We woke up early after not getting enough sleep and walked across the street to a local joint to have breakfast. We planned to hike our longest distance yet today. After walking on the Trail through the rest of the town we crossed a bridge over the Juniata River and crossed over the very busy highway to a Pilot Travel Plaza where we bought Subway sandwiches to bring with us for lunch. We then crossed over the scary highway again and crossed over the Susquehanna River. From there we made a steep ascent back up in the mountains and begun hiking across the ridge line which was pretty flat, but still had a lot of tiny ups and downs. Also, the path was very rocky for several stretches along the way. We had heard that Pennsylvania was thruhikers least favorite state because it was so rocky and we had finally reached the rocky part. The rocks slowed us down a bit, but the stretches of rocks weren't too terribly long. We talked about how we thought people over exaggerated about how bad the rocks were. We hiked on and on, feeling slow, and we decided we'd probably stop sooner than we planned. We made a descent, only to ascend right back up and continued on into the evening. The terrain got a little flatter and we decided if we really sped up we could make our original planned distance. We hiked really fast on hurting feet. We only stopped when Nepsis jumped back and yelped because there was a rattlesnake right in the middle of the Trail in front of us. We walked around it and it didn't bother us.We hiked on and made really great time as we made it to Rausch Gap Shelter well before dark. We were excited to see we'd caught back up with Dawg, but not so excited to see the shelter was full so we had to set up our tent. I don't think we've seen a full shelter since North Carolina. We crawled into our tent to sleep shortly after dark, glad we'd made it so far, and glad we got to rest our weary feet.
Miles hiked today: 29 Total AT miles completed: 1172.1 Total AT miles left to hike: 1013.2
Day 93
It stormed during the night so we had to pack up a wet tent when we finally did decide to wake up after our long day. We decided to do a short day and after a couple of hours it began to rain steadily. We hiked through it and the second half of the day was pretty flat terrain. We waited to break for lunch until we got to a shelter so we could cook and eat it in a dry place. From there we hiked a few more miles to the 501 Shelter which was right next to a road and right next to the caretaker's house. It was an actual cabin with bunks lining the walls and a picnic table in the middle. There were already several hikers inside sleeping or reading, but mainly keeping out of the rain. We grabbed some of the last bunks available and started reading like the others, while outside the rain finished up. There was some sporadic conversation among us hikers, but we were mostly just weary. During the evening we ordered pizza and ate it at a picnic table outside with Dawg, Toto, and Moto. We all went to sleep pretty early.
Miles hiked today: 17.5 Total AT miles completed: 1189.6 Total AT miles left to hike: 995.7
Day 94
We thought it would be an easy day hiking because the entire day's terrain was very flat. Unfortunately. the terrain was extremely rocky, for much longer stretches. There was very little respite from them. The Trail was just a long stretch of small, medium, and large rocks. The small rocks hurt when you step on them, especially since they are not smooth, but jagged. Some of the medium rocks were buried in the ground and would easily trip you when your toe didn't clear it quite enough. Sometimes the medium rocks were just heavy enough to smash your toe when you accidentally kicked it. The large rocks were smoother, and as such, easier to slip on, especially when they were angled down or up. Sometimes the rocks would perform a combo move on us, so I might trip over a medium one, only to land on a slippery large one, and catch myself by jumping off onto a small jagged one. I think the worst part though, was the steady pressure of the rocks on your feet as you land each heavy, pack-laden step on a hard surface for ten to twelve hours a day. The rocks also slow your stride considerably and force you to stare at the ground all day, dodging the rocks and finding the best (or least bad) place to land each foot. All of this wasn't too frustrating in moderation, but the rocks today just kept going. We got very tired of it, but kept going. With every trip or stubbed toe we got more and more frustrated, but the rocks just wouldn't end. At long last we started down an extremely steep, but still rocky descent into the small town of Port Clinton. We were so tired from the tough day, we convinced ourselves to stay at the Port Clinton Hotel. It was a small, overpriced room above a bar and restaurant. We needed some more food for the Trail, but didn't really want to walk or hitchhike to the nearby town of Hamburg so we resupplied at the only shop in town: a candy store. We bought some trail mix, dried mango, homemade peanut butter, and a bunch of candy bars. We ate dinner at the busy Port Clinton Hotel and didn't get bak to our room until late. For some reason, instead of going to sleep, we stayed up to watch Superbad on TV. We didn't get to sleep until late.
Miles hiked today: 24.1 Total AT miles completed: 1213.7 Total At miles left to hike: 971.6
Day 95
We woke up pretty early even though we stayed up late and walked over to have breakfast at a local eatery filled with right-wing political propaganda and enjoyed a great breakfast there before getting to hiking. We were excited to head out since it was Hike Naked Day. We climbed back up into the mountains just outside of town and found the Trail much less rocky than the day before. As we hiked, we discovered a lot of side trails and loop trails connecting with the Appalachian Trail, and since it was also Saturday, we saw a lot of day-hikers, mostly families with kids. So we did not hike naked. Maybe we would have thought about it if we were deeper in the woods or if we found other hikers celebrating the day. After hiking most of the day without seeing any nudes we came upon a group of thruhikers sitting at Hawk Mountain Road, enjoying some trail magic of snacks, fruit, and drinks. I told them I was surprised to see all of them clothed and one informed me that three of them had just put their clothes back on to cross the road. We didn't linger on and were the first ones to leave as the others lingered at the trail magic, saying they were taking a siesta. After a few more miles we came to Allentown Hiking Club Shelter where we spent the night.
Miles hiked today: 22.2 Total AT miles completed: 1235.9 Total AT miles left to hike: 949.4
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