A note from Tennessee--you decipher the typos: Oct 22, 2013

A Tennessee privy

A Tennessee privy. The joke here is that there are no privys in Tennessee, pit, above ground, or otherwise. They give you a shovel to dig your own cat hole. Hopefully you know enough to move either down hill from or at east away from. The water source.
We intend to get into Damascus tomorrow with an 18 mile day. Although it just started raining… Mike and I looked at each other and can't decide if we'll hike in the rain.
Mike Also just read his bear spray can and learned it doesn't work in freezing temperature . It will get down to 40. Does that mean it won't squirt the advertised thirty feet? Or that it will spray for something less than the a Advertised 7 seconds? We didn't hang bear bags tonight, we did hang mouse bags though. Those are the hanging strings with a tin can on them that prevent mice from gnawing on your chocolate. Someone told me they have installed bear cables at the birches, the AT leantos in Baxter.
The last SOBO report on Damascus, and there have been quite a few lately, is that it's full of leaf peepers. That should be coming to an end very soon.
Last night we stayed in a shelter with three SOBO's. Young boys, so full of themselves and their stories, particularly of Maine (I didn't tell them I was from Maine) and so cock sure of themselves and their opinions. We escaped in the morning as fast as we could and left them to their world. Most SOBO have been very decent friendly folks, maybe Mike and I were feeling old.
We stopped short of our 22 mile goal today. But the days are getting shorter and it was nice to have time at the endocrine the day to build a fire, chat, throw the stick for Shelby, just relax in daylight. Finding water has become more of a chore. Even here the spring is just a trickle and it takes 2 liters minimum to cook supper and get started in the morning. I'm still hiking in shorts but my jacket and gloves can stay on for a couple of hours because of the cold. I am really glad I brought gloves and fleece hat.
I have been cooking those Knorr Sides for supper. Tonight I had the Thai one. I splurged for a bottle of Chalula hot sauce and the last girl I made has lots of dried fruit so I sweetened the pot with some dried papaya and pineapple. It wasn't bad! For dessert I had tea and a pop tart. Hmmmm. Lunches have beent hose tuna salad single serving envelopes smeared on a tortilla. Or Spam, how could I forget SPAM? Smeared on a tortilla. Now that's good eating! Tortillas travel remarkably well!
Dang, this is the first shelter I have really heard the mice…
59° Partly Cloudy
Cherokee National Forest, Elizabethton, TN, United States

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