Miles is not sure on what to call this day; it is either “The
day we should have died”, or “The day we are lucky to have lived”. It really seems to be six in one and a half
dozen in the other.
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| Our path meandered through some beautiful wildflowers. |
We woke up early and took an early departure from camp. The plan was to do an easy thirteen mile day
do allow ourselves some respite from the past couple days. We departed the camp while it was still
rather cold so miles kept his long pants and long sleeve sleeping cloths on;
just until it got a bit warmer.
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| We walked by some awesome lakes too. |
About an hour later the warmth started to become noticeable so
we sat down on a nice rock to change to our day outfit. With our shoes off and cloths lying around in
various positions of changing we suddenly start to hear something. There is what sounds like a rhinoceros
running through the woods off of Miles left shoulder. It
peaks our curiosity and we look to see what the commotion is. After a few seconds, what looks to be a large
black dog runs out of the brush and is headed straight for us. We know however that it is not a dog; we know
it is a small bear. It breaks to the
side a bit, showing its obvious bear form, and jumps up on a rock wall about 10
feet from us. The crashing continues
behind it. At this point Miles is caught
without his shoes on, and with conflicting mindset. The adventurer in him is going, “This is so
cool” while the side that likes living is going, “oooooooh no were gonna die”. We both assumed that a momma bear was going to
burst form the brush behind the cub at any second. The cub decides to run off behind us, and the
crashing revealed its self into another cub who was chasing after the first
one. This all took the time of about three
seconds, not even enough time for a picture unfortunately. We rapidly got our shoes on, threw everything
into our pack and high tailed it on down the path. What an awesome experience, now that I look
back still alive.
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| SNAKE!!! |
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| The snake as we first saw it. |
After traveling a while longer that day I reached a nice
spot on a ridge. There were two trails
that split in front of me, and a sign which read, “Old Appalachian Trail
Lookout”. It is really nice of them to
label it for us, but the problem is the sign was between the fork in the trail,
so we didn’t know which trail it referred to.
We wanted to simply keep hiking on the main trail but had to scout to
see which way to go. We walked about
twenty feet down the path to the right, and it looked correct, but we still
wanted to check the other to make sure. We
retraced our steps and walked about twenty feet down the path to the left. It was far less traveled so we decided the
other way was the one we wanted. We backtracked
and turned back down the first trail again.
After going two steps Miles noticed something out of place in his peripheral
vision….at the same moment as the rattle snake let out his warning. Ohhhhh talk about chilled blood, and making
your hair stand on end, that sounds will do it for sure. Miles quickly surveyed the ground at his feet
to make sure then was not another one behind and took a safe step back. We then proceeded to take some pictures. The snake was beautiful; about three and a
half feet long, and as big around as Miles forearm. The really scary part is that we had already
walked somewhere in the vicinity of the creature twice without knowing it. It was an awesome experience, now that I look
back still alive.
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| LUNCH!!! |
All of this excitement had actually happened before lunch
time even. We continued on, though Miles
now jumped at every stick that crossed our path. When we got off the hill and reached a road a
couple day hikers informed us that there was a small farm grocery around the
bend in the road. This would allow us to
buy some food and resupply a bit. When we
arrived we discovered they also had a small deli. The owner/cook sold us on the pulled pork
sandwich, which we followed with a large ice cream. It was a wonderful meal which we shared in
the company of Appalachian Trail through hikers. We talked a bit about the trail then
resupplied and departed on our way.
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| How Miles got his trail name |
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| I signed the camper (top right) |
Later in the day, with our harrowing morning seeming a
distant memory, we walked out of the woods to cross another road and were
hailed by a lady in a camper truck parked across the road. She asked about our hike, and if we would like
a drink. As Miles relaxed and enjoyed a
can of ginger ale, we chatted with this nice lady. It turned out her daughter was hiking the
trail, and since she was the youngest person to solo through hike it (when she completes/completed
it) she camped her nights in the camper on the back of the truck. This is how we met Chipmunks mom. As we were departing she asked if we wanted
to sign the camper; Miles declined, informing her that he did not have a trail
name yet. (For those of you that don’t know
all through hikers get a trail name bestowed upon them by another hiker and
that is what they are called while hiking.)
I however elected to sign the camper since I plan on always going by
Spike. Miles was informed that when he
ran into Chipmunk on the trail he should see if she could give him a trail
name. This is how, about an hour later,
Miles acquired the trail name of Sneakers; thanks to the big purple and white
eighties style Nike skate sneakers he was wearing.
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| Hanging around the campfire that night. |
Traveled 13 miles of trail.
-SM-
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