Thursday, June 11 8:13 pm 14.7 mi
AT 545.7 Atkins, VA → AT 560.4 Knot Maul Shelter
Weather: Sunny/overcast, not too warm – great conditions!
Trail Conditions: Much smoother trail. Lots of overgrown trail, especially through meadows and boardwalks. Some muddy bits.
My Condition: Right ankle was manageable with stretching. Didn’t hurt near as much as yesterday.
A day of recommitment. Thought about taking a zero, but I was itching to get closer to Maine. Learned some stretching, and KT taping techniques for anterior ankle impingement, which may be what I’m experiencing. I stretched in the morning and evening, and a couple times throughout the day when it felt tight. Hopefully my body responds well and I can start to build my daily mileage back up. Saw Stronghold’s memorial and spent quite a bit of time there, reflecting and processing a lot of emotion. I never knew him, but he is well-remembered by the hiking community and it sounds like he was doing a lot of healing and reflecting through his hike, not all that different from my own reasons for being out here. I hate that he never got to finish the hike or that healing process, but I can hike full of his spirit. I also passed the ¼ point today – quite an achievement. Noticed lots of what appeared to be holes from trekking poles on the trail. Also noticed TONS of cicadas and husks all over the place. I’m guessing those holes are from the cicadas burrowing out, and the sound today must have been their song. Saw a bear on the way down to the water source tonight. It took off running in the opposite direction when it heard me coming. Definitely a pretty sizable one! And go figure, my bear line went missing. Good thing I have new odor proof sacs in my food bag. Fingers crossed for an encounter free night. Note to self – get new line like yesterday! Or an Ursack.
Post Trail Analysis
I had seen pictures of Stronghold’s memorial, and I had no idea where exactly on the trail it was located. As soon as it came into view as I crossed over the cow pasture fence, I was hit with a tidal wave of emotion. It took me a few minutes to get it together and continue on down the trail. Shortly after the memorial and well after noon, I came across the tent of the Pittsburgher from the Partnership Shelter where he had snoozed the morning away. Generally speaking, one of the first things I do when I get to camp for the night after I set down my pack is go to get water. Tonight was no different as I walked my way downhill when suddenly I saw a sizable, not huge but definitely much bigger than a dog, black shape staring back at me. This was my second bear encounter on trail (the first being a quick glimpse of one retreating through the woods in the Smokies) but really my first good view of one up close. I knew instantly that I was in bear country. I watched the surrounding woods like a hawk as I waited for the slow trickle of water to fill my bottles in the relatively dry water source. I even looked up in the nearby trees, knowing bears to be quite able climbers. I took extra precautions while eating, using the restroom, and brushing my teeth to make sure I was doing it well away from the shelter where I’d be spending the night. I really noticed the cicadas as I sat in the dirt eating my dinner, being surrounded on all sides by these holes in the ground. I wrapped up eating and went to toss the line for my bear bag, only to realize I couldn’t find it. I emptied out all the nooks and crannies of my pack, thinking I could have possibly misplaced it (unlikely – you get in to a routine after a while on the trail and can find exactly what you’re looking for without looking in the dark). It was nowhere to be found. I looked for anything I could possibly use as a substitute in a pinch, to no avail. I looked underneath the shelter, and all around the surrounding area, for a line that maybe someone had left behind – no such luck. I thought about stashing the food bag away from camp, hung on a low branch. Eventually, the hungry hiker in me won out and I decided to hang the food bag from the mouse-proof lines in the shelter, which I had all to myself. Bears might be hungry, but I’m HIKER hungry. Surely my desperation to continually stuff my face full of calories would send me into a state of superhuman strength and fury should I come face to face with a bear. After all, these weren’t grizzlies. If you think about it, they’re kind of just like big raccoons. Right? Right?? I managed to rationalize it, and gathered up a number of large rocks, and a hefty stick, in the event I needed to scare something off. I tried fitfully to fall asleep, starting awake and jumping into defense mode with my flashlight at every nighttime noise I heard. Eventually, I drifted off to a bear-free night. The next day, however, would be anything BUT bear-free!
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