Turtle Crossing in the Dark
The Castle to Vanderventer Shelter 15 Miles
We get up and argue about what to do for breakfast; eventually deciding upon the walk down to McDonald’s. It’s already burning hot at 8AM. At some point we decide to chill out and brave the heat by lying on the porch for a few hours. We’re contemplating a night hike instead of getting murdered in today’s humid heat. We have extra miles to do because of the way we side-hiked to get into town yesterday. The consensus is to head out of town before dark so we can follow the blue blazes back to the AT. It will be too hard to see the difference between blue and white blazes in the dark; so we need to get that first section done before the sun goes down.
We cook dinner in the little kitchen at the Castle before we head out on to the road in the late afternoon. I opted for Pepperoni and Tortillas for my breakfasts and my pack feels heaver than I remember it. The boys are antsy. The longer we sit around, the worse it gets. It feels strange not to be leaving when we have nothing to do.
Eventually we get on the road and hike out of town on the shoulder of Route 321. This will be our first, real night hike and we’re thick with anticipation and trepidation. I can already feel us ready to snap; we don’t know what to expect. We leave the road to take the side trail knowing that we have a painful six miles to go, straight up and straight back down, before we cross this same road again only a mile away from where we are now. It is tempting to just walk a mile up the road and skip the rough section, especially when we want to make up time. There was some discussion about it a few times in the past 24 hours and I can feel them thinking hard behind me as I pull right on to the blue blaze trail. I just couldn’t skip a section. I’m looking out for my future well-being.
Once we get back to the main trail, the first climb is straight up and with each step; I can’t help but think of how pointless this section is. I have to keep reminding myself that I would have tortured myself forever if we had skipped this section. Night hiking is tougher than I thought. I don’t have the best headlamp for it and the shadows cast by my two brothers’ headlamps behind me are confusing. Several times we scare up something in the brush beside us and it scares the living hell out of us. It’s probably just a small deer or a raccoon but it sounds like a herd of elephants as it tramples up the hill just outside of our light radius. I feel like the little kid in “Where The Wild Things Are” with inconceivable monsters lurking, only their eyes visible, just outside of lamp shine. As the sky gets completely dark, it’s difficult to navigate and the Mosquitoes are relentless razors of distraction.
We get to the road and cross over into a park at Watauga Lake. It’s a huge lake and the shelter we’re trying for is about ten miles away on the other side of it. We’re not having a good time in the dark. We lose the trail in the open park and can’t figure out which way to go. After a frustrating hour of searching and map referencing, we find it. The stars are bright and it’s beautiful looking over the lake at night. The moon isn’t full yet but it gives us some light while we are in the open. We re-enter the woods and trudge thorough a swampy section that slows us down tremendously.
I thought I would love hiking in the dark but it really sucks. It’s tough to find your footing and although it’s great not to have to hike in the heat, you’re still sweating from all the exertion and frustration of keeping on the trail and trying to make sure you don’t miss the blazes. We’re in a park so there are side trails all over the place. We’ve come up with a system of yelling out “Blaze” whenever we see one so that we don’t miss them but it’s frustrating and confusing and I’d give anything for God to just turn on the lights.
Sometime just before midnight we come across a bright sign that indicates the side trail to a shelter. The shelter we want is still another six or seven miles away. We had expected to go much further tonight; but, noone complains when I take the turn and head for the shelter. We’re all in silent compliance. Cubit and HaHa, who had left out earlier from the castle were there; we woke them up. We needed to talk to humans and shake off the night terrors. I set up my hammock in the dark and sought solace from the flying razors. Night Hiking sucks, and that’s all I have to say about that!
David AKA "Mister F. Gentle Spirit"
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