As of this morning I know the answer to an important question about myself.
And the answer is: 3 times
The first time might be a one-off. Go back to sleep.
The second time and I am probably done sleeping for the night, but will keep trying.
The third time a mouse touches me or climbs on my sleeping gear is the point at which I’m packing up, regardless of time, and hiking by headlamp to somewhere else.
I will now call these shelter creatures “mini-bears” because, unlike actual black bears, they don’t seem afraid of you. And for the shelter user, they are perhaps the thing most likely to harass you, chew through your food bag, ruin your food, or ruin your night’s sleep on the trail. It’s a mini-bear menace and its coming to a shelter near you…which makes the idea of hiking with a cat all the more appealing. Or carrying a few mouse traps, maybe…
So tonight I’m trying a different approach: turning around so my feet are near the wall and my head is closer to the opening. Some are of the opinion that, since the nice prefer to run along the walls, this helps prevent them running by your head. I will let you know tomorrow how it goes. But I must say last night was the exception for me. Only one other time has a mouse annoyed me during the night, and it was just one incident that night, not three.
So as I walked along today I continued to notice some signs of “actual” bear activity, not just mini-bear activity. I suppose this is the time of year when they are ending their winter rest and beginning to forage again. For the past couple days I’ve seen bear poop on the trail. And today I saw an old fallen tree recently ripped to shreds, seemingly by a bear eating termites.
This one ate insects and something furry
Later the trail passed for a couple miles along a scenic creek with the remnants of old walls and structures.
A US Forest Service sign explained this area was a sharecropper community of former slaves that was disbanded in 1920 when the Forest Service bought the land. The sharecroppers grew corn. They paid the landlord 1/4 of their crop for the use of the land. If the landlord furnished a team of horses or mules the tenant paid half of the crop. And the local mill took 1/8th of the crop to mill the corn. It was nice to have the historical information on the trail. Many times we can only guess at the history of the places we pass on our journey.
Most of today’s hike was easy going—following creeks and lower lying areas. The last few miles were uphill but not bad after a relatively restful earlier terrain. And there was even a trash can along the trail, which almost never happens. Usually you carry all your trash until you reach the next town. So that was a nice surprise.
And today I passed quite a few old growth trees—some majestic pines and the largest ash tree (I think it was ash) I’ve ever seen. It would take 2-3 people to get their arms around it. Because it was right on the trail, and so big, its trunk was scarred up with initials, names, and graffiti.
And here are some of the other interesting things I noticed on my hike today.
Amazing fungus 
Weathered tree root 
