11.5 miles - 358.6 cumulative miles
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| Laurel Falls |
Had a battle with a mouse last night. I think what happened was I left my pack open when I went out for some tea before going to bed, and a mouse got inside. So when I closed it up he was trapped. Around 3 AM I was awake and heard a sound, but didn't think much of it. Louise was awakened by the same sound and figured there was a mouse in my pack. And so there was. So I opened the pack and let him out. He went running along the beam sideways. All this time my pack was hanging from the beam. The mouse kept coming back and climbing all over my pack trying to get back in. So I decided to take it down and put the mouse trap on top, which Leo had already done. The mouse was shook up by the disappearance of my pack, but he proceeded to attack the other packs. Finally he was climbing on one pack and went down and jumped off the pack onto the top of Leo's pack and into the mouse trap. Scratch one mouse.
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| Closer view |
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| Coon's Den Falls |
So, anyway, we got up early and left around 8:00, feeling a bit tired from the mouse fights last night. Hiked through cold cloudy weather most of the morning. Saw some great waterfalls: Coons Den falls. Tried calling the post office in Hampton. No answer.
Started though Laurel Fork Gorge. Really beautiful. Good sized brook/river and steep cliffs all around. Interesting trail all through, some places pretty tricky along the edge of the river. Two tough bridges to cross made of old truck frames. Took a long time to cross them. Saw the first rhododendrons of the season in the gorge. Lots of them and lots of dogwood.
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| Rhododendron | |
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| Laurel Fork Gorge |
Had lunch at the shelter after Laurel Falls. Went on down over the 2 bridges and down to the road. Went the half mile to a good grocery store in Hampton with the whole Trivett gang, minus Leo. Stocked up for Damascus. Went another half mile down the road to a restaurant for hamburgers, french fries, cokes and ice cream. Rick and Louise were there, too. Then we hitched a ride back to the trail after leaving a postcard to have our money forwarded to Damascus.
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| Rick and Louise |
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| Gloria |
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| Rick |
[I have never been able to figure out why we went through all the trouble to cross these obviously unsafe bridge frames, when we could have crossed over the rocks and maybe gotten our feet a little wet, but we would have been done with it in almost no time. What were we all thinking?]
Hiked 3 miles to the shelter. Long way down to water. All here now, except Leo. Full moon rising. Whippoorwill singing. Very nice evening. Cleared up finally. Got here around 6:30. Talked with a couple and their 2 daughters camping out behind the shelter. From Johnson City. From Napa California at one time. Small world.
I remember those bridges. It was scary crossing over them.
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