Date: 2004-05-05
From: wilson creek shelter

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter
Miles today: 23.6
Weather: few clouds

my, today was an e-ticket ride.4:40am hippie wakes me up and says she heard a bear outside. i listen, hear nothing, and see all the food bags are accounted for. i and the other guys in the shelter rollover and go back to bed, while hippie goes out back to pee. her headlamp catches two glowing eyes in the distance behind the shelter. now she's frightened and comes back and starts her morning routine... making a shitload of noise. i'm like, wtf? i still got 20 minutes of sleep time remaining! i guess the noise was to keep the bear away. all she did was piss me off and i let her know. i later apologized for being so quick-tempered in the morning. bear attacks on food bags or humans are very rare out here. i do not know what chance a bear would have if he got between 4 hungry thru hikersand their food. ;-)we had a 20+ miler today and i got out at 6:45am. it is wonderful hiking in the cool morning air. there is light in the sky but it has not risen high enough to come over the mountains. the air is fresh and the birds have begun singing.i broke the day into segments, the first being 7 miles to bobblet¢s gap shelter where i ate half my lunch at 9:30. on my next 6 miles i hit magic twice. the first while crossing the blue ridge parkway. an RV was parked on the side of the road. as i passed i heard a voice say hello. i stopped and talked to a nice couple, alan and nancy, for about 15 minutes. they offered me cookies and luna bars before i departed. i gladly accepted. the second trail magic was at bearwallow gap (VA43). grape soda and beer were in the stream near the road. i drank a soda there and packed one for later. at the end of the six miles i ate the second half of my lunch at cove mountain shelter where i also waited for hippie to arrive. ozzy was there and he said he did not see the soda in the stream a few miles back. i could see the sadness on his face, so i gave him the one i was carrying. boy, did he enjoy that.the next three miles hippie and i hiked together to a road crossing where we got off trail to go to a campground store. hippie wanted soda and i wanted some ice cream. we couldn't get a hitch (need cars to pass you for that) and walked the 1.5 miles there. the camp store was dinky and not well stocked. there was soda but no ice cream. i was pissed that I spent the time and walked the miles for nothing. in my fiery state i retraced the 1.5 back to the trail and started the last 4 miles to the shelter.emotion can give you gobs of energy. the first two miles were uphill and i maintained a constant 3 mph pace. i was fuming and angry at myself for wasting such precious time and energy for nothing on a 20 mile day. when i got to the shelter i popped of my shoes and went to the stream. i found a pool and submerged my knees and feet. it was cold and felt great. i breathed a sigh of relief and let my anger go. hippie arrived a short time later and tried to comfort me a bit more before dinner.it was a long day with some fun magic and a lesson about expectations. holding on to an expectation keeps you out of the moment. once i started comparing the ice cream-less camp store to my expectation of ice cream, i ran into trouble and just reacted with anger at the inconvenience.sleeping at this three-level trump tower style shelter tonight are: hoplight, pooner, alabama, hippie, and rockhound.p.s. i've been trying to catch up to wildcat, but today he changed his plans which totally throws off my plans to intercept him at matt¢s creek shelter. i may have to pass him while he's in glasgow in order to keep my traildays plans intact.