Sunday Hike

I must start by saying that I couldn't have all of the fun adventures that I get to have without my wife.  Usually I'm a minor pain in the rear but yesterday I was probably a little more.  She drove me about an hour round trip on bad roads to drop me off at Sleepy Creek Lake to start my hike and I am very grateful.  My intentions were to link up with the Tuscarora Trail in Sleepy Creek WMA and back track to fill in a section of the trail that I hadn't hiked.  I know I was on the trail when I was near the lake but I soon lost it.  I'm learning that trails in Sleepy Creek are not always well marked or maintained.  I found a trail that got me around the southern end of the lake and heading up Sleep Creek Mountain and towards what I imagined to be the Tuscarora Trail.  My understanding of the Tuscarora was that it stayed along the top of the ridge through that area but evidently I'm wrong.  When I got to the top of the ridge a trail was there but not the Tuscarora.  So I hiked south on the unnamed trail to hopefully link up with the Tuscarora which I eventually did but really only got to cover about two miles of it instead of the ten miles I had planned on covering.  I was able to figure out the Tuscarora's course through that area and will cover the parts I missed on another hike.  I did pass a test yesterday though, I hiked in the rain and stayed relatively dry.  I bought a cheap poncho from Wal-Mart and wore it over my pack with my bucket hat and it worked well.  I was prepared with a zip-lock bag for my phone and wallet and everything stayed dry so as a novice hiker I was pretty proud of that, and the fact that I hiked just short of 12 miles in the rain in a little over 4 hours.  I saw a turkey, several squirrels, tons of birds and one awesome salamander that I haven't had the chance to identify yet, but if anyone knows what it is please let me know.  I also found a lot of small animal scat in one area that looked about as suspicious as animal scat can look.  I could see small bones in it and I used a stick to tear it apart and it was full of what looked like small rodent and bird bones.  I'm pretty interested in what type of animal left it.  I still haven't seen a bear yet, but I'm on the lookout, hopefully I get a picture.  Next week is Spring Break and I'm pretty excited to get back out on the Appalachian Trail to continue my section hike.

Salamander in Sleepy Creek WMA. 

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Trail markings in Sleepy Creek WMA

The southern end of Sleepy Creek Lake.