View Full Version : Mouse answers questions from potential AT thru-hikers/section-hikers
First thing, to count as a thruhike one must sleep at EVERY shelter. And no fair hanging your food outside, we mice need our grub! :dance
shades of blue
11-03-2005, 20:34
Goat may stop being a vegitarian and have a mouse for lunch......
SGT Rock
11-03-2005, 20:41
Mouse, besides running an AT shelter, what makes you so qualified to tell people how to hike?
Well. I know every brand of every pack, inside and out! I am an expert on trail food, having tasted everything......
I did thruhike in 2004, but really, I'm hardly the first mouse to do that so it means little compared to the chance to observe so many hikers. :D
Kerosene
11-03-2005, 21:05
Mouse, were you the guy I zipped into the pocket of my pack one morning and chewed their way out while I was hiking?
The Old Fhart
11-03-2005, 21:06
Shadesofblue68-"Goat may stop being a vegitarian and have a mouse for lunch......" You may be right. I saw where The Goat ordered one of these (http://www.milk.com/wall-o-shame/polytron.html). Read the fine print!
Tramper Al
11-03-2005, 21:07
I'll vouch for mouse, he's the real deal. I ran into him at many lean-tos throughout my New England section hike. He most often came into the shelter after dark and left around first light, so I figured he must be doing some big miles. Dude, you own me some trail mix from my last night in the 100 Mile.
You may be right. I saw where The Goat ordered one of these (http://www.milk.com/wall-o-shame/polytron.html). Read the fine print!
Yikes! :eek:
Dude, you own me some trail mix from my last night in the 100 Mile.
But you skipped a shelter. Fair's fair!
Well, mouse, whoever you are. I'm sure of one thing. About the time I acquired a goat 65 or so years ago, I also one morning put on my boots -- and 12 hours later took them off -- and out tumbled a very squished mouse, grossing out my five siblings. I've seen many mice. I've been a friend of many mice. Some think of me as a mouse. But I know one thing. You, sir, are not that badly squished mouse.
Weary
Spartan Hiker
11-03-2005, 21:28
Yikes! :eek:
Yeah, and if you decide to go underground with one of your gopher cousins, you still won't be safe.
http://www.rodenator.com/media/commercial_1.avi
shades of blue
11-03-2005, 21:37
I hope that goat made sure his mouse "squisher" is not causing global warming. I realize that this would make us sweat a lot more....and goats love salt....but aren't mice and goats in favor of the "green" way of life?
Also, mouse....I hate to be the one to tell you about this.....
I heard some hikers on the trail this summer telling me about a guy who kept count of how many mice he killed with his traps....would that be a WMD? (weapon of mouse destruction)?
k k k killing mice? What kind of a bogus hiker would do that? [shudder] Really, I can understand skipping shelters or not feeding us and such but that! :mad:
Tim Rich
11-03-2005, 22:00
Mr. Mouse, how can you be a shelter expert when hailing from Philly. That makes you a city mouse. City mice are foes of regional planning, greenspace, viewshed, and all that is MacKaye.
MacKaye was a cat lover.
I have to live someplace when all the thruhikers are away. Those shelters get pretty barren without hikers.
Mother Nature
11-04-2005, 00:21
The mouse I met on the trail was a she-mouse. Is you a she-mouse or a he-mouse?
Mother Nature and Smokestack
Why I'm a she Mouse. Though you practically have to bear a litter in their pack to get some hikers to stop calling your "him". Heee heee, I know some friends who have done that trick!
Which brings up another piece of advice; ALWAYS bring TP or tissues in a readily accessible spot in your pack. Or else leave your wool socks lying around. I promise to only chew up the tops and to leave the toes alone. We need our nesting material!
And please please never bring canned food. That is so frustrating, so close but so inaccesible!
Frolicking Dinosaurs
11-04-2005, 08:26
I heard a nasty rumor that Mouse hitched rides from shelter to shelter in people's packs. Truth or has mouse been scapegoated?
Gray Blazer
11-04-2005, 08:32
You or one of your friends made a nest in my truck while it was parked at Unicoi Gap 2 summers ago. I hope he/she made it back from FL. Maybe he /she just wanted to visit their cousin MM at Disney World.
I can't speak for how other mice hike their hikes. I just give advice.
