Date: 2006-04-01
From: Tofurky's house, Hot Springs, NC

To: Hog Back Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: light rain

I want to take a moment to thank Snake for giving me and probably Bliss, Chunky, Swansons and Pebbles the most memorable night yet last night.It was about 3AM when all of us awoke to a strange gruffing noise or maybe a curse of some sort. Then everything fell silent again and for a good ten seconds or so we all lay in the darkness trying to decipher the strange noise. Then, suddenly, Snake was up and yelling, his voice truly sounded terrified. I pictured a black bear straddling him in the darkness, but he yelled out, "There's a mouse inside my sleeping bag!", and he was up and trying to run away, while still in his bag, which led him to fall over Swansons and all of us which prompted us to quickly grab our headlamps to know what horrible thing could be going on. Alot of crazy scenes went through my head, but when the smoke cleared and the lights were on it was quickly discovered that it was his head lamp which had been inside his bag. We all (including Snake) had a good long laugh. The dog didn't think it was so funny. She had been spooked and ran out of the shelter. All in all it was a very good time at 3 in the morning. Needless to say, we all heard mice scampering about for the rest of the night. I don't blame Snake, I though about it and I think I would have reacted the same way if I thought a mouse was rubbing my legs!We were all very greatful when we woke up the next morning and none of our food had mice evidence around it or in it. No chewing went on.The hike itself today was very cool. The day started out foggy as we climbed up Big Butt Mountain, number two for the trip. I sometimes love coming to a mountain top in the fog. It gives you such a different feeling, but just lacks a very good view.We had another somewhat leisurely day and had an early lunch with Snake and Pebbles. Mmm... tuna and easy cheese on pita bread. Bliss and Chunky are still with us and Cassidy seems to be loving her first backpacking trip. She keeps an eye on all of us as we hike and is always mindful of us when we get too far away.We sat and had a long snack time on a ridge that gave us an awesome view of the mountains. We will be climbing tomorrow. That is always crazy to me, getting views of where you've been or where you're going. The sun was shining, we've been lucky with warm weather and the shelter was less than three miles from that spot so it was a nice relaxing break.Its a full shelter tonight. We have a section hiker,"Leadfoot" and his 9 year old granddaughter here with us tonight. He was glad to have other girls around, hoping to inspire her to do more backpacking.Bliss and Chunky baked us all a cake with their cool pot and we all celebrated being out here one month and pumpin' out over 300 miles. What a cool feeling! We got a great little fire going and hung out enjoying the warmer air and the clear night sky. Thru-hiker's conversations around a campfire are always a little stange-tonight we talked about how scary some children's stories are and the most interesting topic "what to wear to bed!"Another little thing I noticed that kind of separated Pebbles, Snake and me from everyone else here tonight-Bliss spilled chocolate sauce and fire ash on the picnic table and Snake, Swansons and I sat and ate it with our fingers off the dirty table, ash and all. Yeah...we are hungry...it's a good time..Tomorrow might be pushin for 20 so we have a short hike into Erwin on Monday.