This is a scene of me
hiking the AT trail near Laurel Falls in early July about 3 miles before you get to Laurel Falls.
Here I am at the end of hike in Damascus, VA. Four of us had started
hiking at Roan Mountain six days before and hiked together for four days.
After they left me at Tennessee 91, I hiked the last two days by myself.
The hike was a lot of fun, especially swimming in Laurel Falls, hiking over
Pond Mountain, and the last two days were fun, just to hike quietly along.
The hike over Pond Mountain was really fun. The others had to go into town,
and they decided to take a short cut that allowed them to avoid Pond Mountain.
I hiked up the mountain for over two hours to get to the top. The trail started
up an old railroad bed, but soon changed to a series of steep switch backs for
at least 3 miles. The best part was at the top, I reached a spring and stopped
to rest. Just as I started to leave a doe came out of the woods to within 20 feet
of me. She was eating, and did not seem afraid. I watched her for a while, then
hiked on, all the time she wandered around eating leaves and showed no signs of
being afraid. The hike down was a pleasure, I found blue berries to eat and
the Forest Service has rerouted the trail to a series of nice, gently sloped
switch backs down to Wataga Lake. At Wataga Lake, I waited for the others who
had gone to town and were hiking the shortcut. Since I got to the lake ahead of the others
I took a bath and just as I finished a ranger showed up and closed the beach.
This is me and one of my son's (Reed) just after lunch on the left and me and my son Christopher
on the right at Wataga Dam. Also here is a nice 16 k.
map of the Appalachian Trail.
These pictures are of Sankey Blanton who hiked with us, but had to leave to rescue the boys before, by taking them back home on Sunday while I hiked on. If you want to read about the hike click here