Date: 2008-04-18
From: Roaring Fork Shelter

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: scattered clouds

What a wild night! It all starting at about 9:00, while it was still light. One of the hikers, from now on known as "Bear Bait" yells "Bear, $%&@, I see a bear." As I'm writing in my journal, I think no big deal, since bear sightings in Aspen are a pretty common occurrence. For these guys, it is their first sighting. They start to bang on the shelter rook, yelling, making enough noise to wake the dead. At first, the bear turns tail and heads back out of sight.   Not for long. I'm sure he's well adept at handling crazy hikers. He begins to circle the shelter checking out where all the food bags are hanging. Six bags are all attached to one make-shift rope and pretty close to a tree trunk. My ¢froggie¢ food bag is hung behind the shelter up and away from a tree, but on a minimal branch. Now everyone is saying, ¢lets circle the wagons!¢. So they want us and another girl "Snowplow" and guy "Caviler" to come up and sleep in the shelter. Here we go again, seven sardines (oops might have picked a better analogy. Do bears like sardines?). All of us are facing out towards the front where the guys are building a huge fire. I've decided the best thing is to go to bed. For the next three hours, it is a running commentary of bear sightings, how he's working to get the food bags. Bears do climb trees. Finally, about 12:00, they all decide to try and get some sleep which meant a very little sleep. At 2:00, I suddenly awoke, the fire was out and I did see Mr. Bear looking at me in the shelter. Maybe with the thought of coming in for a closer look? He was much blacker and more fuzzy than our Colorado bears, and probably a yearling or two year old, weighing 100 to 120 pounds. I said, "Go away bear." and got up to restart the fire. Next morning we surveyed the losses. Only one of the others¢ food bags was nabbed. My froggie bag got eaten by the bear! We never found a trace of our bag. Of course, like we were told, I put any smelling related items in the bag as well as food, stove, pots, dishes, all personal items, pills, even my steri-pen. So we were faced with no food -- only the clothes, bedding and our pack which were tossed on top of the shelter. Wow did my pack get lighter! Mando and I were faced with what to do. Everyone offered food. Corena fixed us each an instant oatmeal. Bear Bate gave me some poptarts and banana chips. Someone else gave me 6 cheese crackers. It as decided that Mando would hike back two miles to Max Patch and try to hitch a ride to Hot Springs. Ravon was going to hike eighteen miles north to Hot Springs. I'd done a sixteen mile day, why not? More of a concern was purified water. Someone had a steripen so I started with 2 1/2 liters and off I went by 8:00 am. There were two good size mountains to go over, Walnut and Bluff. It was our hottest day so far. Lots of wild flowers and birds, but my focus was on miles. I was able to camel up on water when I caught up with one of my fellow hikers. Just as I was contemplating eating my poptart for lunch, trail magic appeared. At Garenflow Gap, there was a green tubby filled with large zip lock bags. Each had a small water bottle, granola bar, 6 cheddar cheese crackers, small candy, small M&M and a snickers. All from the "Blessing Princess". She even printed up laminated cards with a beautiful message. It was just what I and many of my fellow hikers needed. You may be wondering what happened to ¢Mando¢ aka Sandy. He hiked two miles to Max Patch. Several people turned him down for a ride, but a young kid with a large lab dog said sure I'll take you. I guess the ride in an open jeep with a drooling lab sitting on his lap, hanging on to a tool box, going for a one hour bumpy ride, was his way out. He hurried to town, bought dinner food and headed up the trail from Hot Springs. You can imagine my surprise to meet this SOBO hiker, ¢Mando¢ just as I passed the Deer Park shelter! What a guy! He was afraid I would not make the eighteen miles. He even brought Organic Chocolate milk. We decided that creature comforts were a must. We had a beer at the Paddlers Pub, picked up my mail drops, and ate a great fire baked pizza at The Bridge Street Cafe. There was even a live musician playing jazz. We are now at a cabin four miles outside of town. The end of a very memorable day! Fly right,Ravon