Date: 2004-07-07
From: random point in woods

To: Hightop Hut
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Last entry you had word on the buck, eh? Funny dude, with his fuzzy antlers. Talked to a ranger today who said he's gonna grow to be a formidable deer from how I described him. 12 point buck in training. He'll probably be a big fella, too, since the antler points are kind of indicative of such things.Anyway, he came back in the night, many times. Once, really late, he even brought a friend. That full grown deer was hanging back cautiously, while the buck sniffed and trotted around our tent.I can almost imagine a conversation between them before coming our way."Dude! You gotta come over to this flat part of the woods over by that path doo-dad.... There's this strange orange thing there! And there's a couple of Two-legs *inside* the doo-dad! It's bananas!"Deer #2: "I dunno. Sounds kinda creepy to me."I looked out the tent with my flashlight during one of those nocturnal visits to see that the curious buck was digging up the ground where we'd earlier peed.Maybe he finally took off when he finally figured out the mystery scent in our urine. And maybe he shouted out to his cautious friend, "Oh my GOD! They eat M E A T!!!" before dashing off in the night.That's what I would have done in that situation.So, in my conversation with the park rangers this morning, I told them that I've seen close to a hundred deer at this point, but that guy was the only antlered one of the species I've seen. I asked if I've only been seeing does. "Probably," the ranger said. "The males at this point are growing antlers, and it's a painful and sensitive time for them. The ends of their antlers are all exposed nerves. To imagine what that's like, just suppose you've got a gigantic naked toothache - the size of antlers - sprouting out of your head. It makes the bucks a little anti-social at this time of year. In a couple of months though, they'll be scraping off that fuzzy covering, and the antlers will be grown."---I forgive the coffee girl for being surly earlier. The 20's era song "Let's Misbehave" is on constant loop here. It must drive them bananas.---In the morning we got up and did the morning routine. In the midst of this - just after the coffee-making ritual was completed - Mountain Goat, a nice Aussie guy we'd recently met, came sauntering down the trail. So we invited him over for coffee.Gab was gabbed and coffee drunk.He'd gotten adopted by a boy scout troop the night before. Latter day boy scouts, like we've been seeing a lot of lately. Kinda pudgy. Inclined to complain at the prospect of hiking for any amount of distance. Vaguely disgruntled-seeming.The particular group he'd camped with had a laptop with a DVD player inside. They were watching some Hollywood blockbuster.I know, I know...That's roughin' it!---"We have no chaperone,let's be outrageous,let's misbehave!"Ouch, my freakin' ears.---So. We eventually hiked.And did a damn good job of it, too!The miles melted away under our feet. More deer nodded hello at the side of the trail, and small peaks were climbed, and the sun reached its zenith, only to slowly descend to the west.And at one point in the late afternoon, Moxie looked at me with a grimace and declared, "I think a tick just burrowed into my leg."It looked like a freckle.Just a creepy insectile one.We stopped at an undisclosed location close to Skyline drive, and the mini Swiss Army knife's tweezers came out for the first time.With physicianly grace, Moxie removed the burrowing parasite from her thigh. It was a clean extraction: no Lymes Disease-causing head remained under the skin.I'd learned too that there have been no reported cases of Lymes disease from ticks within Shenandoah National Park, so we were and are fairly sure there will be no negative repercussions of that bite.Other than lingering heebie-jeebies.And the fact I'm wearing pants again instead of shorts. And the bottoms are tucked into my socks.And life is hotter now as a result.Alas.We were just a mile and small change from the shelter that was to be our home for the night when we stopped for a break. After fifteen minutes, I noted some ominous clouds collecting on the horizon. "Storm's coming, Moxie!" I said. "I'm gonna hustle! See you at the shelter!"That's what I said, but I actually waited like a gentleman as she leisurely put on her socks, tied up her shoes, and leisurely put her pack to order.Halfway up the hill, the bottom fell out of the sky, and a hard, cold rain came pounding down.And Moxie was running ahead of me like mad! Soon she was just a silhouette lost ahead in the grey sheets of rain.Let this be a lesson to you, gentlemen, of the price you pay these days for vague acts of chivalry.Later at the shelter, as I was drying off, a doe and fawn came wandering past. The fawn was wee. Like a spotted Chihuahua with vast legs.Then, soon after, sleep was slept by all.Just another day in the life of the types of good-for-nothings you can expect to encounter on the Appalachian Trail.Low bows,- Whoa