4/28/00
Day 37
Wapiti Shelter
401.8 miles
I was thinking of some things that I had intended to write about in the last letter, and don't think that I did. In fact if I DID write about them already, it might be interesting to compare the two versions. Oh, how I wish the Wizard would give me a brain!
Both updates have to do with animals. I saw my first wild turkey (like everything else - running madly away from the vicious hairless ape that had entered it's territory). Ben Franklin would be proud. I also saw an owl. It was in the evening, but still a while before dark. The movement of something large in flight caught my eye. At first I assumed it was a grouse, but then I realized that it was flying absolutely silently. I saw it land on a branch and got a pretty good look before it saw me and flew off again. On the reptile front, I saw my first snake. Not a rattler or a copperhead but just a slender, harmless green guy that was sunning himself on one of the ledges at the Tinker Cliffs, and perhaps enjoying the fine view.
The other animal-related item had to do with one of the silliest moments so far of my life on the trail. I actually found myself zipping the pant legs onto my shorts in order to avoid being licked by a goat. Truth! As I was hiking the other day from Pickle Branch to Sarver Cabin, some of the people I met and chatted with mentioned that on the ridge of Sinking Creek Mountain there was a group of feral goats that hung out and approached passing hikers to lick the salty sweat from their exposed legs. At first I was intrigued, but then I began pondering the hygiene of goat saliva on my scratched up shanks. By the time I got to the Midway Shelter for a lunch break and a woman used the phrase "One of them slobbers more than the others...", I had made up my mind and the pant legs went on.
Today I got an early enough start out of Pearisburg, despite the fact that I
stayed up way too late last night watching TV in the motel room (old habits die hard). I usually tend to smirkingly think of myself as
being a rather clever fellow, but how smart was it to plan a 16 mile day,
starting off with a greasy breakfast in my stomach, six days of food weighing down my pack, and
the morning begins with a 2000 foot climb up to the top of Angel's Rest?
Anyways, I made it here finally, even if my feet will never forgive me.
Passed 16 or so Northbounders on the trail today, but so far its just me and
2 section hikers at this shelter. If anybody comes in late and wakes me I
think I'll bite 'em.