Date: 2014-05-21
From: Washington Monument State Park

To: Washigton Monument State Park
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Wild Life I have noticed that although I give detailed descriptions of people and trail stops (perhaps too much detail) I am skimming over updates of my actual hiking. That is because the actual hiking can be exceptionally tedious. There is only so much I can say about picking up my feet and putting them down before both you, and I, dear Reader, will be fast asleep. But, perhaps I am too hasty in my dismissal. Although most hiking days are beginning to blend together in a haze of leafy green memory there see some stand out points I have failed to mention:I have seen a bear! Only one. It was across a stream as I hiked into Catawba with Geared Up, Wingin' It, Kristo and Prom Queen. I think it was quite young because it was smallish, and it didn't stick around long, so I couldn't snap a picture. Aside from that solo bear I seem to have missed all the bear sightings. Somehow I managed to get through the Shenandoahs without encountering a single one. I hold out hope that New Jersey will raise my count.My snake count, however, is sadly prosperous. I am up to the double digits... And I still shriek and dance every time I see one. The day I hiked into Bears Den Hostel I saw 6: 4 black snakes, 1 Copperhead and 1 Timber Rattler. I have also seen countless bunnies, lizards, toads, mice, rats, chipmunks, and squirrels. I cams across my first black widow spider in a privy last week and both saw and smelled a very inquisitive skunk. The most memorable animal sighting, though, was with Lady Moose as we slacked from Bears Den to Harpers Ferry.We stopped for a snack at the last shelter before town and were surprised to find the place in disarray. There was a backpack lounging on the shelter's porch and a great deal of food, a stove, and a half eaten meal (with the fork still in the rice) strewn across the picnic table. It looked like someone had gotten up in the middle of dinner and just left. There was also a machete stuck into the side of a log next to the fire pit and a brand new hammer lying on the picnic table bench. Odd, right?Well, it would seem both Moose and I have over-active imaginations because we both immediately thought, "Oh Heck, someone has died here and we're about to find the body." And of course we couldn't leave until we'd checked around the place to make sure there was no corpse. Finally the only place left to look was the privy, which we decided to do together. Each of us armed with one of Moose's walking sticks we tip toed to the door (why we were so stealthy I have no clue) and exchanged a last look before I reached for the handle. I gotta say: I was seriously expecting to find a dead guy there, keeled over from some sudden heart attack. I flung open the door real fast and a black snake lifted it's head from where it sat on top of the toilet seat. I screamed. Which of course scared the dickens out of Moose, who screamed too. It took a second for her to realize what I was screaming about, at which point I was halfway back to the shelter twitching with fear. She calmed down immediately and went in to take pictures. Apparently the snake wasn't too fond of that because it slithered into the privy hole to get away from her. This has led to a recurring nightmare for me: that I will sit down on a privy seat only to have to bounce back up when something bites my butt. I have it at least once a week and as a reaction have found myself inspecting privies in manner that I am sure is detrimental to my health. I'm positive the it is safer to poop in the woods. As to "flora finds" out here, I am sadly unschooled in plant life, so it's difficult for me to have much to say on this topic aside from to note how much poison ivy I get to walk through everyday. So far I haven't reacted to it, but I'm sure, soon there will be a post entitled "Itchy Itchy Itchy!"