Day 15: Deer, Beaver Dams & Snakes, Oh My!

Start: Yellow Springs Campsite (AT mi 1174). Stop: Unnamed Tentsite (AT mi 1186). Today’s miles: 12 miles. Total AT mileage: 161 miles

Today was simultaneously incredible and an ass kicking.

I woke up and got up around 7am, ate breakfast and packed up. Towely was heading out as I was getting up, Curmy and Cholula left as I was finishing breakfast and breaking down my tent, and I left as FarOut and Hot Sauce were finishing up their breakfast, around 8:20 or so. I really haven’t gotten any faster at packing up.. and I’m ok with that, as long as I’m leaving before 9-since it’s getting into the 80s now during the day.
I cruised right along this morning, finishing up the audiobook I started yesterday (the murder mystery), it had less than an hour left but I couldn’t keep my eyes open last night to finish it then. Once it ended, I just listened to the birds singing, taking in and appreciating this opportunity I’m currently living.

I was smiling and watching the river to my left when just ahead on trail a deer darted out of the trees and then stopped. I stopped and watched her, she was a beauty, and I didn’t want to scare her. I got a picture of her staring right back at the camera, and as if she knew I had gotten a good one, she pranced on across the trail and up into the woods out of site. This was my favorite moment of the day.

Sometime after 10 am, I got to a fork in the trail with a sign in the middle saying “cemetery” and an arrow pointing left. Luckily for me, the AT went right. Not much farther down I had to cross a beaver dam area, luckily there were mostly logs/thick branches to balance on, and if I went off of them it wouldn’t be but calf deep, but the water was disgusting and had a swampy look to it. I did my best to stay out of the water, although I do lack some grace, so I did choose one branch that dipped my feet into the water for a minute.. but it wasn’t bad.. it was just slow moving through there. Honestly I was expecting to see snakes slithering around everywhere, so while I was enjoying the strangeness of the scenery, my eyes were darting around like crazy and I was mentally preparing myself to not jump off into the water if I did in fact come across one. Happily, beaver dam stayed snake free for me!

Only 30-45 minutes later, I was crushing an uphill climb and down to my left beside my trekking pole was a huge ass black snake. While my heart leapt into my throat and I jumped sky high- BUT I didn’t scream.. these are baby steps here folks, I’m counting this as progress. I also managed to calm myself enough to turn around and take a picture of him-although not brave enough to get closer to see his head more clearly in the picture. Literally JUST looking at the photo freaks me out!

I crossed some bridges, both well made and not so much, I went through gorgeous green tunnels, and I took my shoes off and relaxed at a huge river. It was at the river that I caught up to Curmudgeon and Cholula. We all filled up on water here, to tote the almost 2 miles to where we planned on camping, because once again: no water near camp.

While us girls had our feet in the water, Curmudgeon goes, as calmly as ever, “is that a snake?” I jump out of the water, asking where..He’s pointing, we’re not seeing, and then boom: second snake siting of the day for me (their 4th today!)! I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture bc I left my phone at the waters edge when I jumped out, and the snake went in the same direction before disappearing from site along the bank upriver. This one was much smaller than the black snake, and colored like the rattlesnakes, but I don’t know for sure that this one had a rattle on it.. I don’t think it did. But I was also panicked, so who knows?

The trek to camp was all completely UP. At like a 70 degree angle. Honestly, it sucked. And the sites are kinda crappy. My tent barely fit at one spot, and there’s definitely rocks under me that I couldn’t dig out. And it’s on a slight angle, too. Cholula and Curmudgeon’s 3 man tent is set up across the way from me and pretty snug in a little alcove off trail. Towely and FarOut and Hotsauce got their tents up just down trail a little from us, and I think their set ups are a little worse off than ours, even more of a slope than mine.

A group of 7 NOBO hikers came through after all of us set up, and kinda seemed pissed that there isn’t really room for all of them to set up here. We were trying to figure out what we could move and rearrange so they’d fit, but they decided to keep going uphill and try to tent at the overlook about 3.5 miles farther. Another NOBO came through maybe an hour after them, but he just has a single man tent, so he was able to squeeze in comfortably between us. He’s probably the only one on mostly level ground! Haha

It’s almost 8pm now, and I have to tell ya, the second the sun decides to slightly dip from the sky, my eyes are trying to close! I’m all ready for bed and plan to be sleeping soundly here soon. With all of us tenting so close, I may pull out the earplugs just to make sure I stay asleep 🙂