Hello from VA. It has been a hot and interesting week. So, since Ive been on this journey I have joked that I 'wanted my money back' for not seeing any cool wildlife in the Smokies and along the trail. I've seen lots of snakes, lizards, turtles, deer, heard a few turkey, but nothing awesome like wild hogs or black bear. Hopefully, this week is the closest I'll ever get to wildlife again....
The first night out of Pearisburg, after our great Blacksburg vacation, Kris and I camped about 8 miles from town. It was a hot nasty day and the water source at the shelter was completely bone dry. We found a small campsite with a spring and set up camp. Sometime in the middle of the night I awoke to loud, heavy footsteps in the leaves to the left of my tent. My first thought that it was one of our friends coming to mess with us. I mean these were loud footsteps. The steps came about 10 ft from my tent, shuffled by and walked towards Kris's a few yards away. Abruptly, the feet turn around and shuffle back through the woods towards me. Whatever large animal was outside decided to come and lay down at my feet. THUD. So, here I am in my tiny tent, completely wide-eyed awake now, clutching my tazer in one hand and my mase in the other. Then, the heavy breathing and growling starts. Kris at this time is totally asleep in her sweet slumber land a few feet away and I'm trying to calm my pounding heart while I clutch my little defense items against my chest. It hung out at my tent for an hour or two, breathing, growling, grunting and eventually strolled off from where it came. I finally fell asleep after 4 a.m.
The next night I did not get much sleep either. I spent the evening out of the stormy weather with six hikers in a small, crowded shelter. The group consisted of Kris, three of my friends and a father and son team out for a 3 week Southbound hike to Damascus, VA. The kid was about 15 and not looking like this was his dream vacation. They had only been out for a few days and he seemed pretty much over it. After the sun went down and the shelter finally settled into sleep, I am woken up by this kid rolled over his sleep pad with his arm over me! Its a small shelter, but its not THAT small. I push his arm off of me and he mumbles in a completely sleeping voice..'I don't want to walk any more.' I spent the rest of the night halfway on Kris's sleep pad trying to be as far away as possible from the dreaming spooner. I don't know whats worse. Large animals at your feet or homesick teenagers sleeping next to you.
And to top it all off, this week I walked through a gypsy moth infestation. Its like walking in fall, but its really hot and all the leaves on the ground are green and half eaten. Flowers are all over the trail and you feel like you keep being just a few minutes behind a wedding procession you cant seem to catch. Everywhere around you sounds like its raining, but its actually caterpillars falling from the sky and landing all over the woods..and you. One day nothing. The next day, they were everywhere. Some trees were so covered in these little crawlies that they started looking like tinsel covered Christmas trees. Hopefully, I can walk faster than they can devour. Oh, and a group of hikers ate two snakes for dinner the other night. Darn! And I could have been there if I had just stayed at that shelter.
Out of the woods for the evening and away from all creatures for now, I get back on the trail tomorrow. Hopefully, going to stay in a 17 mile-a-day average and burn up the mountainside with our footsteps. Home feels closer everyday.
Madison County View
No comments:
Post a Comment