Day 69-We Saw a Deer!!!...

May 26-14 miles-Middle Creek Canpground to Thunder Hill Shelter-AT mile 772.5

...oh, and three bears! 

But first, this morning...when I woke up, there was Amanda’s tent and car! She made it! We were all so happy to see her, even the guys who don’t know her, because she brought a ton of trail magic. She had a big bag full of chips, cookies, pop tarts, fruit snacks, you name it! After catching up, we packed our stuff, and Amanda shuttled is back to the trail. We’ll see her tomorrow in Glasgow. 

Music Man, Sure Foot and I crammed into the back of Amanda’s car (with our packs on our laps).

Amanda and I. 

Today was just 14 miles, but we all agreed it was a challenging day. Sure Foot, the elevation guy, said we did a total of over 6000 feet of elevation gain. No wonder my feet and legs are tired!

Not long after getting back on the trail, a deer went bounding across the trail in front of me. Then it stopped and looked back. I said, “I see you over there!” I didn’t take a photo because it was too far to be worth it. 

We stopped at Bryant Ridge Shelter for a snack break. This shelter is one of the largest on the AT. It comfortably sleeps 20. 

It is a double decker. 

We continued on with another climb. Dusty was ahead of us. Sure Foot and I had decided we would aim to get to Cornelius Creek Shelter for lunch. As we were walking along, we caught up to Dusty. She asked if we wanted to take a break for lunch. We told her we were thinking of going to the shelter. Then she said there were two little bear cubs up in the tree just ahead. Hmmm...question was...where was the mama bear? We decided it was prudent to back down the trail a bit and wait to see if the cubs would come down and leave. While we were waiting, we ate our lunch. Well, we couldn’t sit there forever, so we decided to move slowly, and make a bunch of noise. The cubs were still in the tree. 

You can only see the one, but there were two. Tiny little cubs, too!

We managed to make it by, with no sign of the mama. Whew! Later, as Dusty was ahead again, we came up to her. There was another bear down below. 

See the black in the center? Dusty was trying to get a video, but the bear was not paying any attention to the fact that there were three hikers above. I clapped my poles together. That got its attention, and it took off. First we thought it was the mama, but once we saw it move, we could tell it was at most a two year old, maybe younger. 

Then we saw this. 

Big ol’ pile of bear scat!

We came to a side trail to Black Rock overlook. We dropped our packs and walked the 200 feet to the overlook. 

Nice view! The hills are all green now. 

Thanks to Dusty for the photo!

We didn’t see any more bears as we climbed and climbed to the top of Apple Orchard Mtn. No, there are no apple trees, but there was this big FAA thingy. 

We could actually see this earlier today. I wish I had taken a photo to show how far away it seemed. 

From the top of the mountain, we had .3 to the Guillotine. 

Making sure the rock doesn’t fall!

Saw a comment on Guthook that said, “Marie-Antoinette and I went to the Guillotine. Only one of us came out alive.”

We crossed the BRP, and had just .2 to Thunder Hill Shelter. Funny thing, we can see the big golf ball from here. 

If you zoom in, it’s on top of the mountain in the background. 

It’s clouding up significantly. We may get rain tonight. Music Man, Chili, Green Bean, Fantastic, and Boomerang all took a break and continued on. Blueberry stayed, and will hike with us tomorrow to Glasgow.