Date: 2008-07-05
From: Three Ridges Summit

To: Rockfish Gap
Miles today: 23.5
Weather: light rain

   I woke today, not to the sound of my alarm, but to the sound of my tent being blasted by water. It was a torrential downpour that hit out of nowhere at 5:00 AM. It sounded like there were 3 fire hoses blasting my tent. The winds were crazy-strong, I wished I had taken more time to pound the stakes in all the way. Then I started thinking, what the heck am I doing on a mountaintop in a thunderstorm?! Luckily the lightning never hit closer than 1.25 miles away. But the rain sure didn't miss me. I tried to sleep till my alarm went off but didn't have much success. When it did it was still raining, and I was thinking this would be the first day I had to pack up camp in the rain. Not bad for 2 months on the trail. I packed everything I could up and into my pack before unzipping the rain fly, and by the time I finished all that the rain had stopped! I quickly packed up the tent, took the bear bag down and threw the food into my pack, and set off.    I ate my pop-tarts breakfast while hiking. It really sukced when I opened the second package and they fell on the wet, muddy ground. Oh well, I wasn't about to let that stop me from enjoying my breakfast!   Before long I crossed over the Blue Ridge Parkway and then the trail paralleled it, about 200 ft down the hill. As I came around a bend, I heard some noise over to the left of the trail. It was a bear! I was sure he had heard and/or seen me, but he hadn't detected me yet. He was walking parallel to the trail about 10 yards off it through some semi-thick underbrush, in the opposite direction of me. It was neat seeing him when he didn't know I was there. I took the camera out and snapped as many pictures as I could, although I'll bet none of them came out very well as the underbrush was fairly thick. Eventually he came up to the trail that I had been on, and must've detected my scent, as he suddenly stopped, popped his ears up in the alert position and looked around. I think I took a picture, and this time he heard the camera beep, as he took off away from the trail. He only ran about 30 feet or so before stopping, and slowly continueing on down away from the trail. It was my best bear sighting yet, as I watched him for about 5 minutes total.    My original plan was to spend the night at the Paul C. Wolfe Shelter, 5 miles from the road crossing to Waynesboro. Amber gets in tomorrow and was going to get a shuttle into Waynesboro. After I talked to her in the afternoon, I found out that she was having trouble finding a reasonably-priced shuttle, so we changed the plans and I would come to Richmond instead. This meant that I had to get to the road crossing tonight. So I stopped at the shelter and had dinner, then headed out. Not 10 minutes up the trail I saw another bear! This one saw me before I saw him, he was running away up the hill. He stopped about 50 yards off and looked back, then continued on his way. Neat, 2 bears in one day!!   I got to the road crossing just as it was getting dark, set up my tent and went to bed, not 10 minutes before another good thunderstorm hit. What's with all the rain suddenly?!