Date: 2014-06-06
From: Doyles River Trail/Big Meadows Lodge

To: Hightop Hut
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: overcast clouds

After Linda and I had breakfast in the lodge, I packed up my new Hyperlite backpack Linda had brought me. Less room than my Circuit, but I think I¢m going to like it for the summer. Then we stopped by the camp store for a couple of things and she drove me back to where she picked me up yesterday. It was hard saying goodbye as she and Sarah will be driving to CA on Sunday - a Great Adventure for them, too!Since I¢m now getting into the more touristy areas of the park, I saw many SoBo hikers today, most of them appearing to be day hikers. A couple of miles into my hike I caught up with two NoBo women - I Believe and her friend! Hadn¢t seen them since hiking with Sarah a week ago. They were going into the Loft Mtn Campground camp store and wayside, so I didn¢t see them again today.As I approached Ivy Creek a few miles later, there was Pockets taking a break! She had taken a short day when we were leap frogging a few days ago and made it up with a long day. She said she had seen four bears yesterday - a Momma and two cubs and a single one. I told her I hadn¢t seen any on this trip and it was OK if I didn¢t see any! (Sarah and I saw some in the Shenandoah years ago and I¢ve seen them numerous times on the trail in GA and out west.) Pockets said she was planning on staying at the Hightop Hut tonight, then hike the three miles to US 33 in the morning where she is getting picked up by friends of her Aunt for the weekend. She also offered me her last tuna packet since she was tired of them. I declined since Linda had brought me several.I refilled my water and hiked on. As I was approaching a right bend in the trail I saw a large bear about 20 feet to my left, who turned and looked at me. Since I wasn¢t sure if it was a Momma with her cubs just around the bend, I turned around and walked back down the trail while getting out my camera - don¢t want to get between a Momma and her cubs! I cautiously walked back to get some pictures and the bear slowly wandered over to the trail where it went around the bend, casually munching on leaves and not seeming to care much about me being there. Just then Pockets caught up with me and we took pictures while we waited for the bear to finally wander away from the trail. I¢m guessing it was a male since it was large and there were no cubs around, but what do I know about bears?! Pockets taking pictures of the bearPockets and I leap frogged a bit. I decided to shoot for the Hightop Hut for the night also. The shelters (called huts in SNP) are relatively far apart and have the best campsites, plus a water source and a privy. (Not counting the campsites in the park you pay to stay in.) I took my time and enjoyed the views since I wasn¢t in a hurry. When I got to the shelter, section hikers Gloria and Tom were fixing dinner at the table and Pockets was just finishing setting up her tent. Another guy was in his tent already and I never saw him. Gloria and Tom had already set up their tent, so no one was planning to stay in the shelter. There were still some good tent sites, but I decided to be lazy and sleep in the shelter tonight. While I fixed dinner - tuna on a tortilla - Gloria and Tom decided to gather wood for a fire. The shelter had an awesome firepit, so all the nearby wood was already burned. Pretty soon Gloria and Tom came back with a bunch of wood. They had gone up somewhere beyond the privy, and Gloria had a bunch of sticks in her hands and Tom was dragging a long old moldy semi-rotted tree trunk. Tom had broken his log in half by using the fork in a tree, but couldn¢t break it up any further. I went over to help him, and broke it into smaller sections by grabbing an end and swinging it over my head and down on a large log on the ground. You can see some of my log sections on the edge of the firepit behind the flame in the closeup photo. Gloria and Tom Closeup of logs behind fireShortly after finishing my tuna burrito, I commented to Pockets that it didn¢t sit well in my stomach. It was funny since we had earlier talked about not being fans of the tuna packets. I then had some ramen noodles (without the flavor packet) that I had soaked in cold water, although they didn¢t sit well either.We continued to have a good time chatting and were joined by thru hiker Flash, who came in late and set up in the shelter next to me. The fire died down and Pockets, Gloria and Tom returned to their tents. After Flash finished his dinner, we turned in fairly early, too.When I laid down, I knew it might be a bad night! At 9:00 (or was it 8:00?) I had to get up, go out into the woods and barf up all the ramen noodles. An hour later, up came the rest of the tuna burrito. An hour later, any residuals. An hour later, dry heaves. An hour later, more dry heaves. Interestingly, it was every hour, within 10 minutes of being on the hour. Must be the school teacher in me! :-)Boy, was I struggling to consider it pure joy! On the first dry heave, I started praying that He¢d end it, then realized that a more appropriate prayer was that He¢d get me through it. Which, of course, He did.At midnight or 1:00, I had to hike up to the privy to empty the other end. Approaching it, the privy odor induced a minor dry heave, but no big deal since there was nothing to come out! I repeated this an hour later, then rested until the morning.At first I wanted to blame it on food poisoning from the tuna. But as I thought back on the circumstances, I remembered that I was in the middle of eating my burrito when I broke up the log. I vaguely remember that I actually held the half eaten burrito in my mouth while I swung the log, and finished eating it in between swings!Could have been the norovirus - I think the symptoms are pretty much the same - or it might have been something else. Given the timing and sudden onset, I¢d put a little more probability on it being ¢food¢ poisoning from something I ¢ate¢ from that log. Whatever it was, I decided that I¢d call Linda when I got service in the morning and ask her to come rescue me.