Date: 2004-03-25
From: Jerry Cabin Shelter

To: Along the trail
Miles today: 19.3

Day 26, March 25, 2004Phew! That was tough. Enough is enough so I called it quits 4.6 miles from the last shelter. I knew it would be a night to tent since the next shelter is 6 miles from this spot all uphill. Plan to get up at 5:30 in the morning and be on the trail by 6. Only have 16 miles tomorrow so I will get to the shelter early to relax. That shelter is only 5 miles to the town of Erwin so that day will be a cakewalk. The walk today did not have a lot of views but it did have a lot of gravestones along the trail. The oldest of them lived to be 100, the youngest only 13. At my age of 19 it was tough looking at the gravestone for the 13 year old. Had he fallen in love yet? Did he have a chance to follow his dream? Did he get a chance to have a group of friends that would support him? These questions and more ran through my head and was glad to still be alive, but also realized life is not something to take for granted. I know that life is precious, but that tombstone hit hard and I thought a lot about that for the rest of the day. For lunch I sat in front of this massive black rock waterfall. Watched the water glide over the rough edges with ease - the power and force of the water gushing over logs and around mounds of earth. Life is good.Oh wow, that was a coyote yell in stereo! The first one came from the northwest and the other replied from the east... I¢m going to get under my tarp now. This is my first night sleeping all alone away from people. I was fine till now, oh man... I think I just heard footsteps... Those yells were not far. This is really spooky. I peed on a rock just outside my tarp so I hope it gets a whiff of human scent and is spooked off. Just hope that sleep comes quick and morning comes quicker. Not much else eventful happened¢¦ Oh yeah I ran out of toilet paper today so that could pose an interesting situation giving I¢m a day and a half away from town :-) The yells are more distant now so I guess I scared ¢em off. Don¢t know if they were wolves or coyotes. Should have a great view in the morning ¢ don¢t think I will reach the bald before sunrise, but it will be a good show for sure. Goodnight all....It¢s 12 in the morning and I will give you an update since I¢m getting tiny bits of sleep. During one of those times I was sleeping, I dreamed that another hiker came along and set up his hammock. I did not know him but he came over to say hi anyways. He said that there had been a skunk sleeping right outside my tarp. Then he went on to say as soon as he set up the hammock it went to try to get food from him till he chased it off. Now at that moment I felt pressure on my right arm and that part of my head - that skunk was laying on me! Now get this, I¢m in my mummy style sleeping bag so I can¢t see it, but I can sure feel it. Can't yell so I just start breathing real hard real fast. That seems to do the trick and I wake up. It¢s hard to tell what is a dream and what is not out here. It could have easily happened. Burn has warned me about a skunk just wandering in this tarp of mine, so I can thank him for the thought that caused the nightmare. Also the wind is blowing so it¢s rustling the leaves outside to sound like little feet moving around just above my head. On top of that every time the wind blows, a tree rubs against another tree and makes this real eerie screeching sound. This all explains the lack of sleep. The coyotes can still be heard in the distance. Off to sleep again, and again... Every question has an answer, it¢s only a question of time