I hiked just over 5 miles today at the pace of a geriatric snail. I didn’t start until noon because I made a trip to the post office to mail home some unused items (long johns and winter top of my hammock). When I started hiking May 1 temperatures got down to the 40s at night. Now they are in the mid 60’s at night so I mailed home 2 pounds of stuff that I won’t need until I get into New Hampshire and the White Mountains. I also had a big filling breakfast (pancakes , my favorite) with Bread Crumbs, No Rush, and Iliana – all in their early 20’s. Let me tell you having breakfast and conversation with 20 something’s is vastly different than breakfast and conversation with retirees. The young people discuss hikers impact on the trail (creating a new stealth camping site damages the undergrowth). Retires discuss the trail’s impact on the hiker (I twisted my ankle on those rocks).

I went at the pace of a geriatric snail because I had 6 hours to go 5 miles and I didn’t want to have anymore coughing fits. The first mile was a stroll down the town sidewalks. Lots of people in their yards prepping for the Memorial Day weekend parade. Then across two rivers on pedestrian bridges and then up into the mountains.

A slow steep trail, so slow I didn’t huff and puff, so I didn’t cough, turned in to a lovely walk in the woods turned into a rock scramble. This was a different kind of rock scramble than I have seen so far. It lasted about a mile or more and had huge boulders that looked like dragon scales. Hiking over them is what I imagine hiking over a dragon’s back over and through the dragon’s scales feels like. Also horrifyingly, sometimes you would step on one of those thousand pound rocks and it would shift under your feet. My gut pitched and I would get a bit of nausea from the quick rush of fear and the matching adrenaline every time it happened

There were thunderstorms predicted to roll in about 6pm. As I hiked I could see the storm building and hear distant thunder. The sky was getting darker and I did not like being on the exposed rocks on the topmost ridge of the mountain. I started hustling a little bit to get to the shelter. I made it to the shelter, went to the spring to refill my water and about 3 minutes after I made it to the shelter the storm hit and the rains poured down! It was amazing timing! Especially since it was only 5pm (not 6pm as predicted).

Eastern Eyed Click Beetle

I’m hiking along trying to walk upright like a good homo sapien. But also like a good hiker who doesn’t want to fall down so I’m bent over using my hands to hold on to the rocks so I don’t sprain a knee or ankle. I look up while bent over holding on to rocks and this bug is at eye level right in my face. I’ve never seen a bug that looks anything like that, I’m thought maybe it was a giant stink bug. I decided to do a Google image search and learn it is an Eastern Eyed Click Beetle. A kind of beetle that eats deadwood – makes perfect sense in a forest. I also read that it is a click bug because when it feels threatened it catapults itself forward up to six feet with a loud clicking sound. Now mind you, when I’m reading this my nose is still about 3 inches away from it. It didn’t “catapult” itself away, but if it had I’m pretty sure I would have shrieked from sheer shock. I moved away quickly after that before I could make it nervous.

There you have it, my day of dragon scales and click beetles.