AT

So, we've been on the trail. Good trip, overall, I think, on the grounds that every day spent hiking is a good day. It was 23 degrees with horizontal snow when we got out of the car, and our friend had a little trouble making the miles. Once we decided that we weren't going to get it all done, the trip got better. The first night we camped in a little gap, behind some evergreens, which blocked most of the wind for us. We awoke to the sounds of something running around our tent. Turned out to be a couple of Rottweilers pulling our food bag down and eating most of the contents. They looked like this:


The beasts consumed: 2 pounds beef jerky, 1 pound summer sausage, 1 pound cheddar cheese, 1 plastic wrapper that had been on last night's sausage, 1/2 gallon bag of trail mix, several packets of oatmeal, and 7-8 foil-wrapped granola bars,* including the foil. They turned their noses up at pepper jack cheese, and this freaky jerky that Kelly likes. I sang the final verse of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" at them, as they retreated.

As always, we met a lot of good people on the trail, and, as occurs somewhat more infrequently, we met a girl who snored so loudly I feared that the entire mountain would give way. We shared a shelter with her, not knowing this to be true. We got off the trail a little bit early, in part because the bulk of our food had succumbed to the beasts, and in part because the miles just weren't going to get done. I'll post some more photos here in a bit.

*I made these bars in an attempt to not need to make coffee while hiking. They contained: oats, honey, chocolate, and lots of coffee beans. Enough, at least, to set me up for a whole day.