Date: 2003-07-14
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter

To: Campsite South of Bland/Bastian
Miles today: 17.0

It's 8am. Yesterday at this time I'd been hiking for nearly an hour; today I'm still in bed. I wanted to try to do another big day today. But I couldn't quite convince myself to get going at 5:30am like I did yesterday...Soon after I started out at 9:30am it felt like it was going to be a scorcher. As the day wore on though it actually got cooler, the threat of rain seemingly constant. The sun did shine, though, and I was so grateful.At about 10:30am, I thought of Toby... Where are you man? I think I might need some of your "sunshine". This heat poses a whole different set of challenges than the rain does. Vaseline did the trick for now, both morning and afternoon.I thought for sure this morning I was back in Georgia. Man it was tough - either that or I lost some of the endurance I was just gaining before I got off the Trail. After lunch at Jenkins Shelter it levelled out, and the afternoon went by fast.Quinn, KC and I have stuck together. KC and I hiked through the lowlands before Laurel Creek this afternoon. I could just hear the conversation between Benton MacKaye and his Trail foreman. "I know! Let's see how many times we can make them cross the same creek!" At least there were plenty of rocks to hop between.Just now we're stealth camped somewhere between Laurel Creek and Va. 615, US 21/52 to Bland or Bastian - if you can call it stealthy, since the only flat spot we could find large enough for three tents is right beside an old logging road, which several Bubbas have already driven by on, either hounds or four-wheelers in tow.My most immediate concern is that I don't have my tent body - remember I sent it home from Damascus in order to save weight. I've heard of a lot of people doing that, and seen others using tarps. At first as I gave it more thought I feared for the lack of protection against bugs. But after the daddy-long-legs that repeatedly charged me at Partnership, and the mosquitoes that pelted me at Davis Path, I figured it was no different than being in a shelter! Today I was wondering how it would work in the rain - I've essentially got a single-wall tent now, and a single layer between me and the ground. How will that translate into condensation and wetness? I've prayed for a dry night...Tonight, after getting all set up on a nice leafy, cushiony spot, I chanced to shine my headlamp on the leaves alongside my groundsheet. Ants, crawling busily, carrying some unidentifiable white objects. It was then that I remembered the sleeping platforms in the shelters are raised several feet off the ground.So I sprayed some of KC's Deet all around the edge of the groundsheet. I may wake up with cancer, but at least I won't have slept with bugs.Next I spotted a nute, the largest I've seen out here yet, about three inches long. It was bright orange with tiny black spots.When I came back in later I discovered the ants were depositing their white objects on my groundsheet; I shooed them off, and so far they haven't returned - to that spot.Next concern was a small metallic brownish-gray snake slithering through the leaves. (All of this activity is taking place underneath my rainfly, mind you.) No Deet's going to repel that! Quinn came and inspected it with an air of disgust. "Well if it gets too bad, wake us up and we'll figure something out." Later I heard him ask KC, "Could we both fit in your tent, in a pinch?"A few minutes ago two daddy-long-legs were playing King of the Hill on the corner strap of my groundsheet. I can actually hear them, and others, creeping around on the leaves. The beetles, too, which are actually large enough to move the leaves (and my groundsheet) as they crawl under and around them. So far the beetles seem to be mostly headed away from the groundsheet.I mean, gosh, I've slept outside on the ground before without a second thought for bugs. It's not like bugs are a new thing - Lewis and Clark and party slept among them, I'm sure. I just finished that book The Hiding Place, in which Corrie ten Boom tells about sleeping on bunks infested with fleas in the concentration camps.Still, I think I'm as spooked - or more so - at the thought of waking up to ants, spiders, ticks, snakes, newts, beetles, or snails (that's the latest tentmate I've spotted) crawling across my face, or IN MY SLEEPING BAG than I was of Blue Tarp the first time I met him."Oh, God, maybe this was a stupid idea, but all I can do about it now is turn to You." Because "God is our refuge and strength, an everpresent help in trouble." Psalm 46:1. And "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them." Psalm 34:7 And yes, I do think God has a sense of humor!But it's going to be a serious act of faith to lie down and shut my eyes...