The beauty of this wilderness is that you really are not in control when you enter into it. You are now a visitor to a dominion not your own. Consequently, it doesn’t take long out here to desire more permanent shelter and better comfort…to try to organize the environment to suit ME better. In the early morning, a pack of coyotes howls in the distance. The sound of their call echoes up the coves and reaches the elevation we were at. Then on the opposite hill, another pack answers. The pack below begins to howl again, but this time they seem to be disturbed and it sounds more like fighting amongst themselves. Or maybe they are tangling with another animal. Listening to the coyotes emphasizes this wilderness and sets the stage for what happened next.
Gary couldn’t sleep and kept unzipping his tent and zipping it back up. Almost every time he did this I woke up. At one point, I heard him unzip his tent, walk over to his backpack, fiddle around with something inside it and get back in his tent zipping it back up. About ten minutes later and before I was able to fall back to sleep, I hear a large animal enter our camp. It walks by our tent and brushes against it. It is breathing heavy and making a low grunting noise. It seems hungry and out of breath. It obviously has four legs as its steps seem too numerous to be a human. I hear it go to the area where Gary’s pack was laying and hear it rummaging through the pack all the while grunting and breathing heavy. I have never been close to a black bear and I was certain we had one in the camp. I had to take a peek. Feeling around in the darkness, I grab the headlamp. I sat up in the tent and got a good vantage point and aimed the lamp. Sliding the button over I am anxious to see the bear. But the light reflects off the black tent mesh and temporarily blinds me. It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust but in the meantime, I can tell something large is out there and am trying to get my eyes to focus. When my pupils finally adjust and my eyes gain focus I struggle to make out the form of this large animal. As I make out the image, I realize it is Gary bent over his pack and I am shining my light on his posterior side. About this time he turns around and does a classic hand gesture at me. No bear this time I guess. I still can’t figure out what all the grunting and heavy breathing was about. I guess he was hungry.
We all slept in until 9:30 am. The sky was overcast with a blanket of clouds that looked like winter snow clouds. There was a nice chill in the air. We had packed in pre-prepared pancakes and syrup. Paul even found a way to bring a stick of real butter. In Columbia right now it was probably already 90 degrees. I smiled as I pulled on a sweatshirt and stood by the campfire to warm up. Drank about as much instant coffee (left over from old MRE’s) as I could stand. Today we are hiking to Shining Rock and maybe Cold Mountain if our legs are up to it.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Man-cation DAY 1
Headed up to Shining Rock Wilderness in NC last weekend with a few friends...actually one friend and his two friends. I later became friends with his two friends so I guess I can call them friends. All right, enough of that!
We started out at the parking lot on 816 off the parkway and hiked to Ivestor Gap via the Art Loeb trail. Set up camp at Ivestor Gap which is a grassy meadow/gap right at the Shining Rock entrance sign. The gap is between Grassy Cove Top and Tennent Mountain and you can see quite a view in either direction. No fires beyond this point, so we decided to go no farther with our base camp because there WOULD be a fire at this 5600' elevation.
Right off the bat Eric (missionary and naturalist from Kenya) decides he wants to go trout fishing. Gary (diesel mechanic from Maryland),Paul and I think we are going to hike down into the cove below to a trout stream via a trail. Eric had other ideas. Gary throws on his Crocs (thinking it is a short easy hike...keep this in mind as you read) and a bathing suit so he can wade in the stream. We all followed Eric to the trail. He immediately turns off the trail and walks straight down the side of the mountain bushwhacking through mountain laurel, thorny blackberry bushes, moss covered undergrowth, following a trickle of water down the hillside. We stay on this course for what seems like an hour and let me tell you...I don't think more than ten people have been where we were. It was steep, remote, difficult travel. We did stumble upon a rusty tuna can so we know at least one other person was here...and the last thing he ate was Tuna. What a beautiful and different way to hike. I guess in Kenya a trail is for wimps. Eric took us on quite a tour of the forest. The trickle of water has now turned into a stream with pools that you can stand in about knee deep. It is Greasy Cove Prong and I think we descended about 800 feet of thick forest, bushwhacking the whole way to get to where we are. All of us have lashes on our shins and everyone has some visible blood somewhere on their body. OHHAHHH - as they say in the army.
He assembles his trout rod and on his first cast, he hooks a native brook trout and would catch several more. But none of them are big enough to take back with us. After a while, we abandon the fishing for fear of darkness setting in.
Eric says he wants to go back back to camp by a different route and starts the bushwhacking in reverse. We climb straight back up the mountain trying to intercept grassy cove ridge trail to the north. It is evident we are on a wildlife trail because there is fresh bear scat and broken limbs all the way up the mountain. Something large bulldozed up this hill and we are benefiting from its freshly blazed path. Consequently, we make quick work of this climb but along the way I notice something really cool. Instead of the mountain laurel being tightly packed into impassable thickets, they are spaced almost perfectly at 10'-0" centers so you can meander through this grassy forest environment with laurel canopy overhead. The floor of the forest was what seemed like Kentucky bluegrass freshly mowed. About the time I was marvelling at this micro environment, we stumble into a yellow jacket nest and all of us gets stung at least once. Boy these things can pack a punch!
Back at camp, we eat a nice pasta meal and after warming up by the fire, we crawl in our tents for a nights rest.
Around midnight I wake up from a dead sleep and start having what I think is another anxiety attack. Can't explain this sensation very well, but it is the second time this has ever happened to me and both times on a back country hike and both times it is late in the night and occurs when I am in the tent. It is a combination of claustrophobia and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. (I know its stupid but I am baffled by it).
Paul wakes up and asks me if I am OK because I am breathing heavy, shivering and sweating and my heart is racing. Like the true friend that he is, he encourages us to go out to the edge of the mountain and talk about life for about an hour. It is cold and quiet. This ends up being a high point for me for the trip because with our busy schedules, it has been a long time since I was able to reconnect with my old college buddy. After some bonding time we go back to the tent and sleep like babies.
We started out at the parking lot on 816 off the parkway and hiked to Ivestor Gap via the Art Loeb trail. Set up camp at Ivestor Gap which is a grassy meadow/gap right at the Shining Rock entrance sign. The gap is between Grassy Cove Top and Tennent Mountain and you can see quite a view in either direction. No fires beyond this point, so we decided to go no farther with our base camp because there WOULD be a fire at this 5600' elevation.
Right off the bat Eric (missionary and naturalist from Kenya) decides he wants to go trout fishing. Gary (diesel mechanic from Maryland),Paul and I think we are going to hike down into the cove below to a trout stream via a trail. Eric had other ideas. Gary throws on his Crocs (thinking it is a short easy hike...keep this in mind as you read) and a bathing suit so he can wade in the stream. We all followed Eric to the trail. He immediately turns off the trail and walks straight down the side of the mountain bushwhacking through mountain laurel, thorny blackberry bushes, moss covered undergrowth, following a trickle of water down the hillside. We stay on this course for what seems like an hour and let me tell you...I don't think more than ten people have been where we were. It was steep, remote, difficult travel. We did stumble upon a rusty tuna can so we know at least one other person was here...and the last thing he ate was Tuna. What a beautiful and different way to hike. I guess in Kenya a trail is for wimps. Eric took us on quite a tour of the forest. The trickle of water has now turned into a stream with pools that you can stand in about knee deep. It is Greasy Cove Prong and I think we descended about 800 feet of thick forest, bushwhacking the whole way to get to where we are. All of us have lashes on our shins and everyone has some visible blood somewhere on their body. OHHAHHH - as they say in the army.
He assembles his trout rod and on his first cast, he hooks a native brook trout and would catch several more. But none of them are big enough to take back with us. After a while, we abandon the fishing for fear of darkness setting in.
Eric says he wants to go back back to camp by a different route and starts the bushwhacking in reverse. We climb straight back up the mountain trying to intercept grassy cove ridge trail to the north. It is evident we are on a wildlife trail because there is fresh bear scat and broken limbs all the way up the mountain. Something large bulldozed up this hill and we are benefiting from its freshly blazed path. Consequently, we make quick work of this climb but along the way I notice something really cool. Instead of the mountain laurel being tightly packed into impassable thickets, they are spaced almost perfectly at 10'-0" centers so you can meander through this grassy forest environment with laurel canopy overhead. The floor of the forest was what seemed like Kentucky bluegrass freshly mowed. About the time I was marvelling at this micro environment, we stumble into a yellow jacket nest and all of us gets stung at least once. Boy these things can pack a punch!
Back at camp, we eat a nice pasta meal and after warming up by the fire, we crawl in our tents for a nights rest.
Around midnight I wake up from a dead sleep and start having what I think is another anxiety attack. Can't explain this sensation very well, but it is the second time this has ever happened to me and both times on a back country hike and both times it is late in the night and occurs when I am in the tent. It is a combination of claustrophobia and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. (I know its stupid but I am baffled by it).
Paul wakes up and asks me if I am OK because I am breathing heavy, shivering and sweating and my heart is racing. Like the true friend that he is, he encourages us to go out to the edge of the mountain and talk about life for about an hour. It is cold and quiet. This ends up being a high point for me for the trip because with our busy schedules, it has been a long time since I was able to reconnect with my old college buddy. After some bonding time we go back to the tent and sleep like babies.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tortoise, terrapin, turtle, cooter...
I found this picture on the camera from our trip to Marrington. We were cruising around a blind curve and almost ran over this fella. Never heard them called cooters till I moved to SC.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Cowbell Pics
Eric going through the rock garden.
We were all tripping out about how much air we were getting on this jump but who does this kind of aerial in a 12 hour race?
Eric in the background.
My expression says it all.
Me in the rock garden.
The warrior - Dennis.
Dennis in the rock garden.
Bragging rights.Photo credits - Ronald Richardson Photography.com
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
tonite....
89 degree temp outside is begging....Dennis and I will be meeting at Harbison at 5:30 to do about 25-30. Come on out.
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