Hierophany

6.11.16.

It is just shy of three in the morning on Saturday.  I am here with B and our dog June.  It was warm out yesterday, 91° or so, and it'll be warm soon enough here again today.  I've got the AC going, set to 74° but the thermometer I've got has it at 75.9° in here.  We brought a box fan along with us, and that's going, back in one of the bedrooms where B and June are sleeping.  I couldn't really sleep or I just don't want to sleep.  I like being awake when everything else is so quiet.  I can take a nap today if I want.

We've camped here in the Park a couple of times before.  This time we wanted to bring June and stay in a cabin.  I can't sleep even a little at these temps in a tent.  It's a little buggy in here.  I know it's not a hotel room but within minutes of getting into the cabin I noticed a large spider clinging to the wall between the door and the sink cupboard, about nine inches off the ground.  I am no authority on arachnids but this was the largest spider I have yet encountered and if it was not a tarantula it was some not-too-far-distant relation.*  Maybe it snuck in as we were unloading the car, who knows.  I killed it.  Fear got the best of me.  I suppose I should have just tried to carry it out in the dustpan.  Then I pick up this logbook and read about not killing the "six-legged spidey".  I think this poor spider had all eight legs, and how anyone would be comfortable shacking up with it I'm not sure.

There's a few of those small, fluttery Indian moths, the kind that infested some bird seed a while back and broke out in my basement.  I used the glue traps with the little green pheromone square to get rid of them finally.  Those traps were called "Pantry Pest" and could go a distance here.  I confess to being particular and wish I had brought my hand-held vacuum.  Seeing how other visitors to cabin number Nine have enjoyed it and visited again I could see myself doing the same.  It just needs a good once-over, like under the beds and under this nice big round table (shine a flashlight up in the middle there).

I do love that back stoop, the seclusion, the stone, the sounds from the river.  What looks like a trail can be one.  I'd like to walk it again with a machete and clean it up a bit.  There's a lot of poison ivy at the moment but you can follow it down to where it connects with the bluff view trail.  Then a few steps past there is a small cliff overlooking the river.  The hike back up had our lungs going but it felt good.  I can see that at one time it might have been a bit more clear down through there and there are some stone outcroppings that are intriguing.

We've done a few of the trails here before.  Walking Fern trail is a short loop rising about the Fisher Cave entrance.  I did that at night and enjoyed it.  River Trail we accessed by walking along the road along the river leading from the main campground back toward where the group sites are at.  It was a decent hike—good birds.  Then we were on Deer Hollow but only briefly.  I can see how we could find the Deer Hollow trailhead up by the store and take that all the way down to the campground and Fisher Cave.  Not sure what we'll do tomorrow.

—JR—

* It was probably a wolf spider.

Sunday, June 12, 2016.  2:41 a.m.  

It took me a while to fall asleep earlier because it is just a little warm.  It was mid-nineties today and although we kept the shades closed and have the AC and a box fan going there is only so much they can do.  I guess I like it cool at night.  I fell asleep around ten I suppose.  My wife woke up a little while ago because she thought she had a tick on her and wanted me to look at it.  Yeah, it was a tiny little tick about this big   °  .  It is most likely the dog picked it up and the dog being dosed with Frontline (tick repellant/preventative) it traveled to her?  We were out and about today but we did not really hike; nor were we messin' around in brush.  We got up and ran down the hill to the campground—yeah, along the road, not my favorite.  We were gonna get on the river trail down there and patch into the bluff trail but the river trail was pretty swampy so we turned around and ran all the way back up the hill.  This was at 8:15 or so and it was already getting hot and trafficky but we did it.  Then we picked up the dog and took the car out and parked over by the other pod of cabins (1-8), over by the trailhead to the wilderness trail.  There were a handful of hikers geared up and ready to do that hike, maybe even backpack camp along the trail.  My wife and I went and found the unmarked nondescript entrance to Sheep's Cave, right over by cabin 4 like the unofficial map in the cabin indicted.  ...