Sprout Day 175 (Sunday, September 18, 2016)

Today we hiked 12.7 miles and we're staying at Matts Creek Shelter. It was a good day with only a couple of big climbs and one really big decline. The last four miles was kind of flat and was a great hiking trail.

We got up early at 6:00 a.m., before the sun rose, and made oatmeal and a pot of cowboy coffee. It was 8:00 a.m. by the time we cleaned, got packed, and were ready to go. We were going to go a little further than the Matts Creek Shelter but when we got into cell service area we saw it was supposed to rain at 7 off and on and throughout the night. We wanted to stay close to a shelter in case it rained too hard.

There are not many people on the trail down here right now. There is one other hiker at the shelter tonight, a girl in a hammock going south. I think she said she started in New Hampshire. We also met a nice day-hiker about a mile and a half from the shelter. He said he was planning on southbounding from Maine to his home town here in Virginia next year with his wife.

During our hike today we crossed the James River on the James River footbridge. At almost 1000 feet long it's the longest bridge on the Appalachian Trail. We heard from a couple different people and saw a sign about how bears have been a problem in this area in the recent weeks.

We heard the shelter we were wanting to stay at tomorrow has had bad problems with a bear coming around the shelter. All it takes is one hiker to not hang their food, or get too careless with their pack, and it ruins it for others behind them. Once a bear gets food from one person the bear associates people with food. We'll see how tomorrow goes and how tomorrow night is with the possible bear in the area. Maybe we will be able to go past the next shelter and get a little further down the trail!

Hopefully it isn't raining when we get up in the morning because I want to try to get out of bed early to make breakfast again. I'd like to get on the trail a couple hours earlier tomorrow.

Day: 175
Miles hiked: 12.7
Total Miles hiked on the trail: 1412.4
Baby Bear: 1
Bald Eagle: 1
Bluegill: 2
Butterflies: 8
Chipmunks: 3
Cows: 24
Crawfish: 1
Deer: 20
Donkeys: 2
Grouse: 1
Horses: 15
Hummingbird: 1
Inchworm: 1
Really Big Dog: 1
Mice: 2
Moose: 2
Nest of bugs: 2
Newts: 2
Owl: 1
Rabbit: 1
Red Squirrel: 1
Skunk: 1
Snail: 1

Snake: 2
Squirrels: 12

Toads: 3
Trout: 2
Turkeys: 4
Turtles: 107
Vultures: 6
Woodpecker: 1