Date: 2008-06-23
From: Wayah Gap

To: Big Spring Shelter
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: clear sky

My greatest challenge today has been Roo. Seems hanging out with her country cousins for a couple weeks has given her some ideas. Last night I called her into the tent at bedtime. She walked in one side of the tent and right back out the other. We got her back inside and she stood there glaring at me. Glaring! Did you know dogs could glare? She used to love curling up in the tent to go to sleep. It seems that her country cousins have told her that real dogs sleep outside at night. Well that wasn't happening, especially with a bear warning sign nearby. As soon as she finally lay down her eyes shut and she was sound asleep.Then today on the trail was a real challenge. Suddenly she has completely forgotten how to heel. I assume she got to walk however and wherever she wanted for those two weeks. And that's fair enough, it's a safe environment. But here on the trail she must heel. We fought about it all day. I let her walk some with Tigger just because I was exhausted from the battle. She fought Tigger just as hard. In the afternoon she began to fall back in line...but she wasn't happy about it.At one point Tigger was just ahead of us. I had let Roo run back and forth for awhile until we passed a snake that Tigger hadn't seen. I decided to keep her in heel.Suddenly I heard Tigger just around the curve ahead say...'Put her on leash!'That could mean all sorts of things. Last time she hollered that back at us there was a group of 16 teenagers coming our way. Then I hear...'One and a half..'Snake? I'd just seen a snake about that size.'Cute, but...'Cute? Maybe a little kid hiking with parents..'Momma bear's gotta be close!'OOOHHH! A bear. A baby bear. Yikes!About that time Tigger come back at us around the bend, eyes wide and a little flushed saying 'I think hiking as a group would be a real good idea.''SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA TO US!' (Making lots of noise)'DO YOU WANT MY BEAR SPRAY?' (Owl)'No, it's just a baby.'About that time Roo got a whiff of it. She didn't know what it was, but she sure wanted to find out. She started pulling on her leash and wiggling around. She started making a noise between and whine and a howl. We actually encouraged the loud dog noise.We started walking on and saw no sign of where he had gone. After a short distance Roo began to calm down. We figure she'd lost his scent. Good. That was more than enough excitement for all of us. We just weren't thrilled to have seen him within three miles of our planned stop for the night.When we arrived at the shelter we were very glad to see bear cables for hanging our food. The shelter is old and dark looking, but there are plenty of campsites.I can't remember exactly where we were a few weeks ago when we met a young man on the trail. He was on a day hike with a girl. He mentioned that he was starting his thru hike in just a few weeks. He walked into the campsite tonight just after us! Took me a few minutes to figure out why he looked so familiar, but sure enough, it was him. Amazing.Tomorrow we cross the peak of Mt Albert. We've heard a lot about it, now we get to see for ourselves. The adventure continues.Rabbit, Owl and RooJoshua 1:9