The first wake up call this morning was a call between two barred owls around 5am Just as I was going back to sleep after that, I heard a scream, which I can only hope was a fox. If it wasn’t like that, I don’t know and I don’t want to know what it was. Magically, I fell asleep again and around 6am I woke up to the sound of deer moving around my tent. All wildlife encounters this morning.
Big Bald: Morning Edition
The day’s hike began with a short climb back to Big Bald, retracing my steps from last night to watch the sunset. You would think that with all my wildlife calls I would have made the sunrise over the bald, but I assure you I didn’t. Anyway, the view from the top of the bald this morning was still impressive.
It might be my favorite photo of the trip so far.
The rest of the morning I found relatively easy terrain. The next few miles were all downhill and gently incline, making for a nice morning walk. This was only interrupted by a short climb up Little Bald, but it wasn’t too bad either. This was followed by several more kilometers of descent, which, while not as easy as the previous ones, were quite gentle. I had one more climb up to High Rocks, and then the rest of the morning was downhill to Spivey Gap.
A nice and easy stretch of trail.
Enjoy your food
After Spivey Gap, I had a moderate climb that was harder than it should have been. I was again still fighting this chest cold and needed to eat more in the morning as I had run out of energy. But after that climb I stopped for lunch, which consisted of a package of chicken, 1/2 a bag of bacon bits, a generous amount of crushed fried foods, and everything wrapped in a tortilla. I did it twice. After that it was largely downhill or relatively flat terrain for most of the afternoon. I had another small climb at the end of the day, but other than that, it was mostly a downhill day. Which was good, as it was a little easier on my lungs.
A worrying trend
Towards the end of the day’s hike I encountered another snake! I was walking and I was one step away from stepping on him. He was frozen and didn’t move while I was around. Worse still, at the time I wasn’t sure what kind of snake it was. But my perfectly rational and irrational fear of snakes didn’t allow me to take any risks!
So I backed up 20 feet and stood there for about 5 minutes, waiting for him to move before I realized this guy wasn’t moving. This time when I approached making a lot of noise, it took off and went off the road. This is not a good trend, I went almost 300 miles without seeing a snake. I have now seen two over the course of about 50 miles. If this trend continues, there will be a lot of snakes in my future, something I’m not talking about. Yes, I know I’m being melodramatic. Do I care? No.
Aftermath of Hurricane Helene
Another theme of the day that could be witnessed both in the morning and afternoon is the lingering and devastating legacy of Hurricane Helene. This is not the first damage I have seen in Helene, nor am I sure it will be the last. But today he really got the message across. Some mountain slopes would appear intact, while the adjacent one would be almost completely annihilated. Almost all the trees, downed and almost stacked on top of each other.
Many of the trees were huge and some could have been over 100 years old. Everything unceremoniously torn down. It’s amazing that the trail maintainers were able to clear a path through all the devastation and open the trail so quickly. Shout out to all the trail maintainers, your work is greatly appreciated!
The images do not do justice to the extent of the damage.
Statistics for the 26th:
15.2 miles
2,602′ ascent, 4,731′ descent
Hidden Site to Hidden Site (mile 341.4)
18 DSLC…
Stove use times: 4
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:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/hibachi-dad-41526-806d8c50ac1d46b886add4a0c1b8bd75.jpg?w=238&resize=238,178&ssl=1 "Papá se rompe la pierna mientras organiza una fiesta Hibachi para la despedida de soltera de su hija. Ahora está decidido a llevarla al altar.")
