{"id":1352,"date":"2019-04-10T02:29:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T02:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iprobablywill.com\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2026-10-15T14:34:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T18:34:59","slug":"mile-1394-8-va-april-8-cow-camp-gap-shelter-to-punchbowl-shelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iprobablywill.com\/mile-1394-8-va-april-8-cow-camp-gap-shelter-to-punchbowl-shelter\/","title":{"rendered":"Cow Camp Gap Shelter to Punchbowl Shelter, 15.1 mi (AT 1394.8)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 8th, 2019, Virginia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of this morning I know the answer to an important question about myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the answer is: 3 times<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time might be a one-off. Go back to sleep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second time and I am probably done sleeping for the night, but will keep trying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third time a mouse touches me or climbs on my sleeping gear is the point at which I\u2019m packing up, regardless of time, and hiking by headlamp to somewhere else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will now call these shelter creatures \u201cmini-bears\u201d because, unlike actual black bears, they don\u2019t 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\u2019s sleep on the trail. It\u2019s 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…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So tonight I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So as I walked along today I continued to notice some signs of \u201cactual\u201d 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\u2019ve seen bear poop on the trail. And today I saw an old fallen tree recently ripped to shreds, seemingly by a bear eating termites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n