May 27

Today was a crazy day on the trail...

Left waynesboro around ten this morning. Mike was able to catch his first hitch. Also entered the shenandoah national park!

The terrain for the day has been rather mild, but it has been a good mixture between tall grass and woodland. The only complaints I have today relate to my shin (can't wait to ice it properly during my upcoming break) and the scarcity of water and campsites in shenandoah.

After completing about fourteen miles (ending at 870.5), we found a well used campsite. As Mike and I started cooking dinner, a man named John and a woman named five pair showed up. This is when tonday got special. First, a deer meanders through our camp. She wasn't at all concerned with our presence. Then a black bear started toward our camp. We had seen a sign about nuisance bears earlier in the day.

That bear was not in the least worried about us. It would snort, eat leaves, and then stand still looking at us. Then it would get closer. I grabbed my axe, just in case... maybe. I used the blunt end and started banging trees. That started it moving away, but what really worked was John, a late forties or early fifty year old man, running at it in underwear and boots shouting while waving a trekking pole. It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen!

We expect the bear back later tonight. Half the camp is divided about whether to hang bear bags - 2 with food in tent and 2 without. The idea being bears are ultimately too fearful to make a move on food in a tent...

I write this with sounds of animals walking through the woods around us. We've already seen the deer after the sun has set. Will the bear return? Does it like tent food? At every noise one person invariably asks, "was that you? What was that?" Tough sleeping tonight.

Also, whipper wills are awful birds. I hate them. The woods are full of the up here, and they don't shut up until 4 am.