A fabulous day on South Mountain, and we are preparing to depart for a birding tour of Michigan.  A swarm of hundreds of thousands of birds is moving north across the continent.  The crowd diminishes with distance as many drop out, but those heading farther north often pause at the great lakes.  No wise bird flies across open water without refueling, and most fly at night to avoid nasty predators.  So, the lakefront is a good place to look for birds in May and early June.

This week started out soggy, so we delayed provisioning the RV until yesterday.  Now she is almost ready.  My sister will be taking mother here for Mother's Day, so we will move in on Sunday to make room for guests.  Spending a night in the rig before departure is a good way to confirm that you have everything.

This trip will be considerably different from our last, a nine-day hike from Groseclose to Pearisburg VA.  That one went very well.  We are now left with about 150 miles to complete our walk of the Appalachian Trail.  We drove to Pearisburg where we spent the night at the Holiday Lodge.  After a last "civilized" breakfast at the Dairy Queen, Buck drove us to Groseclose.  The morning was damp with a few showers and warm.  This being our second backpack of the month, we walked well across the Great Valley and over a ridge of the ridge-and-valley section of the Appalachians.  We were ready to stop then, but entered a three-mile section where camping was prohibited.  After that we crossed a very low birdge across a creek and found a campsite along a tributary. 

After supper a whip-poor-will began calling.  Wonderful.  Just as we went to bed, a shower arrived.  No problem, but during the night three thunderstorms pelted our valley.  At dawn, just as we were waking, another struck.  We waited a bit, broke camp in the rain, and hiked another two miles to a shelter where we made breakfast.  The rain finally eased and we resumed our walk. 

A half mile down the trail we came to an  stream impassible in flood and returned to the shelter until Noon.  After lunch the rain almost stopped and we started again.  The stream was still roaring, and I dropped a couple of small logs across it.  We progressed to where four young women had made camp and remainded there.  We harrassed them a bit for tarrying and crossed a bridge over a roaring creek.

A half mile farther downstream the trail recrossed the creek, this time without a birdge.  The crossing should have been a rock hop, but instead it was a thirty-foot wide roaring river.  We gave up the hike for that day, having progressed only three miles.  We would have to make up another eight over the next seven days.  The women decided they wanted to go on and did so at 4:30 in the afternoon.  We walked with them to the crossing and I gave advice on making it.  They made the first leap, all but one keeping their feet dry.  We wished them well.  Later we learned that they had to wade up to their waist to cross the floodplain to a bridge across a small river.  What a day and what a set of storms.  All the hikers in the section had a difficult day.  We also heard that the bridge we crossed the previous day was closed.  Hikers had to make a two-mile detour around it.

After that the weather improved and we enjoyed the spring forest immensely.  The canopy remained open on the ridges until the end of the hike, allowing us to better observe the flocks of birds moving north.  Almost each day we saw new year-birds.  Most fun was observing a migrating flock of worm-eating warblers.  These birds typically remain concealed in the shadows of rhododendron thickets, but we saw them clearly moving across the canopy and making their insect-like buzzy song.  On the second to last day the blackburnian warblers appeared to show off their flame-colored throats and make their high-pitched song as they swept across the mountains.

The wildflower show we enjoyed on our first hike this year continued.  This section of trail included flame azaleas, pincter flowers, and Catawba rhododendron.  They put on a fine show.

On most evenings we enjoyed the company of fellow hikers who were camped nearby at campsites or shelters.  Anne taught some of them our dice game "Greedy" which provided an opportunity to converse about plans and experiences.  Most hikers are young, but we met a pair of seventy-year old women, a pair of Austrailian brothers, and a wonderful couple from New Hampshire who are hiking the trail much as we are in retirement.

We enjoyed one night off the trail at a motel in Bland (appropriately named The Big Walker Motel after a mountain of that name) where we laundered, bathed, and enjoyed restaurant food.  We restored our schedule and got ahead of it on our last afternoon.  We walked off the mountain and down to the New River crossing in the morning.  Then we walked to our car and drove to The Bear Den Restaurant where we greatly enjoyed a grand hamburger for lunch.  We made the long drive home that day, stopping for supper in Chambersburg PA. 

In this past week we visited my mother, caught up on chores, and recovering from a hard hike for senior citizens.  I also installed a new flat (and much lighter) television in the RV.  We enjoyed the company of our neighbors prepare for this busy weekend.  My college tells me I graduated 40 years ago.  Hard to believe, but I take their word for it.  We will drive to Philadelphia to take another look at the place and share a picnic lunch with classmates.  On Sunday, we have company here.  Then we're off on our next adventure.  There we will be able to maintain communications.  So, more on that later.