Hey all, sorry for the longer time between post. I'm usually exhausted when I get into camp or town then it's eat and sleep from there. But sometimes its hard to sleep with the sound of gun shots or a bear right outside your tent....I'll get to that soon. So this past week and a half I was lucky to have my dad come up to hike again, this time for 120 miles! He met me in Erwin, TN and after waiting out 2 days on a nasty storm to pass, we were back on the trail. The following few days were still cold and wet but after all the weather and muddy muddy trail we came out on to the coolest section of trail I've seen so far. From the TOP of Roan Mountain, TN to Damascus, VA it was highlight after highlight. The thick spruce forest of Roan Mountain opened up to rolling grassy bald mountains with 360 degree views as we came down into the town of Roan. We left town and the AT climbed up to see views of mountains we had past over. The trail then came down following a wide river and passing a few water falls, ending with the big Lural Falls. As planed, we made it into town the next day to watch the Rays on ESPN! And there was no better place in town to watch the game, eat, drink, and stay the night than the Ice House Saloon. The owner put the game on the "big" screen and let us camp out back. It was perfect! The next day the trail still had more us. We decided to take it easy after the longer night we had. This was a great idea and just 7 miles up the trail there was lake. Beach and all...it was a great spot to take a dip and relax. We left the beach with just 2 miles to the camp site also on the lake. So here begins that bear story you all wanted to hear. We went to sleep as normal at 9 ( the hikers midnight) and also as normal I woke up at about 1 am to pee. Back in my tent I was having trouble falling back asleep when I heard footsteps coming down the hill above me. Heavy foot steps. I figured it was somebody else up taking a leak, until the steps got closer and I heard breathing. Huffing and puffing. "OH Sh*t this is real and thats a bear outside my tent" im saying in my head and remembering the noodles I spilt from my diner earlier. My bad. So I'm lying in my tent listening to this bear just few feet away slurping up my chicken noodles off the ground. These chicken noodles were spilt in a 6 foot space between my tent and my dads tent, aprox. 2 feet from where my dads sleeping head was. It's probably a good thing he was sleeping. While this was going on I did call out to wake him and also tried to alert the bear so he might move on. After a few minutes he did and I got out to my tent to make sure he left and didn't try to go up the tree where we were hanging our food. I never did get to see him but hearing him was enough for me. I'm still going to stick with the idea that I'd rather have a bear encounter then a snake encounter but odds are they'll both come up again.
So here are the numbers 1 bear, 1 venomous snake, 1wasp sting, 3 states down, and almost 500 miles done!
On a side note Tennessee has the worst bug problem in history. I saw the biggest lizard I've ever seen in the mountains, the biggest wasp I've ever seen..the size of my thumb, caterpillars everywhere, nats flying in my face, and ants coming into my tent. Beautiful section of trail though:)
On to living in VA for the next month and about 500 miles....I can't wait to experience some of the northern states but it will all come one day at a time.
-Cool Pants