Wesser Bald Observation Tower to Cody Gap---April 20th

The path has turned to puddles and tiny muddy creeks.
The only ones out walking are A.T. hiking freaks.

Tender buds of flowers and light-green leafy shoots.
Just make sure that you don't trip on twisted, gnarly roots.

It started raining right after I broke camp.  No real downpour but a steady fall of good-sized drops.  I passed Wesser Bald Shelter, but there was nobody there.  Met only one hiker on the trail because the rest, as I would soon discover, were hunkered down at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC).  There were about a dozen or so hikers milling around. Some were opening resupply boxes they'd sent to this location, others were in the shop looking to purchase an essential item or two, while another few were simply biding their time waiting for the rain to let up.  I took the opportunity to grab a snack and find out what their plans were.  Most of those I spoke with were hoping to make it to Sassafras Gap Shelter.  With that in mind, I definitely wasn't going to stay there tonight.  Sounded as if it would get very crowded.  Besides, I really hadn't planned to stay in shelters anyway, avoiding them if I could.  One section on Whiteblaze.net was a survey of past thru-hikers asking them what they would do differently if they had the chance to do the trail again.  Several responded that they would spend less time in the shelters for a variety of reasons.  I took that to heart and have found plenty of places just off the trail that are more than suitable for my little tent.
The rain tapered off at 11 a.m. and I was hoofing it up away from the NOC before the rest of the groups.  There were a good number of long, steep climbs today.  Raisins, a young asian hiker who gained his trailname by starting at Springer with four pounds of raisins in his pack, challenged me on a couple of them.  He attacked the climbs with speed, passing me with little problem, but it was only a matter of time before I caught and passed him as he had stopped to rest and catch his breath.  A bit of leapfrogging ensued in the remainder of the afternoon before we met again at some picnic tables at Stecoah Gap.  Snacking again, we had a chance to talk about doing thirty mile days, which I thought he was more than capable of.  He passed me again on the uphill out of Sweetwater Gap, but stopped for the day at Brown Fork Gap Shelter, a pre-arranged place to meet other hikers he had fallen in with and today had far out-paced.  I went three miles further to a camp at Cody Gap, where I met two older section hikers out of upstate New York who were enjoying the last few days of a week-long trek.  While chewing the fat with them, five more hikers arrived at differing times, two couples and a lone traveler.  Time to stake claim to my piece of flat ground.  Huddling in my tent I was hoping it wouldn't rain and that the bears would stay away.

Gray and Purple Dawn
Turtle and Trekker


     

Cove Mountain Shelter to Near Horse-Shoe Trail---May 26th

Woke up by three this morning by a rather loud gnawing sound coming from inside the shelter.  "Man, that has to be one huge mouse.", I thought.  Scrambling for my headlamp, I turned the beam on the opposite side of the shelter where the noise had come from, scanning the floor and walls.  Suddenly, the light landed on a creature that, tired as I was, looked completely alien to me.  It took a few moments for my addled brain to recognize that what I had before me was a porcupine that had been taking wood chips out of the bunkbed, most likely for their salt content.  Well, it's been years and years since I'd seen one of these reclusive animals, so I had to get a photo.  Once I took it, I climbed back into my sleeping bag, thinking as I did so that it was a good thing it hadn't been chewing on my bedpost.  If it had, I might have got the sharp end of those quills.  When I woke again at 5:30 I was again the lone inhabitant of Cove Mountain.
Out early for the trek to Duncannon, I did a bit of roadwalking to get to Mutzabaugh's Market.  I was really pleased with their prices and stoked when I found they were having a 2 for 1 sale on their entire assortment of Pop Tarts.  Sweet!  The library didn't open until that afternoon and the laundry didn't have a bathroom, where I wanted to shave, so I left town immediately feeling slightly disappointed.
The Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers are so wide, over three times as wide as the Elbe in the Czech Republic and that is one of Europe's major rivers. 
Today had to be the hottest day of the hike.  It was already over 80 degrees Fahrenheit by 9 a.m. when I was crossing the Clarks Ferry Bridge and the humidity was so high it had me dripping and wilting.  The heat wore me down even under the shady trees.
In the afternoon there were some sudden thunder showers lasting only a brief spell, but in the evening as the sky grew darker and the rumblings grew louder and louder, I quickly made camp near a stream on the north side of Stony Mountain several hundred feet below the summit.  There was no use trying for more miles today and my instincts/sense of self preservation proved correct.  No sooner had I crawled into the tent and battened down the hatches than the rain fell down in buckets.  Despite the heavy rainfall and a short stint of hail, this was to prove more of an electrical storm.  My oh my, the thunder and the lightning!!!  Several sharp cracks following blinding flashes of light made me feel as if I'd been the beneficiary of a few near misses.  Wow!  All I could do was huddle in the center of my tarptent nervously waiting for the storm to pass overhead.  Eventually, it did and though a little wet, I'd survived.  I'm not sure how much more the tarptent can stand.  It's weathered some pretty severe storms on the Florida and Appalachian Trails so far.

Mr. Porcupine---My Nighttime Visitor

Cove Mountain Shelter