath.  

This was at the second set of falls.  If you look closely you can see that my mouth is open because I was screaming like a little girl.  That water was cold!!

Sleeping Beauty's face says it all.  

A picture from the bottom of the falls.  

After relaxing in the water and enjoying the sun all day we had to book it down the trail to get to our campsite.  Puddin' got some painful blisters on her heel so I went ahead to see if I could get the tent set up before the rain made it.  We couldn't find the campsite that the book referred to, so we ended up just setting up on some flattish ground surrounded by pricker bushes.  It was not the best spot, but it was better than being wet.  Our single wall tent is great because it is so light, but it builds up condensation real fast if the vestibule isn't open.  We found that if big rain drops hit the outside of the tent we would get misting in the tent from the build up of condensation.  A little bit of a pain, but we are dealing with it.

The next day the trail was just as beautiful.  It was unlike anything else we had hiked so far, and was lovely.  We hiked back and forth along the river almost the whole day.  We passed Laurel Falls and were so happy with our surroundings that we decided to cut the day short and only hike 10 miles instead of 16 so that we could dry out our tent and stay at a spot right by the river.  Another bonus was that we were right by the side trail to Hampton, TN so we hiked into town for some Subway subs and so many cookies that I'm embarrassed to admit how many we ate.  Also, on the way into town we ran into Spanky! We thought he was way ahead of us but apparently he had gotten sick and taken a zero back in Erwin.  We were excited to see him again and looked forward to trying to keep up with him for a bit longer.

Puddin' loving a little swing that went over the river

One of the many bridges crossing the river

Loving life at Laurel Falls

Laurel Falls

The rock hopper herself

This part of the trail was AWESOME! They used part of the cliff to make a walk way and you were right next to the water.  

That night we slept well with bellies full of Subway and cookies.  We sat by the fire for a bit before calling it a night.

The next day we were so rested that I got a hair brained idea that we could make it into Damascus, Virginia in two days to avoid the upcoming weather and that way we could take back to back zeros.  It would require us hiking 48 miles in 48 hours, but everyone seemed into it.  The terrain wasn't as bad as some of the spots in the past, but it wasn't very flat by any means either.
We started hiking across the Watuga Dam which made Watuga Lake, a truly beautiful piece of Tennessee.  We saw another big king snake on the trail, but most of the rest of the day was a blur.  Passed a bunch of shelters and a bunch of hikers and ended up putting in 26.4 miles!!!!!! Our biggest day yet.  Many of the hikers like to hike 26.2 miles in one day because that is the distance of a full marathon, but they usually choose to do it in a section that is a bit more flat than the one we chose.  That night our heads hit the pillow and we were out cold.  We tried not to think about the 21 miles that still lay ahead of us to get into Damascus.

Watuga Dam

Watuga Lake from ground level

The four foot black snake that greeted us on the trail

Watuga Lake from up above

Enjoying the view

A panoramic shot of the whole lake area

The next day we crushed the remaining 21 miles which allowed us to cross off another state and enter our fourth state, Virginia!  We were glad it was mostly downhill.  We made it into town and arranged for our accommodations at the Hiker Inn, a wonderful little spot ran by Paul that might have the most comfortable beds in Virginia.  We are now looking forward to some much needed rest and enjoying the town of Damascus.  We will be back here in a couple of weeks when Merry picks us up and brings us back for Trail Days, one of the biggest events on the trail.
-Paddy Cakes

Puddin' got a fresh new rain jacket for the upcoming weather.  She looks so good.