Date: 2012-09-07
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: Little Dam Lake
Miles today: 7.4

As I emerged from my tent this morning, I saw Spider Monkey and Thorn already packed up and heading back on the trail. Paddy-O did not stay the night. Therefore, I found myself alone at the site. After a leisurely breakfast of Pop-Tarts and banana, I continued my northbound trek. Soon I came to Fitzgerald falls. I noticed a slight movement to my right. A closer look revealed an owl just a few feet away. As I reached for my camera, it began to fly, but to my amazement, it flew only a few feet. As I began to take photos, I heard a voice behind me say ¢Hello.¢ I raised my hand to silence the person so as not to scare the owl away. They didn¢t get my meaning at first and continued talking. As I waved my hand, the newcomer caught on, but could not see the owl even though it was only 10 feet away. That is how well camouflaged this bird was. Once the bird fluffed its feathers, the person (who I soon discovered was named Artie), saw it too. After a few minutes, the owl finally took flight. As we talked, both Artie and I expressed how unusual we thought it was to see an owl in broad daylight. Artie, it turns out, is a trail maintainer. He was here to inspect the stairway he¢d help build along side of the falls. You can see it in the photo. It runs to the right of the falls, along the rock face.When I set out this morning, I did not know where I¢d stop for the night. I knew I¢d not make the 14 miles to the next shelter. When I came to Little Dam Lake, I knew I¢d found my site for the night. There was a great campsite about 100 yards up the bank. After setting up camp, I went back to the stream that served as the output for the lake to get water. I decided to filter straight from the stream instead of my usual method of filling a bladder and filtering from it. Therefore, this process took longer than usual. Because of this, I was there to notice a water snake approach the boulder my left foot was standing on. It went to the left of the boulder and out of my site. As I pumped the water, I suddenly noticed another snake (or perhaps the same one) just a few inches from my right foot, which was on another boulder. This snake too was under water. As I studied it, I saw how the head had a triangular shape and suddenly realized that this snake was a Copperhead and I was straddling it! At this moment, the snake slowly swam toward the boulder my left leg was on, went into a crevice in the rock, and disappeared.Just before sunset, a group of teens showed up on the other side of the stream, about 200 feet from my campsite. I heard them talking about guns and heard the clinking of glass bottles. I could see they had beer. I then got very nervous about them shooting randomly, so I decided to reveal myself to them. I yelled ¢Hello¢ and told them I just wanted them to know I was around. I hoped they would not keep me awake all night with their party. As it turns out, my fears were unfounded as the left once it got dark. A nice thing happened though just before they left. Apparently, one of the boys started to throw a bottle onto the rocks. Another of them yelled, ¢don¢t throw that! We carry out all our trash.¢