Date: 2007-03-31
From: Stan Murray Shelter

To: campsite at MP 390
Miles today: 14.9

OK, this is the first glich with my pocketmail device. I know I created an entry for this day and I know I sent it but it isn't in my email file. I will never do this again, but I deleted all my outgoing messages after I sent them. Next time I will make sure they all go through before I delete them. The pocketmail composer is a great device. I have been hiking over a month and using the composer every day and have not had to replace the AA battery. I'm getting quick enough at the composing part to make it enjoyable and it is my soul source of entertainment when I am alone in the tent. I carried a paper notebook for several weeks but have quit doing so since I didn't write one thing in it. I have been doing all my writing on the pocket composer and then editing what I write on my MAC when I get home. LIke I am doing now. It is time consuming and I have to admit that this is my third zero day and here I am finally getting to the entries for last week. Well, here goes I will try to create this entry from my memory. What I remember most about my night at the Stan Murray shelter were the two occasions when I had the fear of wild animals arise like a bolt from the blue and then gradually go away. The first wild animal incident was when I first climbed into my sleeping bag. I was just about asleep when I heard the most awful commotion. It sounded like a pack of coyotees ripping apart something they had caught, maybe a hiker. I was considering the prospect I might be next. Strangely, the yelping, growling and baying died away as quickly as it had arose. I surmised I was closer to a house than I had realized. The commotion must have been made as a dog owner brought out dinner to his several dogs. That reminds me, I also heard several gun shots from the same direction later in the evening and one in the morning. Maybe the landowner or renter knew I was in the shelter and was having a good laugh over trying to scare me. He succeeded. The other incident with a wild animal occured at about two or three in the morning. I was sleeping soundly, when all of a sudden a heard a loud blood curdling shriek right in front of the shelter. It was the kind of shriek an Eagle makes in a current TV commercial. I was sure I was about to be set upon by a rather large bird. My hands instinctively covered my eyes. (don't birds always go for the eyes?) Immediately after this I heard several smaller shrieks as the bird flew past the shelter and gained some distance from me. This was all finalized by a loud "WHO". It was a darn owl. I fantasize now that he was swooping down on a mouse as the mouse was about to chew his way into my food bag which was hanging from a branch just in front of the shelter. Owls are my friends. I have had several occasions when they were quite close to my tent and "who'ed" with much gusto. It is a loud wonderful sound. From the distance I could hear another owl replying: "Who! it is me. The mate you have been looking for, come on over!" OK again. I have to apologize to Pocket Mail. I realized I sent the following email to my wife but did not put myself on the CC line. so here is the email I should have posted which I originaly wrote on my pocket mail.I'm up at 6:30. A gentle rain is falling, I am glad to be in the shelter. There were no mice, bear or mosquitoe attacks during the night, but there was a "Fly-by Hooting" from an owl. He struck around two in the morning and scared the bejeebers out of me with a very loud screech. It was not until after he was a little distance away that he let out a nice "who" and I was certain as to what had just happened. Still, I turned on my flashlight and looked out to where my food bag was hanging to see if it was still there. I have assessed why I had such a long and strenuous two days of hiking. Clearly it is because I have too much weight, (too much food). I have > enough food to get all the way to Damascus, and then some. The nice thing > is that after today I will be carrying more of a normal weight, since I > have been eating as much as I can. Three days food probably equates to > three or four pounds. So by tomorrow my pack weight will be down to a > respectable 30 pounds. By the time I get close to Damascus I will be down > to 26. I will be trying to zero in on a mile every thirty minutes. The > days are just too long when the miles take too long. Besides, it is much > easier to compute how long it will take to get somewhere when the math is > simple. I suppose part of my plan has always been to stay at low miles > until I can get rid of winter gear, but I thought I would be travel faster > by now. I was sure using all the winter stuff yesterday! The temperature > was 40 when I got up, rose to 60 by 1PM and then !> fell to the low 50s as I crossed Roan Mountain. Present temp is 50. I am > sitting in my sleeping bag, leaning against the shelter wall with my > sleeping pad under me. Daylight is coming on to the point where I can turn > off my headlamp. Time for breakfast.>> The day passed in the usual way: climb up a mountain, climb down a > mountain, repeat, repeat, repeat.