But speaking of side trips. Why can't more hikers stop by LaConte Shelter? It is only 6593 feet up a mountain and barely 5 miles off the AT. The mice there have a hard time with the dearth of thruhikers. It seems even most hikers who do go there only do it by accident.
Mother Nature
11-04-2005, 09:34
We want you to know that we held a decent funeral for one of your kin that crawled into Smokestack's sleeping bag at Roan Mountain Shelter. We discovered him when Smoke shook out his bag into our tent the next evening and he tumbled out. We were pretty sure he must have died of heart failure during the night from Smokestack's exhaust after several high octane bean meals not suffocation from being stuffed into a stuff sack all day.
He was laid to rest in a tissue lined grave near some pretty flowers.
Mother Nature
Stoker53
11-04-2005, 10:11
We want you to know that we held a decent funeral for one of your kin that crawled into Smokestack's sleeping bag at Roan Mountain Shelter. We discovered him when Smoke shook out his bag into our tent the next evening and he tumbled out. We were pretty sure he must have died of heart failure during the night from Smokestack's exhaust after several high octane bean meals not suffocation from being stuffed into a stuff sack all day.
He was laid to rest in a tissue lined grave near some pretty flowers.
Mother Nature
"high octane bean meals" LMAO:jump
Cookerhiker
11-04-2005, 13:11
Hey Mouse, how do you decide which shelters to frequent. I'm not a thruhiker but I did about 600 miles of AT section hiking this year and was struck by how you're omnipresent at some shelters while others are completely bereft of your presence.
First example: May in Tennessee - you were ubiquitous at Abingdon Gap Shelter but not as much as the shelters 100-200 miles to the south. Did the presence of a domestic feline creature at Iron Mountain Shelter have an effect?
Second example: September in Maine - you scampered down the line and into my pack at Rainbow Stream Leanto and even leapt on my back when I moved the pack. But where were you at previous shelters, e.g. Cooper Brook, Chairback, Long Pond Stream, Bald Mountain Brook, West Carry Pond - the list goes on.
Can you notify us of your schedule?
We want you to know that we held a decent funeral for one of your kin that crawled into Smokestack's sleeping bag at Roan Mountain Shelter. We discovered him when Smoke shook out his bag into our tent the next evening and he tumbled out. We were pretty sure he must have died of heart failure during the night from Smokestack's exhaust after several high octane bean meals not suffocation from being stuffed into a stuff sack all day.
He was laid to rest in a tissue lined grave near some pretty flowers.
Thanks for such consideration. It seems clear that beans might be something to not overindulge in when sleeping in shelters. I wonder about those nylon-blazers, who stay in tents or tarps. Do the tents ever explode?
As for my schedule, I understand the difficulty. I cannot post my schedule until the rats, snakes, cats and hawks post theirs. But really, Mouse Magic is appreciated anywhere.
Blue Jay
11-04-2005, 19:04
As for my schedule, I understand the difficulty. I cannot post my schedule until the rats, snakes, cats and hawks post theirs. But really, Mouse Magic is appreciated anywhere.
I think you forgot chipmonks. I've noticed where there a chipmonks around a shelter, you never show up. I know they don't eat you like the others, but do they beat you up or what?
No, we get along fine. Same Union!
You sound like a nice Mouse and not too unlike some ULers I've had the pleasure to meet. I've reconsidered my position on mouses and apologize for the posion pellets I left in the shelters south of Hurd Brook :datz
So THAT is why I got that weird case of indigestion. You sound like a nice hiker and I forgive you completely.
I can see how a hiker could get a little frustrated by the attentions of so many mice at some shelters. I think the solution is to encourage as many more people to thruhike as you possibly can. That way no one hiker need be bothered too much. I've seen those shelters hold two and three times as many as they are rated for; fill them up!
On another topic, this fording the rivers business is totally strange. I cannot even think about how I'd ford such an oceanic expanse of water nor would I encourage anyone else to. Though if you can, making your way across via the overhead branches is a very viable and to me quite permissible option.
mweinstone
01-30-2006, 23:27
so you think that hole was funny?do you know how badly i needed that gorp.?that trip was ruined because of you.if i were a mouse ,and im not,but if i were,....id find that mat weinstone and tell him where you are. hes got a reward on your head of five pounds of extra sharp vermont cheadar cheese for information leading to the aprehention and declawing of one eastern feild mouse also known as miss mouse said to be hiding out somewhere in or under windsor furnace shelter. possibly in the company of hundreds of loyalisas.