Day 2, Trail Junction to Laurel Mountain Spring—11.6 miles

The hunters finally shut their generator off around 5. This woke me up for many reasons: the white noise was gone, I could hear birds chirping, I had to pee (the drugs Bunny had given me paralyzed me and kept me from getting up all night), and Bunny’s snoring seemed loud as ever. There was no way I was going to wake up a snoring Bunny. The only person that can wake Bunny up early and not get hurt is Bear, and we won’t be hiking with them until the end of June thanks to the Chinese flu. She finally woke up at 9 and allowed me to make her some coffee. 

One of the main reasons we are out now (other than being stir crazy from isolation) is to try out some new gear we have acquired over the winter. We got new Superior Wilderness Design backpacks (which, this switch alone, saves me over 4#), a new LightHeart Duo tent (a few ounces heavier than our Z-Packs Triplex, but so much roomier), Hoke One One “Old Goat” shoes (which are lighter and better for my plantar fasciitis), and we are returning to Thermarest Neoair sleeping pads (I’ve given up on Big Agnes completely).

We didn’t pass, or see, any living people today. We did pass 3 cemeteries today, including a Rushing family cemetery. When I bought my old place in Southern Illinois, my next door neighbors were the Rushings. I took a few pictures of some headstones dating from the mid 1800s. Most stones were so worn away we couldn’t make out anything. The only other sounds of human activity were a few cars passing on the Trace when we were close enough to hear it.

Buffalo used to roam in this area. To this day, there are two separate enclosures for buffalo in the Land Between the Lakes. When the European settlers came into this area, they adopted the route the buffalo used as a cart path. Over the decades, the path evolved to a paved road which is currently referred to as the Trace. Today’s visitors to the LBL are actually driving up and down an old buffalo path. 

Yesterday, we walked along the water divide between the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Today, we dropped down to Barkley side and encountered more streams and gullies. We also encounter a shared section of trail for equestrian use. I was happy with encountering streams but, less than thrilled about sharing the trail with horses (even though we didn’t encounter any).

The problem with sharing the trail with horses doesn’t have anything to do with horses. I love them. It’s the stupid owners (or unknowing riders) that ruin it. Horses are not afraid to walk in mud. Stupid riders don’t want to get their horse’s hooves wet and muddy, so they ride around the puddles and widen them. Pretty soon, a small puddle can evolve into 1/4 mile of muddy, slick trail impossible for hikers to walk around. Stay the F on the trail with your horses!

We made it to the trail junction with Laurel Mountain Spring, but the trail was severely overgrown and unmaintained. After last night’s missing water hydrant, I was reluctant to bushwhack 0.8 miles to find out the spring had disappeared a century ago. We had already hiked nearly 12 miles and I didn’t want to see my poor, limping, Bunny go through the extra effort. Hasn’t she been through enough? Instead, I let Bunny find us a flat spot to set up camp.

Bunny did find us a fairly flat spot with only one hitch…it was on the trail. I think this is becoming a new tradition for us. Like our friends son, Daniel, who camped in the middle of the AT, we have started doing likewise. Odds are thin that anyone will care since we have seen any other backpackers (or even day-hikers) yet.

While Bunny set up our beds and did general nest building for the night, I went and got 4 L of water and cooked an experimental supper. Tonight, we used a Korean BBQ sauce with some Spam and a package of Knorr garlic pasta shells. It turned out very nicely but was a bit salty. Next time, I’ll use reduced salt Spam (we’ve been heavily influenced by our recent trip to Hawaii). We stayed up until almost 8 tonight listening to owls and whip-poor-wills serenading us. 

Many people who regularly read this blog should now be wondering “2 days in and no poop stories? What’s happening with Easy?” Easy is wondering the same thing. Why don’t I even have the potential for a poop story? What has happened to my bowels? Is this a symptom of covid-19? Am I going to die? Please, with all the shit coming out of Washington, why can’t I even get a little bit for myself?

EFG