July 26, 2005

• So much to do. So much to say. Somewhere to stay... yay yay yay.
  
  
  
  Am searching for an apartment. Again. I'm already tired. I want it to
  be November because then I'll be halfway through the semester, I'll
  have moved and December will be soooo close.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  That's my street.
  
  So before I forget, I did get that job. I'll be teaching film
  production to undergrads starting this fall and I'm scared. And
  excited. and scared. and excited...
  
  
  
  
  
  That's my favourite road sign from the entire trip. The sqaure shows a man falling off a motorcycle!

  There's
  a lot of people out there reading this and rotfl right now. Or maybe
  just surprised. I wasn't known for my verbiosity. Keyword 'wasn't'.  But it's been something I've wanted to do
  for a long time. I never really thought I would, or could. Imagine me standing in
  front of a class of 20 year olds and teach them how to shoot a film.
  eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.... I'm so excited.
  
  Those poor kids.
  
  
  Anyhow... back to the rest of my trip.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Nantahalah forest.
  
  
  
  We hiked about 4 miles in and realised it was getting really late and
  really dark and we were nowhere near the shelter (on the AT) or to the
  campground a couple of miles before the shelter. I kept looking over my
  shoulder cause I was convinced a
  bear was following us. I don't think anyone noticed.
  
  
  
  We settled for the first almost level ground we could fit in.
  
  
  
  
  That's the sunset through our tent.
  
  
  By the time we got our tent pitched, it was, well, pitch dark. We
  still had to cook and eat, pack our food
  in a sack and hang it off a tall tree (10' high and 4' away from the
  trunk). The first stone we tied to the rope went sailing over the
  trees. We tried a heavy twing instead. It lodged perfectly in the fork
  of the branch. We pulled and swung on it. It would easily take my
  weight. Which I thought was good. But no. Some people love making
  observations. Like "how are we going to raise the sack 10' high if we
  don't have the other end to pull on?"
  
  Whatever.
  
  
  
  We ended up cutting the rope and hanging the sack on a lower branch not
  too far from us. We'd just have to deal with the bears when they dropped in.
  
  
  
  
  This isn't the tree we hung on the sack on.

  The forest there looked like a battlefield. Wounded trees leaned on others
  deep within the forest. Others lay dead across the trail at many
  places. Many had not been able to withstand the various storms, some
  just couldn't take the weight of the ones that fell.
  
  
  
  That night hurricane Cindy decided to overtake us. We hadn't had a dry
  day so far on our trip, I didn't see why we'd have it at that moment. So she stood
  over our tent and handpoured buckets of water all night. Exciting. And
  cold. Wasn't this supposed to be a summer camping trip? uh.. huh.
  
  
  
  We hiked back the next morning. It had poured steadily through the night and didn't want to give up on us yet. So we decided
  to give up on it. I'm glad because hurricane Dennis was right
  on Cindy's heels.
  
  
  
  One of the reasons we wanted to
  backpack through the Nantahalah forest was that a trail off the
  Appalachian trail would lead us to the Joyce Kilmer Wilderness.
  
  
  
  
  
  It's one of the few untouched tracts of forest left in this country.
  
  We were disappointed that we
  couldn't hike through the forest to reach there... but we didn't want
  to leave without seeing it, so we drove out and spent the rest of the
  evening amongst rhododendrons.
  
  

  The memorial forest, which is a small part of the wilderness, has a two
  mile trail with beautiful flowers against some very old trees.

  The lichen was beautiful.
  
  
  Fallen and blue...

  
  ... or just hanging on, red.
  
  
  
  
  A creek
  runs through it all.

  We drove north towards Pisgah National forest the next day.
  
  
    
  
  I got my wish of driving down the Blue Ridge Highway.
  

  BEEEEEOOOOOOOOTTTTTTEEEEEEFFFFFUUULLLLLLLLLL!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  And really blue.
  
  
  
  to be contd. <smirk>
  
  
  
  

  • 10:45 pm
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