9/13/2003 ~ 12.1 miles hiked

Cowboy and Charlie are here. Charlie is an odd little dog that Cowboy adopted in Viet Nam and brought back to the U.S. Cowboy is an interesting guy of 39 who ran a camera (repair) shop in Blacksburg but sold out early this year. He's taking a year off from everything, he says.

The spring at Jenny Knob is damn near dry (in spite of the wet year the state is having), and it was a real trial to get enough water out of it.

While hiking, the woods were incredibly quiet. If I knew anything about mushrooms, I could have been entertained for hours by the mushrooms alone, which is part of the reason I was surprised at the depleted look of the spring here.

Overnight, there was a lot of owl activity. Two sounded like they were arguing, then there was just one that was hooting, and very soon after the owl argument, I'm pretty sure I heard a small animal scream for a good minute or so. It sounded like a rabbit or something. Short work night for that owl.

The tarp worked OK, but the bug net sucked. I wound up having to stay covered and use DEET on my head and hands. Man, I hate mosquitos.