6/5/21 Last night at Pinefield hut woman sharing the shelter heard and saw mice scurrying around. I didn’t notice them. Mice are in all the shelters. Today put in some miles and did okay. Got to Bearfence Mountain Hut before dark. Climbed Hightop Mountain which had nice views. Lots of day hikers climbed it. Weather sunny and hot. Saw several deer and one fawn. They are used to people in the national park so don’t run away. Still haven’t seen a bear and no snakes. Picture of a box spring to get water. A lot of the Ash trees are diseased with evidence of emerald ash borer an invasive insect from China. We see it in NH and I don’t know that there is anyway to stop it. Really sad to see this. Forests in the future will look a lot different. Beech trees have Beech Bark Disease, Hemlock have Woolly Agelid and a new invasive bug called Lantern Fly will kill many trees. All of these are from Asia. I see lots of small American Chestnut. They were the predominant tree in our eastern forests but the chestnut blight wiped them out. They sprout up but once they get a few feet tall they succumb to the disease. They are trying to grow resistant trees using some genetic material from Chinese Chestnuts which are resistant to the blight. No Cicadas here I’m not sure why as they are in Montgomery County Maryland.