1319.9 miles in

I spent the 4th of July weekend in Carlisle, PA with Holly.  We visited Boiling Springs, ate and drank at the Appalachian Trail Brewery (they don’t have any hiker discounts/specials), went to a Thai restaurant, I had a deep tissue massage, and we watched some episodes of Doctor Who.  It was nice to have a weekend.

On Monday the 4th of July, Holly left for the airport and I continued walking to Duncannon.  The hike was hot and there wasn’t much too see other than the usual trees and rocks.  I did meet a fellow at Cove Mountain Shelter who had thru-hiked in 2009 and was just out for the extended weekend.  He told me that as bad as the bugs are, they’ll get worse as I go North.  In fact, in the 100-mile wilderness in Maine there are signs in places cautioning against camping due to excessive bugginess.  He and I were sitting on a cliff which must have been overhanging a vulture nest, because during our entire conversation there were two buzzards watching us from the trees and acting generally cantakerous.  I stopped for the evening at Duncannon and got a room at The Doyle for $25.  The hot water heater was broken and there was no A/C, but the first floor was a bar packed with hikers, so it was still enjoyable.  I walked a block to a convenience store that evening for some supplies and a pint of ice cream, then I returned to The Doyle and climbed out my window onto the roof to watch amateur fireworks before turning in.

On the 5th water was an issue.  I drank 1L before leaving Duncannon and carried 2.5L with me.  To get out of Duncannon I had to cross the Susquehaan river via a bridge, and the pedestrian path was completely covered in cobwebs.  I was obviously the first person to cross the bridge that morning.  I managed to keep most of the webs off me by holding my poles in front of me.  After 5 miles I collected and consumed another 1L at Clark’s Ferry Shelter.  It took me unusually long to reach the next shelter, because the trail was littered with black raspberry bushes.  They taste wonderful and they’re a source of water when it’s dry, but it’s impossible to make good time around berries.  I skipped Peters Mountain Shelter completely because the guidebook described the water source as being down “300 rock steps”.  I ended up hiking 18 miles total and camping at a spring just before PA Hwy 325 because there were flyers advertising trail magic Wednesday morning at that road crossing.  I was joined at the campsite by Shotgun, Roadie, Phishnets, Hopeful, & Bumblebee.  I was expecting the infamous Pennsylvania rocks to rear their ugly heads after Duncannon, and they kind of did, but the rocks actually weren’t that bad – just prevalent.  Mosquitos are becoming an issue.

Wednesday (July 6th) morning I headed down to the parking lot on PA 325 to avail myself of the anticipated trail magic.  I had been dreaming of hotdogs and hamburgers, but it turned out to be sodas & pasta salad.  It was nice, and I’m certainly appreciative to SATC & Bob Fromme Jr for providing it, but I left the parking lot with a craving for a cheeseburger.  The day quickly became hot & humid as it always does, and since I was in PA water sources were scarce.  There was a nice clearing at the Yellow Springs Village site, but the area was infested with mosquitos so I didn’t stop.  Shortly after leaving that clearing I encountered a timber rattlesnake.  Sherlock was hiking ahead of me and had almost stepped on it, so he called out to warn me.  I left a note to warn future hikers.  I pushed on to Rausch Gap Shelter which was an interesting and unique design for a shelter, and was in a lovely part of the forest.  I continued on to the road crossing providing access to Lickdale, then up a climb and along a thorny, overgrown ridgeline seemingly forever until I reached WIlliam Penn Shelter.  The rocks started to get pretty rugged during this stretch.  I ended up doing 25 miles and I could feel every one.  The bugs were bad so I tented at the shelter site along with many other hikers.  I discovered this evening that I had lost my Platypus 1L soft bottle somewhere.  As of this evening, I had fewer than 1000 miles remaining – it felt good to drop a digit.

Thursday (July 7) I hiked 19.2 miles.  The rocks were bad, and just as prevalent.  I stopped at 501 shelter early in the day to order a calzone from the nearby Italian restaurant, then hiked on.  During the hike I heard a lot of thunder and kept expecting to get wet, but the storms never seemed to make it over the mountain to me.  I caugt up to Rolling Stone and we hiked together for awhile.  We ended up stopping at Eagle’s Nest Shelter and actually slept in the shelter because the incessant thunder had us nervous about the weather.  The shelter was thoroughly infested with mice, and one of our fellow hikers (Woodstock) was packing an airsoft pistol so we had some target practice.  Fellow hiker Truckin’ managed to score a kill.  During the day’s hike we encountered a girl currently attempting to beat the record for supported southbound thru-hike (I think it’s currently 57 days).  Obviously she was in a hurry so didn’t have much time to chat, but she said “Hi” so she’s okay in my book.

Friday (July 8) started wonderfully.  The rocks were still awful and everywhere, but I hiked 10 miles to Hamburg, PA then got a hitch into town to McDonald’s.  I ate there, then walked across the street to the strip mall and ate again at the Philly Pretzel Factory.  They sold soft pretzels for $0.75 each or 3/$2.00, so I bought 3 and some cheese sauce.  I then headed to WalMart for resupply and to buy a Kindle.  I had recently finished reading Stranger in a Strange Land, and I wanted to be able to read my preference, rather than just reading whatever filth I find abandoned in the shelters.  Reading a good book at the end of the day is essential to ones mental health while hiking.  As such, I bought a Kindle at WalMart and then returned to McDonald’s and used their WiFi to download some books.  Rolling Stone was in Hamburg at the same time, but he headed to the Cabela’s to buy a new headlamp since he’d lost his in Boiling Springs – he’d been getting by with a tiny incandescant mag-lite that runs on a single AAA (ie: no battery life).  I hitched back to the trailhead and hiked 5 miles to Windsor Furnace Shelter, cooked dinner, and settled into bed to enjoy my new Kindle before going to sleep, only to discover that I had apparently left my own headlamp lying in Eagle’s Nest Shelter.  Rolling Stone, having just purchased a new headlamp for himself, was kind enough to loan me his junk flashlight.

Note: At Windsor Furnace Shelter, the guidebook clearly states that swimming is not allowed.  The only water at the shelter is a stream 5  inches deep.

I awoke early Saturday morning (July 9) thanks to Rolling Stone setting his alarm for 6am, and I was on a mission.  It was 70 miles to the next outfitter, and I wanted to cover the distance in 3 days so I could acquire a headlamp and actually start reading my Kindle before bed.  The rocks didn’t make it easy – from Hamburg onward, the rocks were vicious.  Every step was painful, one in three steps nearly rolled an ankle, one in ten rocks were unstable, and there was still no water.  Early in the day I reached Pulpit Rock where Rolling Stone, PC, and Guino were drying their gear.  I walked West and checked out an astronomy park, then moved on.  I continued to The Pinnacle where I didn’t see a view, but some0ne had built a *huge* cairn.  Guino caught up to me here, and we both cooked for the next 6 miles, missing Eckville Shelter in the process (it was 0.2 down a paved road, unmarked).  I passed a mailbox called Dan’s Pulpit which I assume contained a trail register, but which I didn’t open because it was completely covered in some sort of ant/bee creatures.  I breaked for lunch at Allentown Shelter where I met El Flaco, who is a member of the 2011 Hiker Trash Tour (they’re thru-hikers that pick up trash while hiking).  I hiked on to New Tripoli campsite, which had water and was beautiful – I should have stayed there but I pushed on.  I passed Knife Edge which had a pretty good view, but after 20 miles of awful rocks I hated it and just wanted to be done.  It was a rock slab slanted at a pretty steep angle, and the trail ran right along the peak – it was like hiking on a roofline.  There was also a strong breeze, and if you fell to either direction, you would have certainly died.  I continued up and down Bake Oven Knob which was very poorly blazed and insanely rocky/bouldery, and littered with broken glass.  Once I found the trail again I made my way to Bake Oven Knob Shelter, which was a tiny, run-down shelter completely packed with weekenders.  I headed downhill for water and passed three dried-up springs, wandered into a quarry or construction zone and collected water from a murky pool filled with tadpoles, then kept searching for better water.  I followed one trail until it faded into nonexistence, then bushwhacked a bit further until fellow hiker Guino yelled to me from the spring.  I dumped the frogwater and filled from the spring, which was actually very clean, cold water.  Fully tanked, I headed back 0.4 miles to the shelter, then hiked onward until I found a campsite that didn’t suck.  I started a fire and read my Kindle by firelight while listening to fireworks and a concert in the valley below, ending a painful day on a rather high note.

Sunday (July 10) was a painful day as well.  I hiked 6 miles to the first shelter, filled all my water containers, then hiked 16.7 more to the next shelter (which was also the next water source), took all the water I could carry again, and hiked 2 more miles to a clearing suitable for camping.  The climb out of Palmerton that morning was pretty intense – it was far too steep and rocky to walk.  I was using hands and  feet to climb up the rock face.  The only part of the trail that wasn’t abysmally rocky this day was a detour through a Superfund site.  That Superfund stretch was actually very nice.  It was smooth, level ground, and there were berry bushes everywhere.  The berries only tasted slightly of mercury.  From my camp I had a view both East and West.  The ground was too rocky for tent stakes, so I used rocks to hold my tent stakes in place.  I started a campfire, and El Flaco & Milo joined me for the evening.  After the sun set, we could see fireworks displays to both the East and West, and could hear a concert from the East.

Note: I discovered today that in Pennsylvania, the ATC isn’t the only group putting white paint on trees.  Much of the AT in PA is poorly blazed, and if you go the wrong way there’s a good chance you might see a “white blaze” anyway.  It’s great fun.

