Date: 2018-06-27
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Sunset Field Parking Lot
Miles today: 7.6
Weather: overcast clouds

I had a great night of sleep here at Stanimals. This hostel is top notch!  Clean bed linens, fresh towels, and honor system shopping. I love it! Our shuttle driver today was Gary. Gary is a 63 year old retired police officer. He¢s also a hiker. He took us back to our blue blaze where we left off yesterday, so we took the blue blaze back to the trail and started hiking north.  Once we hit the real trail our hike started going UP. I took the lead. Not far up I nearly stepped on a baby snake. I had myself convinced it was a baby rattler so I followed it until Hugs got there. I even did some video. Hugs gave it a close examination, and It was not a rattler at all. I was a little disappointed because I really want to see a rattler and a copperhead. With that, I can say I saw all of the dangerous animals on my hike. As of now I¢ve only seen bears.  I did get lucky and see another Hooded Oriole. I haven¢t seen one of those since Erwin. Once again he was too fast for a photo, but I knew better than to chase him this time.  I continued UP. The grade wasn¢t too bad but I was sweating. UP & UP for 2 hours to Cornelius Creek Shelter. 3700ft elevation!  I left our lunch break first. I love hiking with my tramily, but I also enjoy hiking alone. It gives me time to think. Today I was thinking a lot about my dad. He loved nature, the earth, the forest, animals, even a good thunderstorm.  His dying wish was that we plant a tree in his memory.  We were living in Florida at the time.(2006). We had a little acreage and dad managed that after he retired. Him and mom lived on our back property. Anyway, after he passed an old friend who owns a nursery picked out a nice sapling. We had a few close friends and family come over for a tree planting. It was placed so mom could see it from her sun room.  She watered the tree every day, and it did well. Two years later we had an offer from the phosphate mines for our home and land. Mom and myself were missing Galesburg friends and family, so we sold and moved back home. But, we knew the mines would excavate our land and we didn¢t want dad¢s tree taken out. We also knew we couldn¢t safely haul it to Illinois. So, to make a long story short our very dear friend Brenda Pelton handled it all. She moved dads tree to her family property right there  in Florida. She said she prayed to God for dad¢s tree. First, it was the wrong time of year to be transplanting, and she knew it was special to us. On February 16 this year which is dads birthday and Larry Pelton¢s(her husband) birthday she sent me a photo. I can¢t believe she¢s taken care of dads tree for 10 years already! Dads tree is today¢s photo of the day.  The last couple of miles were nice. I saw a big red headed woodpecker. He wasn¢t pecking at the time, but he was on a fallen tree using his beak to move little branches. He was working hard until he saw me and flew away.  I saw one more snake before I popped out of the woods to a road crossing. I decided to wait for Hugs and Big Kahuna there. After about 20 minutes I got a text that Hugs was not feeling well. She and Big Kahuna had take a blue blaze to a parking lot not far from where I was. Today is the day Papa Big Swig is picking me up for our planned family event, so he was close by. He and my granddaughter Charley Faye drove over to pick us up.  I¢ll be off trail until July 1st. This is my last scheduled time off trail. I do have a plan, and I can make Katahdin on time. I¢m determined!  I¢ll journal a little something every day while I¢m off trail Until Next Time Blue Raccoon (2018)Where¢s your faith?