Food and Animals Highlight Trail Hikers' Journey

It's been a while since we've caught up with our Appalachian Trail hikers, Shawn McCarton (Pace) and Karl Weiss (Hungus). They are currently in Virginia on their They started in Georgia in March and will be in Maine by September.

Animals and food seem to be th highlights of the latest part of the trip.

May 24
The coolest thing happened next. We were making our way down to Harrison camp for lunch when we heard a noise. We paused and heard it again. It was a fawn calling for its mother "meh, meh, meh". We listened longer and continued to hike. We rounded a corner and bam, directly on the trail was the fawn. It stood about two ft high and looked as if it had just been born. Hungus saw the mom scamper away. It was so adorable. It just stood there frozen on the trail. It was so tiny. We managed to take lots of pictures. Jaybird got about 10 ft from the fawn before it clumsily ran away. We saw it hiding in the woods. We were all pumped and hiked onward to lunch. 

We stopped and ate lunch with Jersey at a spring campsite. After lunch we continued on our last 8 to camp. As we were climbing up high cock knob Jaybird stumbled onto a copper head!!! It was starring him down from the middle of the trail. There was a freshly killed chipmunk next to it. Wow!!! Our first copper head. I tried to cautiously move it with my hiking pole and it struck three times at my pole. We decided to bushwhack around the snake. It was about 2ft long. We took pictures of it and hiked on.  

May 29
Our choice in camping location was perfect as we were in the shade as the sun came up. I slept until 845 as the other 4 used the hose to wash clothes and take a pseudo shower. We packed up all of our stuff and headed back to the brewery around 930. The front door was locked so we waited patiently for one of the employees to notice us out there and open the door. Cole was the first to greet us and immediately gave us two huge thermoses full of coffee. We sat at the bar watching sports center and drinking coffee. One of the brewers, Aaron, was around so I went in the brewing area to ask some questions. He was super nice and showed me all around. I was in heaven. As we were talking, cole brought out free breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast! It was such a treat. As we were eating everyone ordered bloody Mary's and hiking seemed farther and farther away. 

When we were done it was decided that we would stay for lunch. Fast forward a few beers and burgers and we didn't settle up until 230. Chris hooked me up with a pint glass that I will carry to Waynesboro and mail home. I also bought a new lightweight baseball cap that will replace my grungy AT hat. I loved this brewery so much i will rock their hat to Katahdin! Everyone changed back into hiking clothes and Cole drove us back to the trail. We said good bye to all of the nice people we met there. It was really tough to leave and I definitely could have stayed another night. 

We were hiking by 330 with good intentions of going as far as possible. It was slow going at best and we stopped after a half hour of walking to take a break. The trail was very rocky so each step had to be calculated. Pace, melons, j-bird, and I hiked on and took a break at an overlook. We could see a line of storms off in the distance but they seemed far off. We then hiked on to cedar ledges and paused again to take in the view. The trail then crossed the BRP. The plan was to get water at the next spring and hike another 2 miles to a campsite with a view. When we got to the spring the sky turned black and we knew the storm was upon us. So instead of hiking on we threw down on the side of the trail to setup before the rain came. We had about 45 min before it got bad. Plenty of time to get comfy in our hammocks. The 4 of us just stayed in our hammocks (J-Bird his tent) the rest of the night. I made ramen noodles which I rarely eat. It was all that I had left in my food bag. I then spent the rest of the evening reading the mid Atlantic brewing news. Tomorrow we hike into Waynesboro.