Day 56: That ain't rain

The forest seems to amplify rain. The lightest sprinkle is so much louder under a canopy of broad leaves. So when we hear the tinkling in the night, it seems like maybe it's starting to rain. Except... wait... the tent is not wet at all. So what's that sound?

In high school my chemistry teacher brought in a cage full of fat green caterpillars which he said grow to be Luna moths. He said at his house he would let the caterpillars eat in an open cage, and when they turned to the beautiful bright green adult moths, they would fly around his house. But he didn't worry about the adults eating anything in his house, because as adults the Luna moth doesn't even have a digestive system or mouth. No, they have only one goal.

It's during the caterpillar stage when they do all their eating. And that's all they do. Eat and poop. He said that during the height of the Luna caterpillar season, their pooplets drop from the trees and sound like rain.

Mystery solved. Today, on the trail, every once in awhile, the trail would be littered with brown grains that were most certainly caterpillar pooplets. When the wind blew, it would dislodge the pooplets caught in the folds of leaves and the dry rain would commence again.

The poop rain eventually did give way to an afternoon shower though. We made it almost 17 miles today before calling it quits during a lull in the showers so we could set up our tent and keep it dry.