So, last night we had our closest wildlife encounter yet. I woke up to a rustling noise just outside the tent. I looked up, and theres alittle mouse running back and forth between our tent and rainfly. When he reached the opening of the rain fly, I just flicked him off the tent back outside, and he didn’t bother us again.
It was another nice day, another hot day. We didn’t get started until just after 9am. But that was okay, we were only planning on doing 10.8 miles. That’s the one kind of annoying part of the smokies… since you have to stay at shelters, your days are limited to milage between shelters. So we didn’t even have the option of doing 12 miles, since the next shelter would’ve made it an 18 mile day… which would’ve been too far.
We did run into a group on horseback when we stopped for lunch. Very interesting group who comes up to the Smokies to ride this exact week every year. They told us that last year this time it was snowy and sleeting. I guess we picked a good year. They were nice to chat with, and gave us some granola bars before they took off.
When we arrived at the shelter, there were only a few other folks there… all section hikers, but there was plenty of space, so we staked out a spot for our first night in a shelter on the AT. The guys we chatted with were funny, telling us how the previous night they were getting another shelter newbie all scared about the mice. They also showed us a trick, how to use our jet boil lid as a mouse deterrent. You just string it onto the cord that you hang your pack from, so when the mouse climbs down to cord to get to your pack, he hits the lid and can’t get around it, so he scoots back up the cord. I guess the mice were pretty active in the shelter those guys stayed at.
We ended up with a full shelter, and we’re all bundled up in our bags, not sure what to expect from a night in a shelter. We’ve already got a few snorers, but I’ve got ear plugs. We’ll report back on shelter life tomorrow.
