Back on the trail again!

Alright, so Abigail’s feet were finally healed and we got her new shoes and socks and were ready to go.

Tara dropped us off at Uncle Johnny’s Hostel in Erwin, TN. and off we went. We got on the trail around 3:00pm and were only hoping to make around six miles so there was no rush. We hiked along the Nolichucky River and up a side valley to the Curly Maple Gap Shelter.

There we ate a dinner of cheese and zopf bread I had baked in Asheville and resupplied our water so that we would be good for that evening and the next morning.
We continued on until it was just about too dark to hike without a headlamp and we came upon a nice camping spot on the right side of the trail at the top of a ridge. It had a fire pit that had been built up by previous occupants and even had some wood left over. Because of the ridge top, the trees were sparse and you could see all of the fall colors and when it became darker, the lights of Erwin bellow us.

We quickly put up the tent, brushed our teeth and hung our food in a nearby tree(Hanging your food is necessary to ward off bears, raccoons, possums, and other creatures of the forest from visiting your tent). I started a fire and it turned out to be quite a cozy little spot.

It was also very still so you could hear every little thing in the woods. Every leaf or small branch falling from the trees sounded much louder than normal.
So that leads me into what happened next. The two of us were sitting next to each other at the fire, the surroundings dark full of potentially scary things. It is amazing how uninviting a place becomes once all the light is gone. Then something started scurrying up the ridge behind us. It sounded a little far off at first and it was apparent that it was coming straight up to us quickly. We jumped up, switched our headlamps on and turned towards it. As it got closer, it got louder and was obviously not deterred by the light. I told Abigail, “Get behind me” figuring maybe it was a rabid raccoon or something. It’s beady little eyes would be terrifying if you were a grain of wheat maybe. Then we finally saw it, our tormentor, a tiny forest mouse.
After that we slept pretty well assuming everything we heard must only be the size of that mouse.

Chris