May 11, 2004

Tuesday morning the skies were clear and finally, a good mileage day.  We began our hike at 7:45 today, hoping to get in some distance to make up for the rain days. When we begin our day's hike, I usually file in behind Bear as he is a much faster hiker.  I usually see him at a water stop or having a snack somewhere throughout the day.  Today, I spotted Bear stopped and I wondered why.  As I approached, he showed me some large footprints and we discussed various options before pressing on.  It wasn't long before we both spotted the animals belonging to the footprints. There were several HUGE longhorns on the trail!  I asked Bear, "Do you see any fences?"  "No, come on," he said.  I very reluctantly shuffled past the 1000 pound beasts.  We did stop for a second to take pictures but, I hiked uphill at a very fast and steady pace until we went through a gated fence...sigh!  I learned from a local farmer that the beasts were called watusi's. Although they are herbivores, I still felt vulnerable in their grassy homeland.

We also spotted a snake today...black with a yellow pattern and I saw some more gummi-lizards.  Bear and I hiked into Roan today and somehow, I ended up off the A.T. and two miles from where I was supposed to meet
Bear.  So...I walked to a farm and asked a kind man where in the hell I was.  He gave me directions back to the A.T. and I sat waiting for Bear.
When we did meet up, Bear was a little agitated.  He was waiting for me
at Apple House Shelter and had walked back to find me. I considered
walking south on the A.T. but did not want to risk missing Bear.  Bear and I hitched a ride to the Roan post office to get our supplies to take us into Damascus.  At the post office, we enjoyed hot dogs from the gas station up the road and Bear ate an entire gallon bag of delicious cookies sent to him from his friend, Derrick.  We hitched a ride into Hampton, TN to sort through our packages and strategize.  I was sitting in the back of a pickup truck and Bear asked me to move closer to the cab. As I did,  I moved a construction hat---yellow in color---and put it on.  I tapped on the truck's window to show-off my new look and as I did, the hat blew off, out of the truck and bounced on the highway.  "Oh shit,"  I thought, as the kind man did a u-turn and drove back to get his hat and dropped us off at the Laurel Creek Hostel.  We paid the man for his time and trouble and said, "Goodbye."