Caged in!

Thursday, April 18, 2013
 Destination: Davenport Gap Shelter
Starting Location: Tri Corner Knob Shelter
Today's Miles: 14.80 Trip Miles: 225.32


"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."   - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Down hill from here!

 Caged in! Wow, 14.8 miles in one day! Quite a record for me! And in only 9.5 hours! Good hiking day, great weather, feeling really good, and more down than up. Prayerwalker and I had been hiking together today and she stopped at the first shelter we came to, not wanting to push for a fifteen mile day.  The elevation peaked @ 5,000 ft and then down to 2,600 ft. Good thing my toe nails were trimmed very short!

As I was resting about three hundred feet form the summit a young lady came by and we talked for a short while.  She had to have her dog shuttled around the park (no dogs on the trail inside the park) and was in a hurry to get to Standing Bear Farm, a hostel just outside the park,  where it would be waiting for her.  Water was scarce on the trail, but I had treated a liter near the shelter I passed so I made it with out problem.

Today I lost the long sleeved pullover shirt I found in the hiker box back in Franklin.  I had taken it off and placed on my pack, under a strap, but it must have gotten pulled off by some mischievous tree.  Trees have been playing jokes on me for the entire hike.  Recall the one that I ran into because it moved into the my path when I wasn't looking!  Oh well, someone will find it and make good use of it.  Spring is on the way, or so I am being told, and long sleeves will not be needed much longer!

 The shelter for tonight is caged in to protect us against the bears! Until the last few years all park shelters were caged when park management  learned that people were feeding the bears through the chain link fence.  Stupidity still reigns supreme, even in the woods.  This eventually led to the removal of the cages, and this is the only one remaining.


 "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien