#74 Bald Mtn Shelter to No Business Shelter Day 30: ATMM 327.4 to ATMM 338.0
Stars rule the night, but surely they’re curious as to what they’ve missed all day.
A few puffy clouds float by at a rapid pace on this otherwise clear morning. The birds once again double as both alarm clock and background music to the brisk morning. The air is so fresh and so clean.
The ground is muddy from yesterday evening’s rain. Beams from the sun illuminate water droplets on the plants that line the trail, amplifying the colors and brightness of our path. The constant breeze eventually dries everything.
Through Whistling Gap the trail opens up a little wider; the trees are spread a little farther apart and the sun shines through more brilliantly. The wilderness seems bigger when spread out. So often the trail is nothing more than a green tunnel with nothing to look at but tightly knit trees and the dirt path before you.
Reaching the top of High Rocks, I squeeze myself and my pack through the tight channel of boulders, then drop my pack and sit with Princess and Medicine Man. Towering over us is Big Bald, the mountain we summited last night after the hurricane fueled rain. A few day-hikers are up here. High Rocks is only a few miles from a road. That means we will encounter more traffic on the trail until we reach the road at bottom of the mountain.
I pull my snack bag out and immediately make a four pawed friend. The day-hiker says “If I give her a little a snack, you’ll have a loyal friend for life.” I figuring it’s good to have loyal friends for life, so with permission from the owner as to the type of snack I have to share with Milly, I break off part of my fruit bar and place it on the rock near me. As soon as the snack was gone so was Milly. A loyal friend for life my foot.
