The one with Gluten Free Bears

"High on gear, low on experience" was the way I described our shelter mates last night-  two fresh faces with spanky, shiny new gear and a penchant for making food musk to draw in the critters from miles around. 

Having spent most of the day fighting through a painful knee tweak (MC) and sore feet bones (Tammi) and way too many ups and downs after Completing Three Ridges the day before, we rolled into camp desperately seeking the nice wide creek with pools deep enough for wading and bathing. 

Side note: what freaking masochist designed the AT anyway? You spend half of one day climbing the Priest (see below), just to spend a few hours going DOWN it (3000ft), then immediately climb BACK up (3900ft), come down a few hundred feet to collapse into bed and then have to climb again the next day. My legs and feet wanted to detach from my body and retreat far, far away from my clearly addled brain. 

The Priest: the mountain pictured on the far left. 

At the top of Three Ridges. About 6hrs of hiking up up up. Freaking up. Still more? What is this, #%*!*% Everest? Dear God, WHEN WILL IT END??!?

(After our big climb day, we made ourselves dinner and turned in. Bad news? Rain storm! Good news: we set up our rain fly's correctly so we stayed dry all night. Good news part2: pretty gorgeous after-rain sunbeams the morning after)

Anyway. 14miles of rough terrain on day 8; 14 miles the next day to our shelter/stream oasis. 

We dropped our gear and dragged our sweaty asses down to the creek to wash clothes and stanky bodies in the frigid water. We were enjoying having the shelter to ourselves, dreaming of hanging our hammocks inside the shelter and skipping the rain fly setup. 

We were just emerging from the stream, hauling our (significantly better smelling) clothes up to hang dry on the line (in our underpants) when we look up to see --Surprise!-- shelter mates had arrived during bath time. 

We made acquaintances, pulled on some clothes and started dinner prep. 

After our meticulous cleanup (this shelter was notorious for mice activity, and we're pretty hardcore about keeping bears away) we were talking with the newbies when one of them accidentally dumped her boiling pot of pasta all over the shelter floor. Her friend, in an effort to be helpful, (after inquiring if she wanted to attempt to reuse it) scooped up the pasta and under our disbelieving eyes, simply tossed it in the bushes right outside the shelter.  SERIOUSLY, man? We were going to sleep. Right. Here. 

Next to your bear buffet. 

After Hitch made a remark about the pasta attracting bears and his pause, "oh. ....Yeah" he comes up with this gem: 

"Well, bears don't really like wheat and carbs and stuff. It should be fine."

Bless it. 

So, if you find yourself hiking the Three Ridges and Waynesboro area, if you find yourself tired and concerned about bears disturbing your well-earned slumber, rest assured. 

 Just pack yo'self a sammich and sleep with a bread pillow and you're good to go. The bears here are gluten -free.