Date: 2006-11-26
From: Shenandoah National Park - S of Big Meadows, Va

To: Near Doyles River Cabin, Va
Miles today: 34.7

I woke up at 6am to the sounds of an owl, then had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a small container of peaches for breakfast. It felt really good to sleep in the woods again. I always get my best sleep when I'm tenting. It was nice and mild this morning with the temperature in the 30's and no wind. I got packed up and started walking at 6:45am. Two miles into my walk, I spotted one coyote, then saw two more. They finally saw me and headed up the hill. I kept on walking and a fourth coyote came into view. He looked at me, then made a couple low, barking noises before running back the way he came. I kept walking and in another minute or so, I could hear that fourth coyote again. He made a couple more low, barking noises, then started howling for a short time. I've never heard coyotes make a low pitched barking noise before. This area took a nasty hit from an ice storm on Wednesday night. All of Skyline Dr was closed at first, but the work crews cleared away the trees so traffic could get from Rt 211 to Skyland and Big Meadows...about 20 miles open with 85 miles closed. I had tried walking on the AT, but it was a real mess with trees, limbs and branches just about covering it. I started out this morning walking down Skyline Dr and a park ranger stopped me to see if I was alright. He advised me to stick to the road because of the condition the park is in. He said it was lots worse south of where I was at. He also said that it would be at least three weeks before they would get all the trees cleared from the road and re-open to traffic. Shortly after he left, I saw an owl fly in front of me...maybe thirty yards away and pick up some tiny critter and fly away with it. I did nothing but road walk all day. I did make good time, but it was sad to see the devastation that the ice storm caused. I could look across at mountains that weren't too far away and it looked like someone took a bushwhacker and clipped the tops of all the trees...and I mean ALL the trees. It looked like every tree for miles and miles had some kind of damage from the tops gone all the way to the tree fallen completely over. There was still lots of ice around even with the temperature so mild at close to 60 degrees for a high today. I was walking along later in the day and saw about a 300 pound bear up ahead. I saw that he was looking out at some trees, but when he spotted me, he took off. When I got to where the bear had been, I saw a dead skunk hanging in a tree. I have no idea how the skunk got up there, but that's what had the Bear's attention. The ranger came by again that I talked to this morning. He asked where I was planning on staying. I never like telling anyone that and for the most part, I don't even know. I told him that I was making good miles today and I was going to walk up to dark or a little after. He told me about a hut that was just a couple miles ahead, but I told him I would be walking past that. He surprised me and said that because of the condition of the park and the fact that the road was closed, I could tent right along side of Skyline Dr. I walked another 6 or 7 miles and just after dark, I found a spot off the road far enough where I couldn't be seen and set up my tent about .3 miles from Doyles River Cabin. I was so tired when I crawled in the tent that I just got into my sleeping bag and went right to sleep without journaling. I'm not used to walking this many miles right now and my heel was killing me. It looks like I can get out of the park tomorrow with another high mileage day. :-)))