Day 93 - 6/16

Daily mileage: 20.0
Total trail mileage: 1260.7
Starting location: Bake Oven Knob Shelter
Ending location: Smith Gap
Weather: 62 degrees in the morning. 62 - 68 degrees during the day.
Cloudy all day. Brief shower in the morning.

I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.825629,+-75.413594

I SAW MY SECOND BLACK BEAR OF THE TRIP! :) There I was, walking down
the trail, and there was a bend in the trail. I couldn't see around
the corner because the trees and undergrowth were blocking my view.
Then I see a bear snout emerge from around the bend. Then the full
head. It noticed me at this point, immediately turned around, and
bolted down the trail in the other direction. Unfortunately no
picture as I don't think either of us expected the encounter, and I
sure didn't have enough time to grab my camera before the bear
disappeared.

This time was much more exciting than the last encounter. First of
all, I was only about 50 feet from it this time. Second, in
Shenandoah, it was kind of expected to see a bear. It was almost like
going to the zoo. This area is huntable lands, and the bears know
it. At any sign of humans the bears run, usually long before the
human is aware that there is a bear nearby. So, seeing a bear here is
quite unexpected. Finally, the bear reacted to me this time. At the
last encounter it just stood there.

Earlier in the day, I came out to a road, and there was a sign with
directions. It said to go down a bit, cross at the light, and then
come back 150 feet on the other side of the road. Well that was all
great, but there were signs all over that intersection indicating "no
walking" or "no pedestrian crossing". Right under one of those signs
were white blazes. So, let me get this straight...you aren't supposed
to walk on the Appalachian Trail, a "walk-only" path? I crossed there
anyway; I will follow the whiteblazes over traffic signs.

After that was a nice climb up a ton of rocks. The climb was all
exposed and there were a number of points where I had to ditch the
treking poles and use hands. My climbing practice actually helped. I
knew when I had a solid handhold and where I should position my center
of gravity. The fact that the rocks were wet made it a little more
difficult. But, it was fun and it was cool to look out at the river I
had just crossed and watch it get smaller and smaller the higher I
climbed.

The blueberries today were tempting, but the reason the ridge today
was exposed is because zinc-smelting in the area killed off mostly
everything. I didn't want to risk eating unhealthy chemicals.

I am glad I picked up water at the previous shelter. I didn't want to
carry full water all day, but I figured it would be better to be
safe. I intended to stop today at a trail leading down to a spring.
Somehow I blew right past it. Plus, it would have been 0.6 miles off
trail down to the spring. Oh well, now tomorrow is a little shorter
than I had planned.