Samwise Hikes the Appalachian Trail! - Trail Journal -
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May 19, Partnership Shelter - mile 518.8

What an interesting night we had at the shelter yesterday. I was there with just 2 other people, a thru-hiker & his daughter, who is hiking with him just for his section. We all crawled into our sleeping bags around 8:00 & discovered the ferocious little gnats were still biting, so we zipped up as tight as we could. That of course, led to near heat exhaustion, & we spent the rest of the night fighting between two evils. Unzip to get some air - & let 5 gnats in ARGGGHHHH! Then the mice started scampering, which was mostly just annoying because of the noise. None of them really got too close to any of us, though.

At 1:30 I had to make a trip into the woods, so I grabbed my headlamp & started out into the darkness. About 10 steps from the shelter, my light suddenly caught two eyes glaring back at me. We both froze for a few seconds, waiting for the other to leave, which ended up being me. I turned around to retreat, snapped my lamp off, answered natures call as fast as I could, & then stumbled back into the shelter, hoping for no followers. My best guess was that it was a bear, judging by the height of the eyes. He was in the area where we had hung our food, but obviously we did a good job since it was still there this morning. The other hiker had left his bottle & a plastic coffee mug on the table over night and the cup was off in the distance with teeth marks on it this morning, too. That may just have been a raccoon, though, judging by the small teeth marks. At any rate, it certainly was an interesting night, without a whole lot of sleep involved.

So far today has been fairly calm, with beautiful weather & a fine trail for hiking. We have had more cow pastures again. which doesn't particularly alarm me, but a lot of hikers extremely dislike having to walk through cows. Today I came within several feet of a very large Hereford bull but all he did was stare at me. I guess maybe he's used to hikers by now.

And now it's 2:30PM & I've already finished my paltry 13 mile day, & I'm at the most elaborate shelter that I've yet seen. It's actually got wooden columns out front, & a landscaped, stone covered patio area, a solar shower, a sink in back, a gorgeous loft upstairs & we're 100 yards from the visitor center which is closed today, but we can still use the pay phone to order pizza & other goodies. I've also had a chance to call Tony, take a shower, even though I had to put my dirty clothes back on. I I didn't have a trail to hike, I might just move in here!

7PM - AHHHH life is good! I have a stomach full of pepperoni pizza, Coke & chocolate eclairs - the last two compliments of my friend, Max. She's been hiking the same schedule as me this week, which has been really nice considering everyone else we know is behind us for now. Anyway, she actually hiked this section south today & hitched a ride back here tonight, plus got a stop at the convenience store on the way, where she picked up the Coke & the eclairs. Now I'm attempting to learn cribbage from Star Gazer, who is also from northern Virginia. I believe I'm getting whupped here, but it certainly is fun.