Date: 2007-09-17
From: Jim and Molly Denton Shelter

To: Pass Mountain Hut (SNP)
Miles today: 31.1

Man oh man, summer is over!Fall is a comin', and it will be welcomed with open arms. Recently the middle of the day has been absolutely perfect: sun shinning, breezes blowing. Just cool enough that you feel better when you're moving. Whoever said that SOBOs totally miss out on the Spring thing (which is actually true enough), surely must not like Fall. Fall is in the air and it feels good, even the leaves are preparing themselves for their spectral displays in short order. And as I continue on this southbound expedition, my exposure to this fabulous Fall season is extended. Can't wait to be part of the color explosion finale about to unfold and hear the sound of crisp leaves crunching as you walk through them.But the days when dawn was at 5:00AM and dusk at 8:30 PM are long gone. I suppose the abbreviated days are the flip side (equivalent) of what the NOBOs have to deal with in early March. In some ways it's nice, but I will definitely be getting colder gear, and I hope the temperatures won't slow me down too much.Shenandoah is great!I'll have to write more in depth about it once I'm through the park, comparing and contrasting it to other high-traffic areas like the White Mountains. I like Shenandoah, been here before and have fond memories, so understand that my evaluation may be biased.For one thing, animals are everywhere. I walked with a SOBO deer for about 12 mile, and when I got to the shelter tonight, a mid-size blackbear was hanging out in a tree 30 feet from the fireplace! See today's pic - pure luck that he was looking at me so that his eyes reflected the light. Errr, (cough) I meant to say, his eyes were on fire -- like a furious bear devil beast creature.Quick story -- Yogi (the one with the eyes of death) decides to come down out of the tree and visit. Since the hut seems to be the place of interest, he wanders closer, then closer, ¢¦ and I'm banging poles, the broom, making whatever noise I can think of to get his attention, but he continues slowly, and decidedly in my direction.Fortunately, I had just hung my food, but my pack was laying helplessly on the floor, screaming at the top of its lungs to be left alone. I decided to abandon all and went around to the back of the shelter as the bear came into the hut and investigated my belongings. He sniffed and grunted and shoved things around, ¢¦ but never harmed a thing. I suppose once his curiosity was satisfied, and there was no scent of food (the body sweat must have overpowered any lingering aroma of power bars, etc). He simply left.I was probably being overly cautious, but I did not take any pictures during this episode because I was concerned that although the bear seemed benign, it was dark by now and I did not want to startle it with the camera flash. Now, you want to take a wild guess as to how soundly I slept this night. Wellll, if you slept 10 minutes, that's about 9 minutes more than me. I was too tired to move on, so I figured the best option was to rest as best I could until I felt strong enough to pack up and leave. Never had any other contact with Mr B that night. Guess he thought I was too dull (like my first bear encounter - see entry 9/07/07).As I mentioned before, today I pushed pretty hard (30+ miles); surprisingly enough, what stopped me today was not getting tired, but simply running out of hours in the day. Tomorrow I only go 26 miles, so it'll be a bit relaxing before the 34 I have planned afterward. A bunch of years ago, my dad and I hiked the SNP (all 104 miles) in about five days. We considered this respectable for shorter distance section hikers, i.e. averaging 20+ miles per day. This time through, looks like it will only take me a little over three days. Whoa. Not trying to break any records, just feels good to be hiking so strong.In essence, life is grand: miles are up higher than ever, I'm meeting cool people, I'll see mom and dad in a few more days, and one other neat thing. I'm no longer counting miles UP (e.g., "hey guys, we've gotta go to the 500 mile mark!"). Instead, we're now UNDER 1000 to go and the miles are ticking down.As long as I don't freeze to death, all is well in the world of hiking.Thanks for reading.   ~ Dr Jekyll (Obie)PS:   I've always heard that the absolute best defense against an aggressive bear is to choose a hiking partner who is a slower runner than you are, ¢¦