Date: 2015-05-12
From: Rocky Run Shelter

To: Ravens Rock Shelter
Miles today: 20.6

Woke up as normal, but discovered some caterpillars around the edge of my sleeping bag. I don't even want to think about how many probably crawled over me when I was sleeping. I set off a little late, having gotten used to lazy starts for nearly a week. Once again I had to trail blaze through the spider and caterpillar webs. Last night it had rained, and I hoped it had cleared all the bugs. It had not, but there were a million long brown millipedes, and even a sizeable frog on the trail. It was cloudy in the morning but still warm enough for me to set off in my shorts and Tshirt. The sun appeared later in the day with its usual burning intensity, even with the green tree cover over the trail. In the morning I passed by the old Washington monument, which is a much smaller and older version. It is only a couple stories high, and looks a bit like a milk bottle in shape. It had a much better viewpoint than the bigger Washington monument, but was much less grand. The trail today had a lot of variety of terrain. It went through the woods, with large and small rocky sections, as well as through fields, over a highway bridge, under a highway bridge, over creeks and streams. There was more climbing than yesterday but not too bad. One of my trekking poles has become completely useless though, so now I'm supported with just one, which makes me a little slower and less balanced. A couple hours before the end of the day, I was stopped on the trail by a loud rattling noise. My heart and entire body froze instantly. I looked ahead to see a large snake on the trail, it's oversized head twisted towards me and it's black tail was shaking. It was a timber rattle snake. I had actually read about this snake earlier, on a poster entitled "Venomous Snakes". I took quite a few steps back and tried to figure out what to do. The trail was full of plants on either side- where any number of venomous snakes could be hiding, waiting for unsuspecting hikers. I considered throwing a stick to make the snake move on, as I have with others in the past. But this one was bigger, and I wasn't sure how it would react, or how fast. So I stood and waited. I guess the snake was in more of a hurry than I was though, as he stared me down for a while and then made a very slow crossing of the trail. It seriously took this snake actual minutes to cross the trail, all the while twisting to get a good look at me as he went. Eventually he got a couple feet off the trail, and I decided to take my chance and sprint past. Later, I saw another tiny black and white snake on the trail. I nearly stepped on it, and hiked on by. Not long after, I spotted a red cooler on the trail ahead. It was quite late in the day, so I was certain that it would be empty. I was greatly surprised when I opened it to find drinks, and a lot of them! I took a Mountain Dew, which has an enormous amount of caffeine, and went on my way. I can safely say that I have never drunk so many fizzy drinks in my life as I have done on the trail. The appeal of a coke or a root beer after drinking so much water for days on end is deeply ingrained. I reached the shelter about 5 and met a few friendly new hikers, all who started at Harpers Ferry. It's refreshing to meet some new hikers after 2 months of mostly the same, but I do miss the old gang a lot. At the moment I'm in between groups and am mostly alone again. I like to have time to myself, but I also like to see a friendly face at the end of a long day, if only to remind me that I'm not as isolated out here as it sometimes seems. Also! I got my first mosquito bite today on my right calf. I even put bug spray on that specific area this morning. No one else has reported any bug bites. I'm sure this is just the first of many. I saw that there was an entire bug net suit at Walmart, I might need to get one.