5-10-2009 Sun - Laurel Falls

Start point: Dennis Cove - Laurel Fork Lodge
End point: 2 miles south of Vandeventer Shelter
miles hiked: 15.8

Woke up and hung out with Damascus most of the morning. He found a puppy last night while driving, it was running down a mountain road. We drove around trying to see if anyone was out looking for it, stopped at quite a few houses asking around if anyone recognized it. Finally his investigational work paid off, found the owner. A girl named Rachel who was happy to have her puppy back. I realized after that adventure Michelle would probably get along pretty well with Damascus. They both would go out of their way to save an animal, or get it back to its owner. Came back to the lodge and caught up on some stuff online, packed up, and shot around with Snuggles on the basketball court at the lodge before heading out. The 50 ft Laurel Falls is no too far out of Dennis Cove and I sat there for a good long while enjoying the waterfall. The next couple miles of the trail follow the Laurel Fork Creek down river so that was a nice little walk. Took a side trail into Hampton, ate a medium pizza, had a Dr. Enuf soda (very tasty), and got a few food items at Dollar General. I've been doing pretty much all my food shopping at Dollar General, they have way more food than I remember dollar store having. Oh yea, ate a klondike and a twix ice cream treat. Its kinda nice being able to eat any and everything without feeling guilty, I'll burn those calories and fat off in no time. ;)
Got to Watauga Lake Shelter just as it was getting too dark to see. Decided to do some night hiking since I got started kinda late today, plus that pizza could fuel me for at least a few hrs. Made it past the Watauga Dam, then did a pretty big climb, 1500 ft in 4 miles. That doesn't sound like alot now, but in the dark it seemed like I was going up and up forever. Found a spot near a spring, set up tent, and got some water (that water filter I got is kind of a pain and a little time consuming to take out of my pack and put together, but its nice to have crystal clear water. Plus once you are down at the spring and pumping water thru the filter, you can drink all you want right there, so you don't have to pack out as much with you, water weighs alot..) Forgot to mention a deer was messing with me on my way up the mountain, it would get near the trail and then run off further ahead, then get near the trail again, those glowing eyes are creepy looking in the dark. It probably knew how much I like venison and was messin with me for payback.