Date: 2004-05-01
From: Stover Creek Shelter

To: Gooch Gap Shelter
Miles today: 13.2
Weather: broken clouds

Day two, and the sun has finally made an appearance . . . Thank Goodness. It seems the Trail is testing our resolve (me and others). It has been nothing but rain, fog, wind and no views. Georgia is waking up from winter, the hills are covered in chartreuse ferns and the trees are in mid-leaf. The rocks however, are omni present on these rugged mountains. Here with me on this trek to Maine is ¢Belle¢. We met yesterday at the Stover Creek Shelter, only then her name was Ann. As we headed out today, I kept hearing the ding-a-ling of a Christmas bell. It seems Ann's mother gave her the little noisemaker to scare the bears away (they hear you coming and run away, hopefully). So yours truly suggested the trail name of ¢Belle¢. I said she was the beauty and the trail is the beast. (Yea, I'm a flirt) She accepted her new trail name that was inspired by her mother's gift. The origins of the AT trail name is foggy like the weather, but its been in practice for many decades now. You can name yourself or wait to see if circumstances present you with one. Many times it will be the other hikers that will bestow you with your new identity, not always a good thing. But most take in good stride. In the case of my name 'Postcard', it was revealed to me before beginning when I had decided to draw aspects of the adventure and write about its full texture other than just what mountain I had to climb. Then these pictures and words would be posted at my website, thus, sending ¢postcards¢ from the Appalachian Trail There's been a nice community of section hikers (someone who is hiking a piece of the AT) out here too. The company and conversation has been awesome. A word about the Approach Trail yesterday, although demanding and having an infamous reputation, I didn't find it to be the monster I was dreading. In fact, today's 13.2 miles was much more a beast than the Approach. However, I did find sweaters and tarps and electronic devises and even a cast iron frying pan! Good Grief! Thunder boomers have been forecasted for tonight, but as of 8:40 pm . . . maybe not? The real threat I suppose is all the bear activity that's been around. Apparently, last week at this shelter, a hiker had hung his hiking boots on the bear cables near the shelters, which we use to hang our food on. Why he hung his boots I can't imagine? Maybe he read how up north if you leave your boots out at night and in an easy to get to spot, the porcupines would eat on them because of all the salt that's accumulated? Anyway, sure enough that night a black bear started swatting at the cables to bounce the food bags off, only they didn't, but the boots did. And that was all she wrote as they say. The hiker may have lost his boots, but he gained a trail name . . . ¢Bootless.¢ He then had to backpack 15 miles in flip-flops to the first area of services where he decided that was enough and came off the trailYep, there's a lot of texture on the AT. Tomorrow may be a bigger day to grab a shower or another shelter. I'll see how I feel, there's no reason to rush so early in this long journey. So I'll say goodnight from the Appalachian Trail, hikers midnight has come and my mummy is calling!