Date: 2007-07-04
From: Springer Mountain,, GA

To: Mt. Katahdin
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!! Shanandoah National Park Mile 855 miles Passing the 800 mile mark felt more freeing than I had imagined. I have never thought that I couldn't do this trail, however, something about getting to that point has made the idea of finishing the trail more concrete. My body is in hiking mode. Hiking 14 miles (or longer) a day used to seem daunting. Now it is just a matter of course. My plan is to continue hiking North. As October approaches, I may skip up to Maine, hike Katadin (the end of the trail) and then head South to complete any remaining segment. Baxter State Park closes on Oct. 15th. I want to have completed the BIG climb up Mt. Katadin by then.So this is my week of animal stories. I saw my first bear while riding in a truck on the Blue Ridge Parkway heading to a trail entrance. I saw another bear day before yesterday while hiking. It was HUGE! It scurried away as soon as it saw me. I didn't have time to take a picture. I also saw the following animals this week: mice, a skunk, a raccoon, a four foot long rattle snake and a fox. Of these animals it was the raccoon that was most troublesome. Last weekend my friend Rosie came to hike with me. She reserved a room in the Shanandoah National Park at the Skyland Lodge for two nights...yes I said to hike with me, not to camp out!!. It was perfect. We hiked during the day and had restful evenings to hang out and talk....well.....so much for the restful evenings. Before arriving at the lodge I had stopped at grocery store to resupply for the week--$80 worth. I had also bought a new food bag as a pesky mice had chewed a hole through my tent and into my food bag the week before. Before going to sleep, Rosie and I packaged the newly bought food neatly in ziplock bags as I usually do. Nothing was opened as the food was just purchased, i. e. no smelly stuff. Rosie and I opened the door to our second floor balcony before going to sleep around midnight. At 3:00 AM I heard a lot of noise outside. I hurriedly and groggily went out to see what was happening. I thought there might be a bear down below. Much to my surprise I saw a giant raccoon devouring the food from my food bag which it has ripped apart. When it saw me it ran down the length of the balconies before hopping down to the ground (MY FOOD BAG STILL IN IT'S MOUTH!) and dashing off into the woods. Pieces of food trailed the escaping raccoon -- tuna juice drippings, poptart crumbs, chunks of nabs, splotches of peanut butter carpeted the balcony while baggies of other items littered the lawn. My food ruined... gone! The eeire part of this story is that the raccoon had to come up to our balcony and then about 15 feet into our rooom to get the food bag! The picutre of Blue, above, is on evening when Blue, Caboosie and I decided to stop on the first flat place we saw. The three of us continue to hike together though sometimes we get separated for a day or two before catching up again. Thanks to cellphones we keep in touch.Jolly (aka Zack, my son) and I finally caught up with one another for a day in Daleville, VA. He and Christie and I will meet sometime in the next week while in the Shanandoah Valley. Jolly has got to teach me a better knot to use for my new hammock. This morning when I awakened I was less than an inch from the ground as my knot had come partially loose during the night! Hope all of you are well. I wish all of you could see some of the many beautiful sights I am seeing along this journey. More pictures will be uploaded soon. To see them just click on Photos on the same page as the journal entry.