Date: 2007-04-23
From: Iron Mountain Shelter

To: Abingdon Gap Shelter
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: clear sky

There is always so much to say about the day that I cannot remember it all. I'll start by telling about our exciting night. After we were in our sleeping bags in the shelter and the only other hikers, 3 women out doing a section-hike were in their tents, we were listening to our MP3 players when we heard a loud noise beside the shelter where the picnic table was. It sounded like rocks hitting against each other and something bumping into the side of the shelter wall and knocking over cans and getting into plastic bags. Toto said he thought it was a bear and he was not about to get up and look. This was about 9:30 and for an hour we listened to it rummage around. Drip Dry had opened a can of sardines when she stopped to cook and they were very strong smelling. We thought she may have left her cans when she hiked out and a bear had smelled them. Toto kept looking fot something to come around the corner and finally he was rewarded with seeing something that he said was big!By now he is wondering if it was a bear cub. Well, we finally decided we were not in any danger so Toto goes to sleep. I was not quite asleep when 2 people walked up toward the tent area with head lamps on. I thought they were hikers that had hiked in late and were looking for a tent spot. I lost sight of them and soon there was a light on in 2 of the women's tents and I thought they were looking to see what was happening.This morning one of the women said that she hoped that they did not disturb us last night. That is when we found out that the animal we heard was a raccoon. It had knocked over a small cook-pot and lid off the table, torn a couple of plastic bags apart looking for food or the remains of food in them. I guess when it was finished there,it went over to one of the tents and took a cook-pot that had an empty hot chocolate bag in it and took off with it. The woman in the tent and a woman in another tent ran after it with their head lamps aimed at the racoon and finally it let go of the pan. That's when I heard them walking back to the tent-site and saw them. Mystery solved!! Okay, about today. The fist 5 miles were wonderful and we made really good time. The last 8 were a bit tougher with a lot of climbs, although they were not terribly long or steep for the most part. We had thought about doing an extra 10 miles to go right into Damascus but decided it would not be very much fun to get there at 8 or 8:30. We were already tired and the water source is down a 0.2 mile steep trail behind the shelter and we needed water. By the time we would have filtered water, gotten our packs packed again it would have been too late to start out. A friend was going to pick us up if we called and said we had made it to town, but we had also told her we most likely would not end up doing it. So tomorrow we have 10 miles to do and I am sure it will be a lot easier to do then than it would have been to do it this afternoon. So far we are the only ones here. Probably at about dark we will have a rush of hikers passing by. I just hope we are not kept awake by them stopping to cook before heading on because we are planning on getting up early so we can get into Damascus early. The day was sunny with a fairly cool breeze just about all day. I got chilled when I stopped but while hiking the breeze was very much appreciated. No hikers passed us today. In fact the only hiker we met was The Owl just about a mile before we reached this shelter. He had stayed at the last shelter and has just been taking his time today. But he was headed for Damascus this afternoon. Last night he was confronted with a mama bear and three cubs after leaving our shelter.We've used up almost all of our food so will ned to resupply before heading back out to the trail from Damascus. It is nice having our packs lighter for a bit.Well, we are in our sleeping bags here in the shelter and ready for sleep. It won't be dark for a while but we will listen to our MP3 players and just relax and enjoy the peace and quiet. We can't wait for a shower and laundry!! Life is Great!Dorothy & Toto