Bears, cliffs, and calamine lotion...

Day 43 - 5/27/10
Today was a bit tough, not because the mileage or terrain, but because my poison ivy has spread onto my hands and arms, and with all the sweating it made it all the more worse. I actually considered hiking in the middle of the night because my itchy hands were so distracting I couldn't sleep, but that didn't end up happening. I did get up about 3 or 4 times to apply copious amounts of calamine lotion though.

I got started very early, maybe 6:30-7:00, which was a good move because the afternoon heat was brutal. The morning hike was nice, not too strenuous. I hit a snag though after maybe 4 miles when I realized my facemask hat was missing. It has become a part of my identity out here, and I couldn't live with losing it, so I dropped my pack, hid it in the woods, then backtracked at least 3 miles to get my hat. There it was, laying in the middle of the trail. I took a pic then grabbed it and ran back to my pack. I was so exhausted after all the running that I had to take a snack break when I made it to my pack.

After the small refuel I continued on, and maybe 5 minutes later I'm walking along and I hear a loud rustling up in a tree, then a bear comes crashing down and runs into the woods. It happened so fast I didn't have time to do anything but get scared. It seemed like the bear hadn't run very far, so as I walked farther up the trail I looked down the hillside where it had run, and sure enough I see it again, but this time it was eyeing me down. Just watching. I stopped, pulled out my camera on the sly, then tried to take a picture. As I was doing so one of my poles slipped, and it clunked to the ground. This made the bear stand up on it's hind legs! I could hardly keep the camera still, partly because I was still exhausted from running back for my hat, and partly because I was so scared this bear might charge me at any second. I finally got my picture of a bear though! It reminds me of that classic Bigfoot one.

After that I made it to Tinker Cliffs, which had equally awesome views as McAfee's knob did yesterday. Lots of cliff hopping and ledges. Then came a long section of small ups and downs, but with the day now in full swing it was really uncomfortable for me. My arms were dripping with sweat, so any calamine lotion I had on just washed away, and the salty sweat agitated my sores so much it took all my energy not to scratch my arms to death. That made my trip into Daleville seem so much longer. But I did make it, and I quickly got a room here at Howard Johnson with another guy. I needed to shower away all the ivy, and wash my clothes of the same. I picked up my maildrop at the manager's office, then dropped my stuff off in the room. The lady at the office suggested staying over at the Motel 8 across the street because they have a working pool over there, and chlorine would dry out my ivy sores nicely. I ended up sneaking over there for a quick dip (don't tell anyone), which felt nice, then stopped at Pizza Hut for a pan pizza. I brought it back and shared it with my roommate.

After eating I went back down to the office to see if the mail had arrived, and just as I show up the mailman comes in with my package! What timing. I head back to the room and start sorting through my maildrop (always a hefty task), and my roommate starts talking about another hiker down at the office who wanted to see if he could shower in our room, which I had no problem with. Turns out it was a hiker I had met at Woods Hole, Patch is his name, so I caught up with him. He bought a case of beer for all of us to enjoy, and as a means of payment for the shower, which I thought was nice of him. My roommate ended up going out for dinner, so Patch and I just hung out while he waited for his laundry to finish, watching TV and swapping trail stories.

He left at about 7, so I decided to shower and finally start my laundry. Then I got myself a snack at the gas station nearby, came back to the hotel, then sat back and enjoyed The Hangover on HBO. What a luxury to have television and so many channels. I'll be heading to bed soon. I'll try to post those pictures, including the one of the bear, tomorrow morning before I leave.

A few quick thank yous, one to my sis Mary for all her recent comments, spelling errors and all, and to Ian for answering my Eastern Continental Divide query.

Total miles: 719.1