Stella P. Alberaéz Tascón was hiking northbound over 107 miles along the Appalachian Trail going through Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. I joined her for the final 13 miles after I returned from the 75th Infantry Division Reunion in Texas. I was hiking with her when she reached the northern terminus of the park.
Stella and I stopped at Bear Fence Hut to camp for the night. This camping site had a stone and wood hut with a wooden floor and roof. This is luxury living on the Appalachian Trail. The other luxury that the site has is a steel bear box and a pole with hooks to store food and toiletry supplies. Bears have a keen sense of smell and they know that humans carry delicious food staples. The last thing you want is a bear rummaging through your backpack at 2am.
The bear pole had a long steel pole which allows a camper to place their food back suspended about 18 feet in the air. I tried it out. I have a bear proof bag with smell proof bags inside but I still wanted to take every precaution. Hooking the bag way up high takes practice but it is doable. Ultimately, I decided to keep the bag in the steel box since it was easier to access and I had to get into my supplies multiple times while making dinner. I had Mountain House prepackaged meals. They are not set to expire until 2056. These remind me of WWII K-Rations which had all processed and dried foods which in theory could be eaten to this day over 80 years later. I wouldn’t put that stuff in my mouth however.
Stella and I had a restful night’s sleep in the shelter. Early in the night, I thought I heard a bear rummaging around, but I think that was all in my head. The woods are full of noises throughout the night. In the morning, Stella and I set about doing a painting. We sat at the picnic table and painted the view of the woods. As we were painting, clouds rolled in and the woods disappeared into a cloudy mist. It is amazing to be inside a cloud. Stella got a really good painting, while I consider this one only marginally successful. I find painting the deep woods a real challenge. I am so used to sketching and painting man made objects. The woods offer nothing but chaos and organic shapes. Trees and branches flow in all angles. The bear box in my painting stands out as being entirely separate from the organic chaos all around it.
I am so happy Stella invited me on this hiking adventure. This is something I hope to do more often in the future. Perhaps I will branch off and do a long solo hike someday with the plan of documenting every step with sketches and paintings.