Date: 2012-06-14
From: Wautaga Lake

To: piped spring site before Iron Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: broken clouds

7:15 am-Near Watauga lakeI am enjoying a peaceful morning. Last night, there was a big noise. A bear noise. A I should have realized bear poop in front of the campsite means real bear lives here. It was a scary noise, a walking, breathing noise. The only thing I could think to do was clap my hands....the Rowlett "quiet" clap...which then was really funny. The bear did not clap back. So the teacher in me does not care that I am camping in a tent in Tennessee, the teacher decided the bear is making too much noise and then clapped like I am in the multipurpose room. Teachers are fearless but hikers are not!....it could have been the tylanol pm but at one point I was dreaming it was a panda but my brain was telling me it couldn't be....all while doing the clap. After that, I slept ok. The wind picked up over night and added to my thoughts of branches dropping on my head in the night....oh the worries of the real world. 10:42 am-Going UpMy body is working all right, though almost every step is hard. I am going straight up a ridge line. I thought that I was near the shelter last night, however is was over .5 miles away. The signs were wrong. I do have to say the trail is quite pleasant this morning. I stopped by the shelter and made some coffee. I also filtered some water. Some thru hikers were there getting ready to go. I am very happy to be in this world again and feel much different than I did when i came out here the first time. 7:18 pm Camped!My body hurts! I have come around 11 or so miles today. It seems like it takes me so long to get somewhere. I have made sure to eat 100 calories an hour. It has gotten my pack weight down, but i feel like it isn't going to be enough. I am almost done with all of the bars I brought. I will need to stop in the next town to pick up some calories. I stopped short of the shelter tonight. There is a large group going through that I keep leap frogging with. They have several dogs to hike with them. That is really cool. I would love to see Rambo out here! This campsite has a spring just down a small trail rather than the steep trails like in the Shennies, I am here all alone, but it is obvious by the trash all around that a large group of people were here recently. I picked up best I could. I don't understand why people go into the woods and trash it. Part of the whole point is to get away form the trash in our environment. You can always tell when you come to a road crossing by the trash that is on the trail in the preceding mile. I startled a deer while walking and saw a few frogs. One guy said the girl behind me stepped over a 4-5 foot copperhead embedded in a log right after me, but I did not see it. I do remember stepping over the log...I need more fat on my bones. My shoulders and hips are really bruised. The outer skin becomes numb but the inner bone hurts. My insides are doing ok. The pain from hiking is overcoming any lower right quadrant issue at the moment. I do not like my new boots. My feet hurt for the first time since I have started hiking. Pain free feet was always one thing I could count on. However, all of these things remind me I am alive and at peace.