Date: 2005-06-13
From: Knot Maul Shelter

To: Jenkins Shelter
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: light rain

I woke this morning to the sounds of rain on my tent. I had been expecting it since the weather reports in Atkins alerted us to a tropical storm hitting the Florida coast, so I wasn't surprised.I was able to pack up my tent before it hit hard, but barely got my food bag down before the sky just opened up. I managed to stay reasonably dry while I ate my breakfast bars, but since I was hoping to do 19 miles, waiting for the rain to let up was not an option. I had to assume it would last all day, so I hoisted my pack and set off through the rain.In a very short time I was thoroughly drenched. Whatever water hit any part of my body basically headed south, down my shirt, into my pants, down my pants legs and into my socks, and from there, into my boots. Slosh, slosh, slosh.... My, what fun.Still, I really couldn't complain. I¢ve had extraordinary luck with weather over the past month, this being only the third really hard rain I've experienced while hiking. As I've said before, it is such a joy to be out here at all that I'm content to accept whatever the weather man upstairs sends my way. Besides, the AT saying is: "No pain, no rain, no Maine."I began my hike with a warm-up hill of 500 ft., followed by a down as a prelude to the big climb of the day, up 2,200 ft. to the top of Chestnut Ridge. It rained the entire way, tapering off around noon as I finally reached the Chestnut Knob Shelter, 9 miles done and 10 more to go. I ate lunch with Flash, who'd left long after me but hikes at the speed of sound. I do so envy his pace!! I took off my boots and turned them over while I ate, and watched as a cup of water drained from the lining of each boot. That doesn't count the cup of water I wrung out of each sock.By the time we finished lunch, it looked like the sun was trying to come out - a most welcome sight. And that is exactly what it did - turning the morning's shower into the afternoon's sauna!Fortunately, the trail went mostly through heavily wooded areas the rest of the day, and the major uphill had been vanquished before lunch, so my main challenge was to "stay on my game" for another ten miles. A nineteen mile day can be completed in a bit over nine hours if you maintain a 2 mph pace. But if you've got bad knees, and the trail is tough, it can take 13 hours at 1.5 mph.The afternoon trail was not the worst I've seen, but did have a 3.7 mile stretch the guidebook referred to as "limestone cliffs" - read: rocks. Lots of them. Three point seven MILES of them. Long story short - I was happy to be into camp in just under 12 hours.That's 11 hours of hiking, and one hour of breaks, and THAT, my friends, is a long day! But I made it. And, thanks to my early start, I actually managed to beat five other guys who were at Knot Maul shelter with me last night- all in their 20's. Of special note regarding my hike: After more than 500 miles, I finally came face to face with my first timber rattler. And despite his being rather better armed than me, I faced him down and vanquished him from the trail! Ok, here's how it went:I was hiking along minding my own business, ready for lunch and hoping I hadn't missed the shelter I was looking for, since the fog and mist were still pretty heavy. The trail was following an old farm road with heavy undergrowth on both sides of the trail. Suddenly, as I looked to where my next couple of feet would have to go to avoid stumbling on a rock, I saw what I first took as a black stick, but quickly noticed that it was moving right into my path!I think we saw each other at about the same time and were equally surprised. I sort of felt that I had the right-of-way, since he wasn't in a cross walk or anything, but when he reared back and coiled his body for a strike, I shifted into reverse with impressive alacrity, especially given my knee situation.So there we were, and it was clearly a showdown. Only it wasn't really a fair fight since he was armed and I wasn't. On the other hand, I had hands and arms, and I could throw things at him - from a safe distance, of course. Which is what I proceeded to do. Of course, I warned him first, and I asked him politely to move, but he wouldn't do it. It sort of became a territorial imperative on both sides: I couldn't get past him, as he was in the middle of a road that was only six feet wide, and he was a good 3 1/2 feet long. The snake, however, seemed to feel that it was his road and he had no intention of moving for some darn hiker trash who smelled really bad.Given no other viable alternative, I began pitching relatively non-lethal objects in his direction, hoping he would get the message and move along. I certainly didn't want to actually hurt him, as that wouldn't be right. Occasionally, if my aim was good, he would issue a pretty impressive open mouth strike at the offending object. But no movement toward accommodation. So I upped the ante - the size of the objects, including sticks and stones and clods of mud. Before long, it occurred to me that my efforts were having a potentially negative impact on my prospects for victory. As the pile of objects began to pile up around the snake, it was almost like I was building a fortress for his protection! This was not going well, and I was clearly going to be late for lunch.With one last effort, as I was running out of ammunition, I hurled a final clod of mud and grass from the side of the road, and scored a direct hit, and was rewarded with another impressive strike. But I guess it didn't taste that good to him, as he finally gave up and began moving to the side of the road.Cautiously, I approached the pile of objects surrounding the site of the siege and watched to be sure it wasn't a ploy designed to lure me close enough for a counter-attack, but he was well and truly gone.I climbed over the debris of my latest victory and proceeded up the trail.Today's hike is dedicated to whoever came up with "wicking" fabrics. By the time I got to the shelter, most of my clothes - except for my shoes and socks had dried out!Stay tuned, Longhaul