Date: 2005-05-17
From: Fullers Rocks, VA

To: Brown Mountain Creek, VA
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Clouds blew in overnight and the breeze was blowing all night. Got paranoid a couple of times that rain was going to fall on me, but never so much that I was inspired to do something about it. But none the less, no rain fell. Sunrise wasn't so hot due to the overcast skies, but the view was still spectacular. I set off early for a change, by 7:30 and headed uphill. The hiking was a little easier this morning. I'm glad we (English Bob, Biscuit, Mtn. Dew, and Matt) are easing into this whole "get-back-to-hiking" thing. In reality, we're going a little slow to let Bams and Sean catch back up, but I ain't complaining. But anyway, it's a good thing that it was cool and overcast, because I started out with only a liter of water to make it the 6 miles to the next water source. I had filled up yesterday at the last source before camp, but alas, I didn't have quite as much as I would have liked. So, I was a little thirsty when I got to the next water at Punchbowl Shelter. It took me a couple hours and some change to get there. After filling my jugs, I sat and ate a snack. Then sat some more. Then read the register. Then another snack. Then some lunch. So, some hour and 40 minutes later, after two hikers had already come and gone, I left the shelter to go hike more. As you might guess, I wasn't too concerned with the next 10 miles of trail. It wandered along a ridge with more gigantic blooming rhododendron. Saw purple ones, violet ones and even a couple white ones. As I was hiking along later on, I came across one very large, very fresh pile of poo. At first, I thought maybe this was the work of a very large dog, say, a great dane. Maybe two. Upon closer inspection, though, it was clearly not dog. Not human, either. In fact, it just so happened to be the largest pile of bear scat I've seen in my life. And let me tell you, between the ranch and the NC bear sanctuary, I've seen a lot of bear ish. So, once I realized this was from a big ol' bear, my head was on a swivel. I was looking around and listening intently to the forest as I creeped along the trail. I sure didn't want a surprise encounter with this monster. But, after I went a mile or so, I gave up the bear hunt and went back to hiking normally. No bears. But the food bag, and everyone elses for that matter, is high in a tree tonight. As the day wore on, I slowly started running out of gas. I'd been hitting the snacks pretty regular all day and stopping a lot, so I was sort of surprised. When I finally reached the day's destination, a shelter, I found it crawling with hikers. An older couple, thru hikers from '87 (Flash and Hot Flash) were making snacks for the assembled mass. They hiked 2 miles in from the road with packs full of goodies. Bread with salmon spread, onion pie, sodas, cookies, and a cake all poured forth from their sacks. It was a real treat. We all chatted for an hour or so before the Flashes packed up and headed back out. I set up my tent down by the creek, and cooked up a small dinner. Built a fire, and gathered around the picnic table for another episode of Jeopardy. Spent the rest of the evening catching up on journaling next to the fire.