Taking it slow today. There is a long incline today coming out of the NOC. I orginally intended to go 10 miles today since my next stop is a post office (only open on the week days), but I ran into these two guys in their 40s maybe that motivated me to keep moving. One of them looks like an older version of a famous actor, Ryan Reynolds. He though owns a boat building business in Maine. I do know his real name but he goes by bullet on the trail. I also know he is not a thru-hiker. He is only heading to Fontana Dam. The other guy is from Slovenia. I mistook him from Italy b/c of his accent. He knows a lot of American history. I didn’t catch his name.
The trail had a lot more foilage, animals, and bugs north of the NOC. I very much enjoyed all of the smells throughout the day too. I am thinking it is because everything south of the NOC has been scarred from the forest fires last year in the Fall. I was suprised to see my first Timber Rattle Snake on the trail this morning.
There was this one section of these beautiful tall trees my last two miles today, although to my surprise, each tree had to have hundreds of ticks all over them. I really need to start putting on deet before I leave in the mornings now. Ticks in my opinion are the most dangerous things you can encounter on the trail.
I am not fond of rattlesnakes. Haven’t been since 1988.
I can’t stand the ticks