Date: 2006-04-26
From: Davis Path Shelter

To: Knot Maul Branch Shelter
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: light rain

It rained hard all night and well into the morning. When I awoke the last thing I wanted to do was hike anywhere. So like 5 of the other guys at the shelter, I stayed in my sleeping bag and cursed the rain. This is when the harebrained skeems began... first the others started talking about walking back into Atkins, then about getting a ride 40 miles up the trail to Bland. It was then that Night Rider remembered that his buddy who lives in a house on a lake in North Carolina might be able to come pick us all up. So he called him and his buddy agreed to drive up to Atkins to pick up anyone that wanted to go. Everyone was really excited, except me. I just couldn't get pumped about back tracking 3 miles of trail, about riding in the back of a pickup truck on the highway while it is raining, and I couldn't get excited about putting off hiking. I know that sounds strange... but even though I didn't want to get out of my seeping bag I still wanted to be somewhere where I could start hiking almost immediately when I did feel like hiking.So I finally began to pack up my things, put my pack on and wished Night Rider, Freight Train, Dirt, Ajax and Senator good luck on their adventure and I started off up the trail. I took my time hiking today. I didn't really feel like hiking so I let myself get distracted by building dams in over flowing creeks and then breaking the dam and watching the water rush out. I also threw rocks at a couple Tent Bug Caterpillar nests but was unsuccessful in destroying any of them. I hate Tent Bug Caterpillars they are so gross, plus they will completely destroy all the leaves of whatever tree there nest is in. It sprinkled on me on and off, but never enough to get me wet.I also had a run in with a small group of cows. I was walking on a section of trail that runs through a pasture and came upon 5 cows. 2 of them were standing right in my path so I decided to get out my camera and take a picture. I took several pictures that I will probably caption with "Cows can Hike the AT too!" and then started walking towards them to go on my way. At this point all 5 cows began walking slowly towards me, staring me down. Then one of them half ran down to me and stopped only feet in front of me. I tried to talk in a soothing voice to convince the cows that I just wanted to move on. I then began to walk and the cow that had run down to me started nudging my backpack, almost as if he was helping me get on my way. When I was a "safe distance" from the cows I turned around and waved goodbye, but they just stared at me and didn't move.By the end of my hike I was quite content and hoping that I might get to spend a night in a shelter by myself. However, a section hiker named Photo Op was already at the shelter when I arrived... I briefly thought of hiking up the trail 2 or 3 miles and tenting but it had just started to rain a little harder, so I stayed put.I really want to put in a big day tomorrow, I haven't done a big hiking day in a while. Plus if I can some how manage to hike 30 miles before dark I can totally hitch into Bland, VA and eat real food and sleep in a real bed. But we will see. This will be my first time hiking without a group of people so I am really not sure if it will make me go faster or slower. Here's hoping that I can hike really fast tomorrow.