Date: 2004-06-13
From: Thomas Knob Shelter

To: Hurricane Shelter
Miles today: 15.6

When you're researching the Appalachian Trail, you often fail to hear about the threats or annoyances that you either always contend with, or fear about having to contend with. This lack of information can draw the unwary researcher to the conclusion that the AT is naught but a whimsical romp through storybook forests. I am here to set you straight. This, dear readers, is the Low Down. This is the information you *don't* hear.The first category is - Serious Threats (all of which have impeded the journeys of hikers this year - some to the point of effectively ending thru-hikes): - Millipedes (which like to crawl into your clothing and then bite when the clothing's owner has the audacity to put on said clothing). - Brown recluse spiders (the skin around the bite actually dies, neccesitating serious medical treatment and skin grafts). - Timber rattle snakes (you know what rattle snakes do). - Giardia (from drinking poorly-treated water - basically an attack of the runs so dire and so lengthy - that it is potentially fatal). - Bone fractures (due to accident, or to repeat stress on abused feet or legs). - Shin splints (a painful muscular tug of war). The following haven't got anyone off the trail this year (that I've heard, anyway), but they belong in this category of serious threats. - Bears (they have killed in the Smokeys before, and they have mauled. in less serious appearances, they'll simply steal your food). - Lightning strikes (what a way to go). - Wild boars (I don't even want to think about what these guys could do, so I'm going to go onto thre next section).-----Those above are the Baddies. Now we have the Physical Aggravations - which a hiker has to contend with the possibility of confronting on a daily basis: - Black flies (they like me). - Poison ivy (I get neat seepy blisters from this that leave nickle-sized scars on my legs). - Poison oak (or is it from this?). - Chiggers (these little cuties lay eggs in you!). - No-seeums (where are they?) - Mosquitos (we're gonna be heading deeper into their territory soon). - Spider bites (they like to do their nastiness when you're asleep in a shelter. or maybe when you've put on sandals at the end of the day. yeah, they love *my* ankles. and, oh - note that the bite of the brown recluse, or "fiddleback" spider - and I've seen em out here - is in the above more serious category). - Tics (which, like chiggers, like to burrow in your skin and feast away. They can be upgraded to a more serious concern if they happen to be carriers of Lyme's Disease which requires medical attention. If medical attention is not given, then the effects can be far-reaching and serious). - Rocks and roots that knock you down, leaving you addled, confused, and fumbling for the first aid bag.-----Now with that all taken care of, let's just discuss Annoyances. These may not physically damage you, but they may inspire you to curse like a sailor. - Spider webs (on the way into Hot Springs NC for instance, I counted 120 webs that I broke with my face. then I stopped counting). - Shelter mice (which'll tear into your packs, or shred clothing items to use for their nests). - Snoring sheltermates (ear plugs sometimes just won't work against this particular annoyance). - Unreasonably loud sheltermates at very late or very early hours when other hikers are sleeping (more on this one tomorrow). - Full privys (ew...). - The utter absence of privys (gr). - The reek of one's pack, sleeping bag or own body (isn't it supposed to get easier to bear or something? Someday?). - Eye floaty bugs (they float and hover in hoards a maddening centimeter from your eyeballs). - "Circlers" (some biting fly that develops a fascination with your head. they'll drone away at you endlessly, flying around your head like you're king kong, and they're the miniature fighter planes coming to git ya. they follow you for a long, long time).- "Wingfoot" (tho 95% of the time he's spot on, the author of the Thru-Hiker's Handbook is still capable of sometimes getting messy with the facts). - Chafing (Gold Bond powder. there is a reason why many male hikers - including myself - carry this product. this is as far as I am going to go with this subject)- Scree (it's the organic matter that collects inside your boots as you hike along during the day, wearing at your socks and staining them, and adds to the already-plentiful sources of odour to be found in the boot region).-----This all said, I wish to convey the fact that the 13th of June on the Appalachian Trail was about none of the above, and was pretty much all concerned with awe and appreciation of our glorious storybook surroundings.Were you starting to think that maybe I was going to tell you the 13th of June was a horrible day?Silly reader!The morning was foggy... Unusual-feeling somehow. I guess part of it was due to the fact that the cloaking grey mists weren't fog. We were up at the mile mark on the rolling expanse of Virginia's tallest mountain, and we woke up in the clouds.We'd gone only a short distance through the mysterious-feeling morning when we went through a forest of rhododendron plants which were in bloom. Their bright pink petals were littering the trail.Soon after this we came across this bouldery rocky bluff we had to take a break to climb. Not far up, at the highest point, we realized that there was actually a cliff reaching far down into the mists.Though the view was often only of swirling light grey cloud, it was nervertheless mesmerizing. And occasionally we'd get a tantaizing view of what laid below us... Partial silhouettes of other mountains would appear for moments only to be lost again.And on the mountaintop, the mists would run through the blooming rhododendrons and the strange fairyland rocks to be found on that mountain. "Garden of Earthly Delights," we agreed. And certainly not for the last time that day, I wished that we still had the heavy Nikon with us.Cuz here I am, fumbling with words, when one look at a picture could make you say, "ahhhh, I gitcha." We did have a disposable cam with us, but we were saving the only picture.We hiked on.We were trudging through some foggy (I'll use that word for convenience but you and me both know it's really clouds. Cool?), flatter expanse of mountain top, when I noticed their shapes some seventy-odd yards off to the left.Wild ponies.We gaped.They grazed.Soon, we slowly moved into their midst.Thoughts of hiking completely left our minds.They continued to graze, though a couple moved with lazy wariness a number of meters (I'll alternate between metric and imperial in a sad attempt to pacify the varying readers of this journal) back to acomodate our intrusion into their ranks.They were beautiful creatures. Now Moxie is going to write for a while...------Aah, the ponies. I'd been looking forward to them for so long. We had been tittering about feral ponies all week. I had expected them to be skittish and reclusive creatures. They were not the least bit so. We approached them cautiously, with a bag of dried apricots in our hands, and once we were within a few yards, one by one they closed in. They were eating apricots right out of our hands. The others got the idea, and they closed in too. I found myself surrounded on all sides by greedy, pushing ponies! I began to get a little nervous, to be honest. Whoa was able to get them to move back simply by stretching up his arms and "becoming big" as he put it... I dropped a trail of apricots and moved out of pummeling reach. Once they determined there was no more food to be eaten, the ponies returned to their pony-doings and we sat for a long while to watch them. Most of the adults calmly grazed while the adolescents jumped on each other and chased around. Much like a family picnic. They were colored in every kind of fashion, and we named some accordingly.After a long time of studying pony sociology, we decided to move on. We climbed down the hill only to find another pony herd. They were standing right on the trail. Out of treats, we were slightly less popular than before, but they still came up to give us a good sniff down. After a while, we walked on and sighed, as our time with the ponies was finished. But lo and behold, more ponies! Our opportunies for observation seemed endless. All in all, we passed four groups and probably 40 ponies. I'm surprised we made as many miles as we did. We are now experts on the dietary likes and dislikes of the appalachian feral mountain pony:likes:Grass (staple)Apricots!Pop tarts (in moderation)Backpack shoulder straps (not recommended)dislikes:Jelly BelliesHandful of yellow flowersWe really didn't feed them too much of the pop tarts. But they were demanding, I tell you.-moxie