In Porcupine Country!

   I had a scheduled mail pickup on July 26, 1980 in Cheshire, Mass. I was still running behind schedule because of my hurt foot (which was now much better). I remember rolling into the town early afternoon on Saturday and missing my pickup by just a few hours. Post offices always closed at noon on Saturday back in 1980. I was stuck in town until early Monday morning. The delay was irritating to me. I wanted to get some miles under my belt. I wanted to make it to Maine!
   One thing I do remember from hiking the trail was a night experience. I honestly don't remember if I was in Massachusetts at the time or some other place, but I do remember other details. I spent the night at a shelter (I did that probably 70% of the time). This shelter had some sheet metal nailed to the front of the shelter floor. It also had a metal toilet seat in the outhouse. I thought that was very strange until another hiker told me that we were in porcupine country!
   We don't have porcupines in Georgia (we have possoms, and all kinds of other critters!) I asked the other hiker about the metal outhouse seat. It turns out that porcupines love to eat salt. And urine contains a lot of salt. The porcupines would chew up the outhouse seats, that's why they were made of metal. On the front of the shelter most hikers would come and sit down. The sweat from their bodies would soak into the wood and the porcupines would chew that too (the wood, not the hikers!)
   I had a good place to sleep in the shelter, but more and more hikers arrived. The shelter was packed full. One hiker had to sleep right on the edge of the shelter (at our feet). The evening was quiet and I fell asleep. I woke suddenly to a strange noise. The porcupines were attacking! Well.....not really "attacking", but they were trying to get into the food bags. The hiker sleeping at the end of the shelter took a big stick and whacked one of the porcupines. As it fled (taking the others with him). the hiker withdrew the stick and put it into the pool of light coming from a flashlight. There were several porcupine quills protruding from the stick! After this adventure we slept well and had an uneventful day. I will never forget that night in porcupine country!

   2011 update:  This morning I weighed in at 172.0 pounds. I went jogging again and added another small piece of the neighborhood to my route. I also worked on the car (lots of sweat!). Now I am eating a big salad for lunch. I've got to get back on track. The deadline for 165 pounds is September 4th!