Date: 2012-05-28
From: near Browns Gap

To: Hightop Shelter
Miles today: 18.2

Last night we were visited by a black bear! It was walking around our tents and found our food bags hanging in the tree. It stayed around our food bags for a little while then moved on. There was also a pack of coyotes running around the mountain top howling and yipping throughout the night. The excitement stopped and we eventually fell asleep and were up at 6:30am and were on the trail by 7:45am.We decided to hike 4 miles up the trail to the camp store at one of the camp grounds and got some food and cold drinks. We then went a few miles more to the Wayside along Skyline Drive and ate a second breakfast there: I had a cheese burger, fries and a blackberry milk shake. We continued on another four miles to the first shelter and took a long break.We stayed there until around 2:30pm and left once it started to cool off. From there the next shelter was 8.2 miles so we had plenty of time to get there. I got out ahead of the rest of the group and was just going to meet them there. Today there were a lot of day hikers out again and I got stopped by them a few times and was attacked with all kinds of questions but I did my best stay away from that. I saw two bears today, one was on the trail and when I turned the corner it took off running down the mountain. I then saw a big buck a little further up the trail and it just stood there looking at me and it was only 10 yard from me, he finally had enough of me and ran away. I then saw the second bear about 2 miles from the second shelter. I was hiking on the side of a mountain and I heard something rustling in the leaves up hill and to the left of me. I could not see anything but then a big rock the size of a basketball came rolling down the mountain, it rolled about four feet in front of me, crossed the trail and stopped down the hill behind me. Then i could finally see that it was a big bear flipping over rocks looking for grubs. I stood there and watched it for five minutes or so and it never let on that it knew I was there. It just went on its way uphill and went out of sight.I continued on and took a break at a road crossing before I started up the last climb up to the shelter. While I was there Stingray showed up and also stopped for a break. We were about to leave but a car pulled up and the driver asked us if we wanted some cold water. We gladly accepted and drank it down quickly! Then we started up the last climb.The climb up to the shelter was not bad and we got there in about 15 minutes. When we got there we saw that the shelter was all but full and there were a lot of hikers tenting. I took the last top bunk and Stingray took one of the two remaining spots on the bottom. Catfish and Big Sky showed up about an hour later - Big Sky took the last spot in the shelter and Catfish set up his tent.We all ate our suppers and sat around and talked until it got dark out. While we were sitting around talking, a mouse started running around the shelter and I was not going to have that. I got out my headlamp and turned on the red light so it would not as easy for the mouse to spot it and after three swats of my boot the shelter was down one mouse! Big Sky was not happy that I killed a mouse but I was a hero to everyone else. Well its past 9:30 and its time for bed...night all.