White Blaze, Blue Blaze, Yellow Blaze, Aqua Blaze

What are all these different blazes? The Appalachian Trail is identified by its white, rectangular blazes. They are usually painted on trees or posts, and occasionally on rocks.

Blue blazes indicate side trails. They may be for a bad weather bypass or to another trail system, a shelter,  or a water source.  Some shelters can be accessed from either the north or the south. A purist will enter and exit the shelter area on the same blue blaze trail so as not to miss any white blazes.

I do pretty much fall into that category. However, at Charlie’s Bunion, I didn’t backtrack on the same blue blaze trail I came in on. I have not yet had to take a bad weather bypass.

Some hikers blue blaze by bicycling or walking along the Virginia Creeper Trail out of Damascus or road walking.

Yellow blazing refers to riding  in a car rather than hiking. The hiker skips parts of the trail. I have not yellow blazed.

Aqua blazing refers to paddling a body of water parallel to the trail rather than hiking. The ATC does not sanction aqua blazing the Shenandoah River. To my knowledge, it has not yet rendered an opinion  about aqua blazing Watagua Lake, but I assume it would not be sanctioned either.

However, we are each entitled to “hike our own hike.” The ATC accepts self-reports about the distances hiked and only requires a thru-hiker to complete 2000 miles, the distance of the original trail.

There is also platinum blazing, which refers to a hiker who uses a credit card to live the high life when in town. I am doing that now, staying at the Old Mill Inn in Damascus.

Back to aqua blazing: Despite wearing Bauerfeind knee sleeves and taking Aleve for much of the trip, my left knee has often been swollen and I have had increasing pain in the inside of both knees. So I decided to give my knees a rest and aqua blaze.

Hiking To Watauga Lake

The breakfast buffet at Mountain Harbor was truly amazing, befitting a 5 star restaurant. Pushing myself away from the table to return to the trail took a tremendous act of willpower.

The trail from Mountain Harbor was a long ascent through wet meadows. I took a short blue blaze trail to (and from) Jones Falls to soak my feet and knees.

At Jones Falls I found Dig enjoying the view. Earlier, Dig offered me my trail name: GMG for green mountain girl,

That night, I sat at a campfire skillfully started by Dig.  We were joined by PT Cruiser. I wrapped my knees  in cold, wet bandanas. By then, I was bound and determined to aqua blaze. PT Cruiser suggested I try Tylenol for pain.

The next day, at Dennis Cove, Marlene Simpson provided abundant trail magic. In addition to food, beverages, and a page of  poetry and spiritual inspiration, she offered various supplies. I picked up some Acetaminophen. Thankfully that relieved my knee pain on the rocky descent to Laurel Falls, which is even more spectacular than Jones  Falls.

Later, as I was ascending to the Pond Flats campsite, Dig caught up to me. Many other hikers were there. I was up at the crack of dawn the next morning so I could get to Boots Off Hostel by 8:30 a.m. to catch the shuttle to aqua blaze.

Aqua Blazing Watauga Lake

I was supposed to meet up with a group of about 8 people at the put-in. But they were delayed by almost an hour so I received instructions to stay to the right, to paddle under the Butler Bridge, some sites to see, and where to finish. I took a series of photographs of the nautical map, and headed out on my own. I am an experienced kayaker and thought I’d be fine.

What I hadn’t fully understood was the size of Watagua Lake, and its many rivers, channels, islands, and coves. It covers over 6,000 acres. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to read a nautical map. Uh oh.

After paddling for over an hour in a couple of different directions, the Butler Bridge was still not in sight. I realized I was lost. There wasn’t anyone on the water of whom I could ask directions. Finally, I saw a marina and paddled to it. The boaters there told me I was way off course and that I should return to the main channel. Easy advice to give. But just where was the main channel? To the left, they said. The best I could manage was to return to where I put in.

Lo and behold, I found the others near where I had started paddling, perhaps two hours earlier. I was almost giddy with joy. They had stayed farther right than I had. Realizing  where I had missed a turn, I paddled on  to see if the bridge was indeed ahead, and it was. Although I now paddled slowly, the group never caught up to me.

It was a windy day and there were waves. The water was also high so that there were very few places to land on shore.  At times, paddling was quite an effort. (I later learned that 3 of the men in the  group capsized).

I decided not to go to an island where I had been told it was possible to land the kayak. Instead,  I paddled to a tiny waterfall over mossy rocks, which had been described to me. Past there, I also found a place to land the kayak. With the wind, I wasn’t inclined to go swimming, but I soaked my feet and knees while I ate lunch.

Back in the boat, I paddled to the earthen dam, shown below,  and then headed to the pick up spot, whose fishing pier was under water.

My approximately 6-hour paddle  was a challenging, different and unique way to experience the area near the AT. In addition to seeing ridgelines  and towering trees, I saw shore birds, a kingfisher, hawks, geese, and ducks. It was a special day.

On To Damascus,VA

The next day, back  on the trail, I hiked through a large series of meadows enclosed in fences. There were several gates and stiles, one shown below,  to let people pass but keep the cows in.

Along the trail that day, I met many hikers, some already known to me and some new. Bear activity had been reported at Abingdon Gap Shelter,  but there was a campsite two miles north which was reportedly bear free. That campsite was my destination.

Some hikers that day went all the way to Damascus or at least the Virginia border. Some stayed at Abingdon Gap Shelter. I enjoyed a quiet evening alone at the campsite further north and then a short day of hiking into Damascus.

Still mindful of my knee pain, I slack packed almost 15 miles the next day and then took my first zero day.  Hopefully the knee pain will resolve. Onward!