Date: 2013-09-30
From: Ho Jo's Daleville, Va

To: Campbell Shelter, Va
Miles today: 15.4

Passed the two thirds point!Decided to sleep in as we had a hotel room. We still didn't miss breakfast though. Food over sleep. We packed and blogged and charged stuff which made our departure later than we hoped. It was around 11 when we left. We had to stop at one more gas station as we needed bread. We got some hamburger buns and cheese. We will also be making our favorite sandwiches: peanut butter, Nutella, marshmallow fluff, M & M's and honey roasted peanuts. Yummy and energizing! Our stomachs know when these babies hit. We got on the trail with our heavy packs a little before noon. We hiked until 7 pm and only pulled out a 15 miler. We wanted a 20 but the ups and heavy packs got us. It's lonely out here as SOBOs. We hardly see people unless its the weekend. The girls and I were eating lunch high up on a mountain when a hawk swooped by. Several more followed as we ate. Haha mean bird watcher! We were loudly chatting and laughing. The hawks were so close I could have tickled their tummies with my hiking poles. We left a banana peel for Bear Bell as per Carolina Trekkers advice that banana peels help with bee stings. We scratched the words "Hi Bear Bell" into the inner side of the peel. BB was repeatedly stung. We are hoping it gives him a smile and helps with the solitude. We are in a shelter alone for the first time. It is just the strangest feeling. I don't know how hikers do this trek alone. I'm so happy to have my girls with me. Today when we ate lunch we decided that these were the times we would miss. The easy, relaxing lunches in which we aren't rushed, the pauses to enjoy scenic overlooks and the sunrises and sunsets. Badonkadonk did say she wants to do something different, that the relentless hiking gets tough psychologically. She loves how we function as this tight unit but still wants to do other things like bake. Cub loves reading the shelter journals. We used to find out how close we were to our friends. Now we have fun seeing when they were here months ago. Today she announced that a journal entry stated that a big snake lived in this shelter. Yikes. We already had our stuff out. As we settled down to sleep in the dark blackness of the shelter we heard rattling in our backpacks. We shot our headlamps over them and the sound stopped. We knew something was in there. We clearly remembered being told about a snake that slithered out of a privy seat hole so we knew they could climb upward. Suddenly a brown and white mouse popped out and scurried into the dark corner of the shelter. Badonkadonk took about a millisecond to whip out the tent and set it up in the shelter. Our whole plan for shelter sleeping was to save time pitching and packing a tent. Badonkadonk was not taking a risk that either a snake or a mouse might just want to warm up in our sleeping bags on this cool evening. Cub thought the mouse was "cute" and was annoyed at the tent set up. When we encouraged her to sleep with the mice she declined. Now we are all three crammed in a flimsy tent that a determined mouse can easily chew through but is probably snake proof. The appearance of the mouse makes us wonder where the snake is. Maybe it comes out later because this shelter appears to be a snake fast food restaurant. Wish us luck on sleeping through all the pack rattling. We dare not pull them in the tents and tempt the mice. Hopefully our packs are chewing toys tonight. Better them than us.