Day 68

RIGHT before I went to sleep last night I heard little noises around my campsite. I looked out and saw a raccoon messing around with Lieutenant Dan. Ugh. I had food in there and also in my tent. Sleeping with food in your tent is usually a big no-no but I am pretty good about not following rules. I have slept with food in my tent almost every night that I’ve camped. Just not when I was in the mountains with a possibility of bear sightings.

Out here in the midwest I am pretty sure that I can handle any animal that I come across. Most of them are more scared of me than I am of them. Even coyotes. Anyways, raccoons don’t scare me at all but I can’t stand them. They are persistent as hell and won’t leave you alone. I knew I’d be battling them all night.

I opened the tent and told Domino to “go get it.” She charged at the raccoon and I heard it run off. I know very well that Domino wouldn’t have caught the raccoon. I knew it would only scare the raccoon away. It did. Domino was sniffing around camp and marking her territory while I packed up all of the food in Lieutenant Dan and my tent and hung it up off of the ground by a tree branch. This is one of the most effective ways to still have food left over for breakfast in the morning when dealing with raccoons. They will claw and gnaw through anything all night just to get a snack.

After that I was able to sleep for a while. A few hours later it was back and was under the bag trying to reach up. I thought it was funny at first but then it went over to Lieutenant Dan and started sniffing. I still had some scented products in there like deodorant and sunscreen and maybe it can’t tell the difference between that and food. I wasn’t sure…. “Domino go get it.” She scared it off and came back to the tent when I called her.

That bought me another few hours of sleep and by then it was getting light out. I slept in a little and laid around a while longer. I was in no rush today and was feeling rather lazy. I only had about a 15 mile day ahead of me so I knew that I could take it easy. While I was packing up I was listening to the radio and I heard them replay a clip from my interview that I did yesterday. That was kind of cool haha.

After leaving the state park that I camped in, I was quickly got on a small road that runs parallel to hwy 50. It was amazing. No traffic whatsoever. A 2 lane paved road all to myself! From looking at my map, I knew that I was going to be able to be on this road all day.

I took it very easy because I spoke with a guy named Chris, another cross country hiker, and he was going to try to catch up with me today. He started on the same day that I started my walk. He started in North Carolina and our paths just happened to cross. Pretty amazing!

I asked a friend that I had met yesterday, Mistie, if she knew anyone that could help us find a campsite in the town of Olney for the night. She was able to get us approved to sleep in the city park. That was amazing. Knowing that I had somewhere to go and camp was such a good feeling.

I get into town and take my time strolling around because Chris said he was close. We met up at a Mexican restaurant and ordered a ton of food! We swapped stories and talked about stuff that only a select handful of people truly understand.

We cashed out and rolled over to the park to find our campsite. Supposedly, this town is known for having white squirrels. It’s like a thing. They are protected and people will cut your hands off if you try to hurt one. This park is where most of them reside. We set up our tents and talked to a couple of girls who live in the town about the squirrels and other things. Never saw one but we didn’t really look. I’m going to try and spot one in the morning.

Another great day and hopefully a good night’s rest knowing that I have permission to camp here and that raccoons shouldn’t be an issue. And the weather seems to actually be nice for a few days. I must be dreaming….