Date: 2005-06-13
From: Campsite between Neighbor Mountain Trail and Thorn

To: Campsite at North Marshall
Miles today: 12.5

Bug and I awoke this morning unscathed. No bears came hunting us down during the night. Although I think our campsite must have been a favorite place for the local deer to rest their weary bodies, because there was at least one who sniffed and snorted around the tent all night.Our food supply has started to run low, so this morning it was a muffin bar for breakfast before heading out for the day's hike. When we arrived at Elkwallow picnic area, we took the side trail to go refill our water bladders as well as the opportunity to cook a second breakfast. The muffin bar we had split and 4 miles into the morning hike was putting me in a further state of hunger, and we still had an hour to go before the grill at Elkwallow opened. I was still pretty hungry. Bug and I sat at a picnic table and cooked up some sunrise spuds, basically it consists of instant mashed potatoes, bacon bits, and dried milk. Just add water.Once we had finished, it was time to pack up and head for the wayside. I couldn't believe it when we arrived....I saw before me Buzz/Anodizer, whom I had met at Warren Doyle's seminar back in December. It was good to see him and we caught up for a bit. He told me of some hikers we both knew that were back behind, and I told him of those ahead. Buzz continued on and we stayed for a breakfast sandwich and a mountain blackberry milkshake. We bought some groceries for the next couple of days and had some homemade fudge on our way out.As we crossed the road and hiked up the mountain, I suddenly saw before me a doe and young fawn. I finally got to see a fawn with its spots! He was so cute and not so skittish like many of the other fawns I've seen from a distance. I managed to take some pictures where you can actually see the spots.The trail was rolling and beautiful throughout the afternoon as we crossed by Hogback mountain. As we neared Gravel Springs Hut, I spied what I thought to be a pile of bear scat ahead on the trail. The closer I looked, I noticed the scat had distinct patterns and that it wasn't scat at all, but a very large rattlesnake. Bug and I had heard tales of snakes, but this was our first real encounter. This snake was not happy and stubborn to boot! We clacked our hiking poles to scare him away and stomped our feet, but he wouldn't move. We took a picture of the guy thinking maybe we could flatter him off the trail. That didn't work either. Finally, Bug began to throw rocks close to it, so as to scare it off the trail. He still wouldn't budge. So as a last resort, Bug took a large rock and hurled it straight towards the snake. Finally, he slithered off the trail rattling as he went and we hurried by, before he came out of his stunned state. After the fact, we looked at th! e picture and figured him to be about 9 years old from the number of his rattlers, and probably around 3 feet long.We decided to stop at Gravel Spring Hut for a bit of a rest and some lunch. Bug and I came to the decision a couple of days ago to not stay at this shelter because of the "killer coon"! There is a racoon that lives at this shelter and is ingenius at geting to people's food. People have tried everything...greasing the bearpole so the raccoon can't climb it and hanging bearbags with homemade contraptions so the coon can't get down to the bag. From what we understand, none of this works. The raccoon is brilliant and very particular about his likes and dislikes. We heard one story where the raccoon went through everything in a food bag and only took the granola bars. In another story, someone shined their headlamp on the little guy and caught him red-handed with a roll of toilet paper before he ran off into the night. I personally wonder if another hiker isn't paying him good money to theive for him....after all tp is known out here as backpacker's gold. As we hiked, the weather began to shift and we saw storm clouds rolling in. Bug and I got over the peak of the mountain, and found a spot to set up camp before it downpoured. We were debating whether to stop and decided that we would break in the tent until 7pm and if it was still raining we would stay.Well, the storm wasn't that bad, but we decided to stay anyway and catch up on some things on our to-do list. Bug and I have made out our shopping list for Front Royal, VA and now we are working on cataloguing the pictures we will be sending to our friends Matthew and Rebekkah. They have been so great to keep up our website for us! Bug and I plan to get an early start in the morning, while the temps are still cool. Night!