Date: 2003-07-15
From: Cornelius Creek Shelter

To: Marble Spring Campground
Miles today: 12.2

Erin says:Craig and I had an early start for us this morning. We both had a hard time sleeping on the hard shelter floor. Plus, there was a racket of mice and bats early in the morning. We awoke to a bat screeching in the corner of the shelter. It would not stop. So we got up and made coffee before heading out around 9am. The weather today was a tad cooler, we had a great breeze blowing for much of the day. It looked like it might rain this morning, but it never did. I set out a little bit ahead of Craig, and we met up at Parker Gap Road before the climb to Apple Orchard Mountain. We were shocked to read that Apple Orchard Mtn. at 4,225' is the highest mountain we will climb until Mt. Moosilauke in NH! Wow! The climb wasn't too difficult since we'd done the bulk of our climbing yesterday up Floyd Mtn. However -- bugs, bugs, bugs!!! Everywhere, attacking! The top of Apple Orchard Mtn. has this freakish alien-dome structure that is the remnants of when the summit was used for an Air Force radar base. Just past the summit, the A.T. passes under a huge boulder wedged between two cliffs. It is called The Guillotine, and it is one of 3 spots on the A.T. where you walk under a rock. The first was the Fat Man Squeeze in the Virginia Highlands (we have a photo posted here), and the third is Mahoosuc Notch in Maine.Craig and I stopped at Thunder Hill Shelter for lunch and a snooze. We were tired from not sleeping well. I like being able to take an extended shelter break. I had the chance to eat lunch and read for a while. I left the shelter ahead of Craig and we met up at Petites Gap near the Blue Ridge Parkway. My feet were a tad sore. Craig and I rested for a while and watched as a curious deer came down the trail and into the gap. It was funny to watch it eat leaves off the bushes and see its back muscles twitch to keep the flies away. The deer came very close to us -- I think it wanted to lick the salt off my pack! Eventually it wandered across the road and up the trail on the other side.Craig and I did our last big climb of the day up High Cock Knob. Oh yes, the jokes flew. The climb was very steep and the trail was not well maintained. It was grassy and overgrown. I pulled my first deer tick off of me not too long after we started climbing. That left me on edge and I started to tire. Just after the summit, as I was hiking in front of Craig, I abruptly turned around and headed back towards his direction. I spotted a big rattlesnake coiled to my right on the side of the trail. It was just sitting there, waiting. Waiting to get me. It was a dark brown/black color, different from the snake we'd seen the other day. Craig snapped a photo while I fretted about how to get around it. Craig decided to bushwack into the brush and plants off to the left of the trail. I was freaking out about possible other snakes in the undergrowth, not to mention ticks. But I also didn't think it was smart to try to run past the snake on the trail. So I ran through the woodsy path and babbled incoherently the whole time about "getting died" by snakes under the leaves and undergrowth. It is amazing how freaked out I can get by the thought of "what might be". Everything turned out all right, but the rest of the hike I was on super high snake alert. It is taxing to be watching for snakes. I know that the odds of getting bitten are rare, but it is still freaky to come upon a poisonous snake. And we've encountered two in less than a week. Lovely.Craig and I were exhausted when we finally came to Marble Spring. It is an opening in the woods used for camping with a decent spring nearby. The weather started to cool off around 7pm and the night is breezy and gorgeous. The campsite is really peaceful and we had a relaxing dinner. It is also nice to tent on the ground, softer than a shelter floor. We are taking our chances that it might rain-- we've chosen not to put the rainfly on our tent so that we can feel the breeze come through. It is just after 9pm and we're done with all of our camp chores. I really like it here. We are both out of toilet paper. Sometimes we just don't manage to bring enough with us. Craig found a Stuff magazine at Thunder Ridge Shelter, so I am going to be using pages from a girly mag if I have to pee tonight or tomorrow. Also, it appears we have more than a few ants crawling around in the tent. How did they get in? Hmmmmm.