Montebello

Well I'm in Montebello now and staying at the nicest
little B&B! As soon as I walk up Lois(sp?) gave me
the warmest greeting as she and Foxtrot (Rob) had been
waiting for me... I was pretty slow today. Anyway,
$25! for hot shower, free internet, vcr w/ a nice
little selection of movies to choose from, free
laundry, free shuttle service, bed, breakfast (and
don't tell anyone, but I think we scored a free dinner
too!! It's normally $10, but she said "shh, the other
guests are paying $20 each, so we'll let you guys in
on it for free :) This place rocks! Really caters
to the hikers.

And I couldn't have hit this place at a better time.
The past couple of days have been pretty hard on me
physically.. my left shin (close to my ankle) and left
calf are KILLING me! also right calf and knee from
compensating for the left over the last few miles..
:( and even my right ankle on and off from twisting
it a few days earlier. SOOOooooo, I'm taking what the
call a ZERO day tomorrow... had really planned on
doing that in Waynesboro, but 1) I was feeling alright
and didn't mind taking off early, and 2) I couldn't
have if I'd wanted to because apparently the Rolling
Stones were playing in Charlottesville(sp?) the next
day and so there were no vacancies anywhere in the
city that night.

Plus I'm waiting on a maildrop here in Montebello that
I can't pick up until Monday anyway..

Foxtrot's plan is to take advantage of the shuttle and
get a ride to a point on the trail approx 27 miles
from here and hike back w/o pack - also called
slacking or slack packing... pretty much just day
hiking. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll probably try to
do the same on Monday while he hikes on a day ahead of
me. So in other words, I'm planning on enjoying this
hospitality for a couple more nights ;)

Probably asking who this Foxtrot character is by now,
huh? Well a character he is ;) I met him in a
shelter (or hut as they're called in SNP) in the
Shenandoa National Park. He'd started a day after me
(9/24) in PA - the trail's only a couple of miles from
his parents' house. But he's been backpacking for
quite some time - he's saying that by the time he hits
GA, he'll have done 20,000 miles. Yeah, no kidding.
He's 29 and has been working as a commercial fisherman
out of Alaska for about 11 years. Works for about 4
months a year (mid-Jan thru May) and does whatever
(usually backpacking) the rest of the year. He's
already thru-hiked the AT a couple of times ('97 and
'98) as well as the PCT out on the west coast. But
most of the backpacking he does nowadays is in Alaska.
Here's the kicker - he has a scar in his leg of four
tooth marks.... from a griiIIIIZZLY bear!!!
Craaaazzzy... and it only happened this past August.
I guess he's seen lots of grizzly over the years of
backcountry backpacking out there, but he finally got
attacked... was looking for a place to cross a
swelled creek and out of some willows comes this
grizzly! Ran at him once and back to the willows..
then came out once or twice more before taking a nip
at his leg - says it didn't hurt, just felt like a
hard blow to this leg. And then by the time the thing
was on its way back, he'd finally gotten out the
pepper spray and used it on him... off the grizzly
went as quickly and quietly as can be.. he waits a
couple of minutes and then begins his long hike out
for a hitch to a hospital... crazy.. :)

Anyway... for better or for worse, hanging with this
guy and learning more about bears and their habits has
taught me to be a little less worried about the black
bear... and I have been sleeping easier at night.

Btw, not sure if I was clear about my first bear bag
experience earlier, but I'm really pretty sure it was
just a deer now. Another hiker told me that he's
heard of deer going up on their hind legs to reach for
bags of food before and that fits the sounds i
remember. The high-pitched snorts for sure make me
think deer more than bear anyway..

... Uhhh sooo much to write about - will try to do
more tomorrow during my zero day. Feel weird as this
internet connection is really just their home PC.. so
I'll call it a night and bid you all bear-free dreams!

BTW, I did finally see a couple of black bears! About
50-60 ft off in the trees, but a couple of furry black
shapes that once I'd stopped hiking to look, looked up
back at me and about just as fast took off in the
opposite direction down a slope in a racket of dead
leaves. A couple of adolescent siblings still hangin
together I'd guess.. I think Foxtrot had read the
shelter log entry I'd left in a shelter before he
caught up to me and must've smirked at my naive
remarks "I saw a couple of bears!" :)