5/24/01
Another day, another snake. That makes two in a row. Only this time...it was a poisonous copperhead! Another early start this morning helped me get up the serious climb fairly early. I called Paula to make arrangements for a meeting place for tomorrow, then continued hiking. I summited Bluff Mountain around 10:45 a.m. At the summit, there were four chunks of concrete foundation cornerstones from an old structure and a concrete set of steps beside one of the foundation corners. The summit was grassy and open with beautiful views to the valley floor below. I remembered that I needed to call Paula to ask her to bring me some cash. As I caught my breath and sat down on the concrete steps the phone call connected. Just as Paula and I began speaking I looked down and saw the snake about a foot below my dangling feet. Wow ! ! That was CLOSE! I just missed stepping on the little devil when I climbed those steps. He was coiled and well hidden in the nook at the bottom step in some leaves and grass. I carefully moved up to the third (and top) step, then exited off the back of the step when finished with the phone call. Then I wrote a note about the snake and left it on the trail for other hikers since I knew the large group of youths were coming and wouldn't be paying attention once they reached the top of the ridge.
The rest of the day was relatively uneventful with the exception of some trail magic from a retired gentleman (Ken). He was sitting at an AT crossing of a Parkway overlook with a cooler full of sodas and candy bars. This is the sixth year he has been doing trail magic in the area between Glascow, VA and Buena Vista and it ws very enjoyable talking with him while I drank a large soda and ate two Butterfingers. Diablo and Old Ebb caught up to me while Ken and I were talking, so they joined in the fun. By late afternoon the beautiful sunny morning was gone and the sky was darkening with lots of menacing looking clouds. The trail dropped in elevation to the town reservoir of Lynchburg and wrapped around the lake before following Brown Mountain creek to the Brown Mountain Creek shelter, which was going to be home for the night. The temptation to tent camp was thwarted by the sound of thunder as Diablo, then Old Ebb arrived at the shelter. Deuce + 1/2 and Sundial both made it into camp and we all were able to complete dinner preparation and cleanup before the thunderstorm began. For the first time since starting the trail I ate two dinners back to back while at the shelter. Everyone was in bed before dark but me as I sat journaling to catch up on the events of the last few days. On longer mileage days it's difficult to find the time to journal before fatigue kicks in. It really does take all the energy I have to get up and down all of these mountains, despite being in great physical shape. On a wildlife note: I haven't been journaling all the wildlife I've been seeing. Since Pearisburg I've seen lots of white tail deer, grouse, wild turkeys, countless squirrels and lizards, but no black bear. The Shenandoah National Park is only a few miles up the trail so I expect to see more bear once inside the park boundary. Here are today's stats; low 50 degrees, high 75. Sunny, then cloudy and rain. Today's mileage; 17.6; cumulative mileage 785.2.
