Date: 2011-05-31
From: Brown Mountain Shelter

To: Harper's Creek Shelter
Miles today: 30.3
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up feeling refreshed with a great night's sleep and also found my first tick, which had inhabited my left shoulder. After a simple tick removal operation and a hasty breakfast, I was off to tackle the 3000' beast. The climb wasn't as bad as I had made it out to be in my mind. I had a new spring in my step since I had created an itinerary to meet up with Serena and mum on time. Half-way up the first climb I crossed a major highway where I found a sack of chips and grabbed a bag of Doritos for later. I was in such a hurry that I walked right past a water spring 8 miles in, which was a mistake as I ran out a few miles later. I was reasonably well hydrated, so this wasn't detrimental, just merely annoying.I had lunch at a spring which I happened upon and I rehydrated and refilled. I managed to average a solid 3 mph pace for the entire day, which I was rather proud of, considering the mileage. Today seemed to be much more humid than yesterday, but manageable all the same. I didn't have much of an appetite today; I'm not sure why, but that will probably catch up to me. I passed 5 or 6 people throughout the day, none of which I recognized. I happened upon my second rattlesnake on the trail, who was rather disgruntled to have been interruped by my presence. The snake was standing his ground and didn't want to move from the trail, so I took the liberty to move himself in case some of the people i passed were to kill him. Immediately after I left the rattlesnake, I was attacked by a large chicken-sized pile of angry feathers. It must have been a quail or a pheasant. My interests and expertise lies solely in cold-blooded creepy crawlies, not feathered friends. So this pile of feathers came flying out of the brush at me, about chest high. I did the matrix moves and barely avoided collision. It was the last thing I expected, so it took me a few seconds to regain myself after being scared senseless. I drew the conclusion that the poor bird must have been protecting its wee ones, which were probably close by. Unfortunately, the bird would not let me travel in either direction down the trail for quite some time. After about 5 minutes of these nonsensical games, I managed to sneak past to a shelter to fill up some water.The 3000' climb I did this morning had its counterpart of a 3000' descent nicknamed "The Priest". I would only wish this climb on one of my worst enemies, and was overjoyed to be descending, not ascending The Priest. To put a close on my ridiculously long day, I had one last 1000' climb, which I slowly and painfully managed to pull myself up. My right knee has started to become bothersome again. The last shelter was well worth the effort. It was a prime location in front of an awesome mountain stream. I managed to get in before dark and was rather pleased to have caught up with Mingo, the artist formerly known as "Hooker", and we got to catch up a bit. I cooked dinner and since the insects were so bad, I broke one of the cardinal rules and ate dinner inside my tent (gasp!). I wasn't able to finish my entire dinner, so it will make a good breakfast.This was my first 30+ mile day and my longest mileage day to date!!! Another early start tomorrow, so early to bed!