No Steer...

Apologies for the "A.T.-Speak" tone of this blog entry - It's mostly for those who have hiked through the Roan Mountain to 19-E section of Tennessee on the A.T.

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I was sad to have missed the Longhorn Steer on Hump Mountain this year. When I got to the top of little Hump, I saw them off in the distance about a half-mile away near the base of the hill, but I wasn't about to make the steep descent as lightning was hitting the balds. I pushed on to Hump Mountain, through the cow fence and followed the trail of giant steer patties looking all around but found no steer. I buried my Leki a good 8 inches into a couple of the fresh cow pies accidentally when I wasn't paying attention...those took a bit to clean off and flies followed me all the way down to 19E and to Mountain Harbor B&B where I could finally wash them off.

I didn't see any goats either after the ascent out of Overmountain Shelter area. The night before, we saw them up on the bald from the picnic table outside next to the barn but they were gone by morning. Almost every hiker ahead of me and behind me had some great shots and/or movies of the longhorn steer that seemed to approach them out of nowhere.

I'm getting on at Damascus again on Wednesday, about 35 miles from Gracen Highlands. I'm really hoping my luck with the ponies is much better there. I have some salt packets and a bag of baby carrots to appease them.

MuddyShoes