Date: 2006-06-17
From: Peter's Mountain Shelter

To: Campsite outside Ravsch Gap Shelter
Miles today: 17.5

To start off, I would just like to say that I am never taking over a week off from this trail again. I am hurting! My body is in shock right now. It had finally relaxed, probably thinking we were done with the crazy amounts of walking. Now, my body is deeply troubled that we have started again. Sitting in a recliner for five days doing no more exercise than pushing the buttons on the controller can really give your muscles the wrong impresson. Hopefully, tomorrow we'll be feeling back in trail shape.Despite the achy muscles, today was a pretty great day of hiking. The rocks suck, but the terrain was relatively flat and steady. We had a few early risers in the shelter this morning which led Swansons and I to be up and out by 6 AM. We were grateful for a nice early start, but the waking up part stinks.While we hiked early this morning, (not quite awake yet) I had a bit of a start that woke me up, the same way six cups of coffee might. I was walking out in front of Swansons when suddenly a bush to my right seemed to come alive. The shaking of the bush alone stopped me in my tracks..but when a small creature came leaping out of it towards me, I ran back down the trail towards a startled Swansons. Yes, I ran.   But it was chasing me. Turned out it was only a grouse protecting its nest, but still...when an animal leaps out of a bush and runs at me, I run. No questions asked. It was way too early to fight a bird. So, Swansons had a good laugh at my expense. A grouse is basically the size of a chicken, so I'm not exactly proud to admit I ran. But, oh well, I was scared!   Or startled!But, the fun didn't end with the chicken attack this morning. It never ends at just one incident. Later on that morning after an early lunch I was hiking behind Nifty who we met last night. Suddenly, I looked up and she was standing in the middle of the trail, staring at the ground. When she heard me behind her she looked back and said " I have a problem. Do you know how to get snakes to move?" Sure enough, I looked around her and there in the trail lay a very decent sized rattlesnake. He allowed no room for passing. We decided going around him would be good, but there were alot of hikers coming up behind us and we didn't want them stumbling upon him in a bad way. So, we tried moving him, to no avail. He was incredibly stubborn. It was an interesting scene. There was a day hiker on one side of him standing way back, then there was Swansons with a giant branch trying to coax the snake into leaving and myself, Nifty and Energizer Bunny hiding behind him yelling out words of encouragement. But he would not rattle and he refused to move much more than an inch. So, around we went, leaving him to be another hiker's problem, but hopefully not.But, if one snake wasn't enough...we got to the shelter and found Master Plan and Nifty sitting on the shelter floor next to a 2 foot rat snake who was making her way out. We watched her go only to see her met by a much larger rat snake on the trail. We watched horrified as he bit our snake friend. "He's eating her!" I yelled. But, no, we got a good lesson on snake sex ed for the next 10 minutes. Some crazy stuff. We thought we had seen it all until another rat snake appeared as our other two were mating. They were everywhere. And they all wanted to be in the shelter. Hence, why we are tenting by the stream now. I and everyone else had had enough wildlife for one day.Tomorrow we get under a thousand miles left on the trail. On to Katahdin. So we are stoked about that. Now, if only the sun would go down, because it's 8 o'clock and I'm incredibly tired, but no one will turn out the lights!