Hawkeye was put first at 6:30, and I second behind him at 7. The rest of the gang was still asleep, except for Tumbles. I was soaked through with sweat in twenty minutes and my socks wet in a half hour from dew. I stopped at nine to call and reserve a room at a hotel. The only place I could find was out on the interstate west of Hamburg. It's going to rain tomorrow before I can get to town, and the hotel doesn't have a laundry.
I got to PA 183 about noon. Hawkeye was there - Trail Magic! A man was slack packing his wife and gave us Powerade and Oreo cookies. We talked for a while about the trail and I ate lunch.
Somewhere past Black Swatara spring I tried to move two fallen branches off the trail with my hiking poles. When I did, bzzzt! Rattlesnake! A medium sized, dark colored timber rattler. I used one of the sticks, about eight feet long, to poke and pry him until he moved a few feet off the trail so I could pass. Scary!
I was the only one here at Eagles Nest shelter until Flame and Picasso showed up. Mulombo(?) and Garnet Turtle came in around five and I was woken well after dark by Prayer crawling into the shelter. Flame lives either in PA or NY and took time off trail to go home; I though he and Picasso were way ahead.
7/8/15 - I woke up at five again and found that the expected rain never came! And no fog either! So I started packing around five thirty and got on trail at six thirty. The weather change allowed the trail to dry to merely muddy instead of sloppy muddy, although some of the rock piles were plainly excessive. It's obvious that except for blaze marking and occasional weed whacking, no one is maintaining the trail in this part of Pennsylvania. There are multiple trails, and although it's claimed to be rocky terrain, I think an effort like Hard Core or Konarock could fix it. Probably just a lack of people up here to do the work.
I spent the morning hiking in dense, damp woods. Unable to see more than 50 yards ahead or to the side for at least five miles. Boring, muddy, rocky, muggy. I'm really, really tired of this. I need a break or a bus ride home.
7/9/15 Zero Day in Hamburg
I got into Port Clinton about 10am yesterday. The last hill down was incredibly steep, nearly a 1:2 drop. And muddy gravel surface so it was very slick, even without rain. I feel bad for the southbounders who have to climb it.
Port Clinton isn't much, a couple of blocks of worn town around a railroad yard. There is a free pavilion for hikers but no water. The nearby river is not something I'd even try filtering. And I don't even care to guess how hardier is to sleep there, one block off the highway on one side and just across the river from the rail yard on the other.
I walked to the river bridge between Port Clinton and Hamburg; the trail climbs northward out of the valley. Looking at the bridge, I realized it wasn't safe to try and walk across, too narrow without a shoulder on the highway. And it's illegal to hitchhike in PA. So I called Rainbow Alpaca Shuttles. Hiker "Omega" came and took me the ¼ Mike across to WalMart for resupply, the handed me off to hiker "Alpha" for the ride out to a Comfort Inn 15 miles West on I-78. It's a lonely spot catering to long haul truckers but it's out of the rain. And it sure rained this evening! Thunderstorms that knocked out the power briefly. Glad I wasn't on trail today! Tomorrow Alfa will take me back to Port Clinton to start the six day hike to Delaware Water Gap and the New Jersey border.
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