On Monday (July 11) morning, I woke up in an oven.  It turns out that if you pitch your tent in a clearing, it gets pretty warm inside pretty quickly once the sun rises.  I stumbled out of my tent as quickly as possible, only to be attacked by the myriad of bugs prevalent in meadow areas.  Skipping breakfast, I packed as quickly as possible and ran screaming from the clearing.  From now on I sleep under trees.  It was uncommonly hot all day long, so I never really cooled down after cooking in my tent.  I did 12 miles to a shelter which had a water spigot, chugged some water, then did 6 more miles to Delaware Water Gap.  Yes, all of them were incredibly rocky and painful.  Upon reaching the town, I checked in at the church hostel (Handstand was already there – nice to meet up again), grabbed a quick shower, then headed straight to the outfitter to buy a headlamp.  They didn’t have the model I wanted, so I headed to the other outfitter.  They didn’t have anything hiking related, so I went back to the first outfitter and bought the best option available – it coincidentally turned out to also be the cheapest.  It was a Princeton Tec model with two LEDs – one red, and one white with two brightness levels.  I walked back to the church hostel, opened the package, put in the batteries, and discovered that the white LED was already burnt out.  I grabbed the receipt and walked back to the first outfitter again, and traded my broken headlamp for another, which worked properly.  I grabbed food at the diner, then headed back to the church hostel and jumped into a 7 passenger van with 13 others and we headed to the theatre to watch Transformers 3, then we went to a bar for beers and second-dinner (spaghetti & meatballs).  I walked back to the hostel from the bar ’cause it looked like the party might go a bit long, then *finally* used my headlamp to read my Kindle, and went to sleep.

Tuesday (July 12) was a good day.  Everyone headed to breakfast at the diner at about the same time, then I grabbed some extra supplies from a gas station.  Handstand and I packed up and hiked out together, crossed the Delaware, said good riddance to PA, and proceeded to actually enjoy ourselves again.  New Jersey started with a pleasant stroll through Kittatinny park, including lots of edible berries, then we followed a rocky stream up a not-so-rocky path.  Not too much later we came to a gorgeous pond called Sunfish Pond, where we saw a deer on the far bank drinking or bathing or something.  The trail followed ridges and gave lots of great views all day long.  I discovered blueberries – apparently they’ve been all over the place, but I didn’t notice until NJ ’cause in PA if you look away from your feet, you die.  We saw two black bears while hiking the New Jersey ridges.  We stopped for a break at the Mohican Outdoor Center, where we ate sandwiches and drank sodas, and both Handstand and myself played the guitar presumably left there solely for our benefit.  After the MOC, the trail skirted Catfish Swamp.  It was cool to see a swamp since we haven’t so far, even though my socks got a bit swampy in the process.  We climbed up a fire watchtower to enjoy the view, and took a group photo at the top – me, Handstand, Gimli, and Poncho (photographer: Mark Trail).  We filled up our water at Rattlesnake Spring and hiked three miles further to a wonderful campsite.  It was surrounded by signs warning of problematic bears, but the only thing bothering us at the campsite was a raccoon.  The campsite had a great view, a fire ring, a bench, perfectly level ground, and a great breeze.  We both stripped down to our underwear so our clothes could dry on the line.  While donning only loinclothes, I threw a bear line to hang our food, and Handstand chased a raccoon out of town.  We only covered 16.5 miles, and we intended it to be that way.  We’re slowing down to give Jackrabbit a chance to catch up.

Wednesday morning (July 13) I awoke to the sound of rain on my tent.  Handstand and I pulled down the bearbags and ate breakfast, then we quickly broke camp and moved on in our rain gear.  The rain gear proved to be rather unnecessary, because the rain stopped nearly the instant we started walking.  We hiked for awhile, and eventually came out onto a slanted rock slab from which we had a nice view.  At the same time, the sun started to come out, and we noticed the area was full of blueberries.  As such, I spread out my tent to dry and we both picked blueberries for about a half hour.  We continued on to Brink Road Shelter where we met Navigator (we’ve been running into him for a few days now – he’s German so Handstand has been enjoying the chance to speak his native tongue).  We wasted about two hours at the shelter, then got water and all three of us moved on to Gren Anderson Shelter.  There were many great views along the way.  Handstand and I refilled our water again and hiked on, seeking a more isolated campsite a little further on.  We found nothing for 2.5 miles, at which point we were atop Sunrise Mountain.  Here we met a man named Ernie who invited us to walk back to his house with him and crash at his place.  We accepted, expecting to tent in his yard.  That could not have been further from the truth.  Ernie has shown us unprecedented hospitality, offering his shower, laundry facilities, food, drink, spare bedrooms, and even internet access (hence this blog entry).  We shared our blueberries.  I got Ernie’s address so I can send him a picture of me atop Katahdin once it’s all over.  Thanks a million for everything, Ernie.