Date: 2013-06-02
From: Matt's Creek Shelter

To: Punchbowl Shelter
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 82: Well after four zero days, we are back on the trail. Around 10:30am, we all (friends and dogs) hiked the 2.5 miles back to their cars. After saying goodbye, we began our trek to Waynesboro, VA. The weather was really warm and we are beginning to feel the humidity. The trail was beautiful as it went over the James River and followed several other streams for quite some time. The streams are usually very loud however today the noise are mostly from the cicadas. We haven't heard them until we were at Mark and Sharon's home and now for the first time, we started hearing them back at Matt's Creek Shelter. The sound is deafening and can be described similar to the locust (white noise). After awhile, it becomes very annoying and you long for the quietness of the woods.   Cicadas emerge every year. There are well over 100 species of cicadas in North America, many of which emerge every 2 to 8 years. Because their life cycles are staggered, there are different cicadas emerging every year. 7 of these species emerge in cycles of 13 and 17 years.The big news this year is the reemergence of Brood II, which last appeared in 1996 in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. They will not appear everywhere in these states, but where they do show up, they will do so in massive numbers. So as we climb, the noise begins to fade as they are not in the higher elevations...yet. Other bugs we are battling with are the no-seeums, mosquitoes and ticks. I have only found one tick on me and Alex has found two. However, poor Bella collects the ticks and is checked several times throughout the day. We have found them crawling on the tent and clothes.   At the summit of Bluff Mountain, we came across a gravestone of four year old Ottie Cline Powell who died on April 9, 1891. He wondered off from his school class mates who was out gathering fire wood. This story was printed off and found in the Punchbowl Shelter journal.Each shelter has a journal where you can read previous hikers who visited the shelter. Lots of time there are messages for other hikers, decription of what happen during the day, drawings, etc. For the most part, I will sign in for us and leave a message. Because it started to rain, the shelter was full and we were in it along with Tex, Aquaman, Orion, and someone else (I can't remember the trailname). There was also Back Track, K2 and Davy Crockett who decided to hang their hammocks and put up their tents. Because Back Track met up with a bear about a mile back and they were about 30 feet a part when the met on the trail, they decided to bear hang their food. So it was really funny because for most of us, it has been since the Smokies since we did this...so this seemed to be a big thing for the night. We all laughed at our selves for making this a big deal. I am sure tomorrow, we will go back to not hanging.It was hot, buggy and very uncomfortable in the shelter. I couldn't go to sleep so around midnight, I pulled my bag and pad and slept on the picnic table. Unfortunately, after about an hour, it began to rain again, so back in the shelter. We all didn't get hardly any sleep and vow to not sleep in a shelter again.Salsa