Date: 2010-10-15
From: Brown Mountain Creek Shelter

To: Punchbowl Shelter
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: light rain

Today was a weather changing one. We traveled for seven miles along the Brown Creek. There is a place known as Scare Rock that we passed. Apparently, a man ran down a slave near there and beat his slave almost to death. Then he got on his horse and followed the creek passing by this huge rock. He felt something grab him and pull him off his horse. The horse bolted. The man got hold of the horse and finished his ride back to his home. When he got there he told others what had happened. That night both the horse and the man died. Makes you wonder!   The weather turned rainy again as we got around the Lynchburg Reservoir. We had to cross a foot bridge over the Peddlar River so I suggested we stop there and have a bite to eat. There was a perfect spot under the landing that leads up to the bridge. By this time the rain had almost stopped. But here's where we decided to start our list of rules for doing a thru-hike. Rule #1 - Don't eat lunch under a bridge landing when there's spaces in the boards above your head and it's beginning to rain.    Once again we attempted to use our solar blanket, without as much success, but we finshed our snack and rest, and set out to climb Rice Mountain. The sun even had come back out, but this 1000 foot climb was a doozie! It took all we could muster to get over this one. When we arrived at the Punchbowl Shelter we decided to spend the night instead of carrying water over the next two mountains. It's amazing how our life is centered around where's the next water supply, where will we camp, and what will we eat, the basic needs.   But this was Friday night, and we have had a number of surprises on Friday nights whereever we camp. This one was no exception. First, soon after we arrived an older guy, Jeremiah, came in who was out hiking for a few days, northbound. Then Oz who is a local just out for the weekend showed up. Then three other SOBO's came in, One Pace, Gearmo, and Black Eagle. Jeremiah told us a story of a time he paid a guide to take him brown bear hunting in Alaska. As they went out they saw a bear about 400 yards away. The guide told him to take a shot which Jeremiah did. He hit the bear in the rear leg. His third shot hit the bear again and they started to follow it into an alder thicket. They were getting pretty close when he with the guide behind him came to within about 30 feet of the bear. Jeremiah aimed and took a shot, but he didn't realize there was a branch in the way which made the bullet glance away from killing the bear. The bear reared up and ran towards Jeremiah. In the time he cocked another bullet into his gun, the bear was within 5 steps and ready to pounce on him. Jeremiah shot, and rolled into a gully kind of place. The bear fell down, still clawing and biting, but it couldn't move. Jeremiah found out later that the shot went through the bear's chest and pierced the spinal cord, making it paralyzed. That's what saved Jeremiah's life. With that story we attempted to quiet our thoughts and go to bed in our tent for the night.    Oh, and later in the night around 10 or so, there were lights all around our tent. I couldn't figure it out until the next day when we discovered two more people had shown up at this little shelter by a pond.