Date: 2008-09-01
From: VA 615

To: VA 21/52
Miles today: 6.9

What a day!It began early (5:00-ish) when I received a text message from my son informing me that my grandson, John Clark Stoddard Jr. had been born in the early hours and all was well! Hallelujah! In spite of his eagerness to get into the world 8 weeks ahead of schedule, ¢Jackson¢ (as he will be called, at least initially) weighed in at 4 lbs. 10 ounces, 17 34¢ in length, with a full head of hair, big feet (a Stoddard male trait!), big hands with long fingers and, most importantly, all systems fully operational! From Jackson¢s mother¢s point of view, this was definitely a ¢Labor Day¢ to be remembered (pun intended).It took a few hours to make the necessary phone contacts and track down all the details of the birth and delivery during which time I did laundry at the local laundromat affording Bill some time away from being Trail chauffeur (we¢ve driven over 1,000 miles this past week and we¢re only 250 miles away from New Market where this trip all began a week ago!) to do some much-needed personal paperwork and catch-up. Around 12:30 pm we headed for the Trail via the nearby Burger King. Since our hiking time was shorter than it might otherwise be, we skipped the 13 mile chunk that would follow on from where I left off yesterday and, instead, had Bill drop me off on a dirt road (VA 615) further south. This way I could walk north bound about 7 miles to a convenient pick-up spot on VA 21/52 west of the town of Bland, VA (apparently named by the town fathers when they stepped back to see the true nature of the marvel they had created out of a gas station, quick-shop, Bar-B-Que, fire hall and three churches). One really nice advantage of this hiking plan was that it also afforded Bill easy-on/off access to the Trail without having to spend all his time climbing up to it from which is usually the case wherever the Trail crosses a road.Ebullient from the day¢s earlier events, I bailed out of the car forgetting my poles and promptly hiked 12 miles in the wrong direction requiring me to spend the first half-hour just getting back to where I started. Without my poles, the uphill climb was slower although notably quieter. As I reached the rounded top of Brushy Mountain one of those shadowy tree stumps that you always look at twice just in case it might be a bear ¢ moved. Indeed, it was a bear, and judging from its size (about that of a full-grown St. Bernard) and its brown muzzle, I presumed it to be a juvenile born this past Spring now old enough to be out foraging on its own (I hoped!). It crossed the Trail from right to left about 30 yards ahead of me, its nose to the ground, never taking any notice of me. When I saw it, I froze in mid-step, and quietly backed up a step or two sliding to my left to hide myself from his line of sight as best I could. All the while my hands were going for my camera that has ridden in my belt pouch for lo these 1700 miles for just such an occasion. My first thoughts were, ¢Wow, he¢s big¢ and ¢How incredibly black his fur is!¢While getting organized for my quickly formulated ¢shoot and run¢ strategy, I lost sight of the bear for a few seconds during which time he had slowed his pace and made a left hand turn bringing him straight toward me¢¦ ¢Not good, especially if Mama Bear is anywhere around which she very well might be!¢ I stepped out from behind my cover just as the bear had turned further to his left so he was now facing back in the direction from which he had come only about 30 feet away. At the same time I raised the camera, he raised his head and simultaneously, the flash went off, the bear took off and so did I. It took two steps away and ¢POOF¢ disappeared from sight and sound (it might have climbed a tree or maybe the Tsunami of adrenalin coursing through my veins and the sound of my size 14¢s slapping the dirt of the Trail blocked out the sound of it crashing through the underbrush ¢ who knows?) Who cares? Certainly not me! All I cared about was that I got a picture of a Bear on the AT; it ran away; and I wanted to now get out of Dodge ASAP!(just in case Momma was following Jr from a distance). If life has only taught me one thing, it¢s ¢you DO NOT want to get between Mamma anything and her offspring!¢ Feet do your thing! Surfing my venal tidal wave of nature¢s ¢go-juice¢, they did. Fifteen minutes later, as my heart rate began to slow back to a more normal range (at least back under 300 bpm!) I came upon a SOBO named ¢Solo¢ and we chatted for a good ten minutes about my bear experience, his hike (this is his second Thru Hike), the increasing lack of reliable water sources, and the usual Trail stuff. I then continued on North for a few miles before I ran into Bill sitting along the side of the Trail enjoying the cool mountain air, the quiet of the woods and the late-afternoon sunlight dancing through the trees. I took off my pack and joined him for a good twenty minutes of pleasant relaxation after, of course, my tale of the 700 pound bear I saw that chased me through the woods for a good two miles before I stopped and wrestled it into submission ¢ er, or something like that.We returned to the car, Bill having logged 3 miles and a couple of hundred feet of vertical and me having had one of those absolutely special moments in nature that punctuate the AT experience in a variety of forms every so often. The Trail (well maintained, rock free and wide!), the conditions (sunny, pleasantly warm, low humidity) and the events of the day (the birth of my grandson and the sighting of my first Black Bear in five years of section hiking) all made for a very special September 1st. I suppose that if the naming of a new born in our culture were up to the paternal grandfather based upon his first memorable impression after the child¢s birth as it was for Native American Indians, then Jackson would be known as ¢Little Black Bear¢ but such (for his sake) is not the case.Celebratory dinner and grace for new life and wildlife were offered with cigars, steaks on the grill and sparkling water all around. Now, with a much relieved and grateful heart, I¢m off to bed.