Date: 2004-07-30
From: Port Clinton Hotel

To: Eckville Shelter
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Trail Day 130 - Rattler!daily miles 15.2 on ATGot out at 10 am from town. Did the usual 1000 ft. climb up to the ridge. Took in the view of the valley at Pulpit Rock. There were large boulders on the trail which required rock hopping. This slowed me because it was not easy to find white blazes painted on the rocks. In boulder fields, I sometimes get off the trail and have to backtrack to find it again. Besides the danger of twisting an ankle in a jump, there is also the possibility of happening on a timber rattler sunning in an open area. I have seen snakeskins lying on rocky areas and heard others tell stories of seeing rattlers on the rocks.Today I had my first experience with a rattler on the trail. I was walking along the ridge on a narrow earthen path bordered by small trees and underbrush, when I heard a sound very much like the cicada's. I have been hearing cicadas in the woods since Virginia and even seen their clear moulted skins on the trail. But this sound was a little louder and in a shriller tone. It was unusual enough to make me stop and look down. Good thing I did! There was a fat dark rattler coiled beside a sapling right next to the trail no more than four feet in front of me. It could easily have struck me if I had kept walking. Its very impressive rattle was raised and vibrating away at me. I was not afraid. I stepped back calmly, took out my camera, extended my telephoto lens and got a couple of shots. I then relieved myself off the trail while I pondered my next move. This may have been an instinctive response to assert my dominance over the rattler. Or maybe it was just a good opportunity to take a whiz. I could not go forward and I did not want to move the snake with my pole as some hikers have done. Instead I bushwacked off the trail at a safe distance. When I turned around, it was already gone. I was pleased that I reacted well and avoided a painful and life-threatening bite. Next time I would be even more prepared should it happen again.The trail today ended with about two hours of gravel road through a forest of tall trees. It was almost like being back in North Carolina. I saw nobody the whole day except a group of overweight teenage girls and boys shrieking and cavorting over a stream off in the woods. They must have had a car nearby but I didn't see one. I enjoyed the road walk but wished there were more blazes. I was not sure at times whether I was still on the AT. Once I backtracked up a hill to make sure I had not missed a turnoff point. I turned onto a paved road to go to the Eckville Shelter. This is more like a hostel than a shelter. It is an enclosed bunkroom with doors and windows and a table inside. A caretaker lives next door in a house. He keeps a refrigerator stocked with sodas and ice cream sandwiches. The privy has a regular flush toilet and a shower. Great place to stay! Captain Blue and I were the only ones there that night. He is doing his second end-to-end section hike of the AT. He has been section hiking the trail for ten years. He is from Ohio and works with computers. I told him I was exhausting my savings with this hike and he said he did not think he would ever do that. We slept with the doors closed that night to keep out the mosquitos.