Samwise Hikes the Appalachian Trail! - Trail Journal -
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June 24 Hogwallow Spring mile 939.7

We've got the most perfect tent spot in the world tonight - tucked back in this tiny clearing, completely out of sight from the trail. Monya & I are here, near a spring that doesn't flow very well, but we must have found some of the only level, non rocky tent spots in the park. This particular spring isn't marked, so I actually walked past it, thinking it was not the one I was looking for, After a few minutes, I realized it had to be the one I was looking for, so I actually turned around & came back here. And then I left a note on the trail for Monya because I wasn't sure she would see this tiny faded trail to the spring & as it was, she nearly blazed right on past. So it was a good thing that I did.

Well, today must have been a record for wild life sightings. Just after lunch, I saw a bear with three cubs, which was amazing. I was just hiking along when I heard a bunch of noise, like some thing running through the grass. As I turned to look, I saw momma bear huffing at the three babies to get up a tree, & as soon as they were all up they stopped & turned to watch me. As much as I wanted to take a picture, my sixth sense said to keep moving, so I slowly moved on past & tried to watch them out of the corner of my eye. They were so cute!

I also saw a doe with a fawn - & that little one was skipping & hopping all around & it was the cutest thing. A couple nights ago when we were eating dinner at the restaurant, there was a doe & fawn right outside the window, & the fawn was nursing. Pretty amazing!

Also today I got a very close-up view of a red-tailed hawk, when it flew out of the bush right in front of me, followed the trail for a bit & then continued hunting off to the side. I see hawks circling all the time out here, but I've never seen one quite that close, so that was a real treat.

Along the trail today, we passed a launch pad for hang gliders. As many times as I have hiked up past that launch pad, today was the first time I actually ran into some people who were going to use it. They came up behind me on the trail just as I got there, so I asked how long it would take for them to launch. When they said at least at hour, I figured that would mean 2 hours. and as much as I wanted to watch, I was more concerned with getting into camp at a reasonable hour. I found out tonight that Monya got there just in time to watch the whole thing - set-up, launch & flight. I'm so envious! But I had my chance, I guess. And I'll have other choices, since I come out here often enough.