Date: 2017-07-09
From: Yellow Springs Campsite

To:  William Penn Shelter Tent Site
Miles today: 18.0

7/9Yellow Springs Campsite to William Penn Shelter Tent Site18.0 milesTotal Miles:  1189.6I slept well, in spite of the one deer who continually wandered through the campsite for most of the night. I had heard about this wayward deer, who chews clothes from clotheslines and has chewn off the straps of trekking poles.  She reportedly is impossible to scare away. She appeared on schedule last night, but no one left anything out for her to chew.  I heard her numerous times last night, but she was gone by morning.  I was on the trail by 7:30.  For one of the few times, I walked through spider webs, meaning I was the first to walk the trail this morning.  Yellow Springs is a dry campsite, so I stopped at the spring about a mile down trail to get water.  The weather was cool and clear, and I made good time to Rausch Gap.  There had been a small community here, based on coal mining and repairing railroad equipment, but it was abandoned in 1910 due to the railroad relocating and the mine proving unproductive. There was an informative sign and map alongside the trail, and I saw several remains of stone foundations.  I made a side trip to the cemetery, led there by a dilapidated, wooden sign.  There were several blank flagstone markers, and three engraved stones, all dated 1854.  Poor John Proud, originally from Durham England, had a tough life. He died on May 18, 1854, aged 52 years & 16 days. His epitaph reads: Affliction sore long time I bore,All human skill was vain:Till God did please to give me ease,And free me from my pain.Andrew Allen, also a native of England, met his death by accident at Gold Mine Gap, on June 9, 1854, aged 30 years, 2 months, and 17 days. I had difficulty deciphering his epitaph but gathered he was well respected and loved.  The saddest stone was for little Catherine, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Blackwood, who died June 16, 1854, aged 1 year, 1 mo. & 7 days. I know that child mortality was very high back then, but, being a father and a grandfather, I can only imagine the grief Catherine's parents must have endured.  I paid my respects and then continued to hike through the sparse ruins of their community.  The trail followed one of the old roads that had connected Rausch Gap to the rest of the world, as it started up Second Mountain (I don't know what happened to First Mountain).  The construction of the road had been arduous, as was still evident from how the ledge for the ten-foot wide road had been cut into the right side of the hillside with the resulting rocks being used as fill on the left side. It is still impressive, even today. The AT followed along, until the road veered to the right into a small gap, the aim being to make the trip over the mountain as easy as possible.  True to form, the AT veered left to continue quite steeply so it could go over the viewless summit of Second Mountain, only to meet up with the road again for a short time on the opposite side.  You just have to love this trail.  At the base of the mountain, the trail then led through a field on its way to Swatara Gap.  The field held a different kind of beauty, and I always enjoy the change in scenery. There was an area full of wild flowers with thousands of bees crawling over them collecting nectar.  It was quite a sight.  I ate lunch in a clearing by a stream, where I also got my water for the afternoon's hike.  It was an inviting place, and I took a short nap leaning against my pack, which was supported by a tree.  Refreshed, I then crossed the stream via one of the more interesting bridges I have encountered.  It was actually a large, fallen tree with a walkway built up to it.  Two notches are cut into the upper end to sort of help you get to the upper end of the tree, where there is a sharp, deep drop onto the ground.  It made me a little nervous, but I made it to the ground unscathed.  It was then a short hike to Swatara Gap. I walked awhile with Steve and Grace, who live in the area and were out for a day hike. They gave me some pointers about the up-coming rock fields and told me some information about the area. We walked across a very interesting, relocated railroad bridge before bidding them goodbye. I then crossed under I-81 and thought about the range of bridges I had encountered over the past mile or so.  Everything from makeshift trees, to relocated iron, to modern concrete.  Leaving the bridges, I returned to steep terrain and rocks.  The trail sharply rises out of the Swatara Valley, before following the ridge line northward.  The trail was oftentimes rocky, punctuated by areas of earthen trail.  Yesterday I commented that the best views have been from the power line cuts, and today, the AT made that official. The one view along the ridge line, labeled by a sign on a tree, was from an abandoned power cut.  However, a large amount of foliage has since grown up, which has the unfortunate affect of blocking part of the view.  The trail immediately leading to the view was all rocks, and you pretty much chose your own path from blaze to blaze.  Afterwards, the trail was smoother and ran through thick foliage that has overgrown the pathway.  I talked with Kirby, who I met while he was setting up his tent, and he told me he had found two ticks crawling on him today.  I didn't find any on me this evening, but I am going to reapply my bug repellent at lunchtime as an added precaution. I arrived at the William Penn Shelter tent site at 5:40, after a hike of eighteen miles. I set up camp, got water from a very nice piped spring (the water gave me a brain freeze), and prepared dinner. My guidebook gives both the mileage from Springer and to Katahdin, and I noticed that I am presently 1000.2 miles from Katahdin. Very early tomorrow, I will have less than one thousand miles to go.  That's something to contemplate while I go back to sleep to rest up for another day.