Date: 2011-06-23
From: Eagles Nest Shelter

To: Port Clinton, PA
Miles today: 8.9
Weather: light rain

The shelter boys and I woke early. We had discussed that we would get into town early tomorrow and make a trip to the epic Yuengling brewery today. Perigrine graciously offered some of his extra water to me from his water bag hanging on the picnic table. I politely declined due to the floating mouse carcass inside. The poor wee blighter must have fallen in during one of his escapades and couldn't free himself from the confines of the bag. What a terrible way to end. I kicked Leap's tent to see if he was up for the brewery action - that was a big fat negative. Perigrine, Shutter and I left at 7:30 am to make the brewery at a good time. It did rain a little, but nothing exciting. We destroyed the nine miles in a mere three hours. The last quartr mile was a mad steep downhill descent. It would have been easier to roll and bounce on our arses. It hadn't occured to me that a hotel would be closed. I'm used to seeing someone at the desk 24 hours a day. Well, we happened to be too early and the hotel didn't open for another hour. The three of us decided to split a room. all of the rooms had only one bed. We'll sort out the details later, after all we sleep in rodent infested caves. We dropped our stuff and showered. Now begins the adventure of trying to get to the brewery. The Yuengling brewery is the oldest in the country and I was very adamant about getting there. I rang them earlier and got the tour times. The last one for the day was at 1:30 pm. It was now noon. The difficult part lies with the 20 miles between us and the brewery. Walking is out of the question. Off of the trail means off of the trail. a.k.a. no walking! Hitch hiking is becoming a strategic game I am constantly bettering. That was the plan. It took us about 20 minutes to catch a ride. The three of crammed into the front of a two passenger pick up truck along with the drinking and driving samaritan. He, however could not take us all of the way. We were dropped off at a random gas station with half an hour to spare before the tour started. Sticking our thumbs out was not working because we were all dudes with rugged beards. I decided to approach people walking out of the gas station. I offered a young guy with a crappy car a few bucks and he went for it "as long as you guys aren't going to rob me". No, not today. We have a beer tour to catch. We made it with five minutes to spare - safe. The tour itself was enjoyable, although the free beer at the end was moreso. I made an effort to befriend numerous fellow tourists in the hope that we could con someone into giving us a lift back. There was a large wedding party who were rather entertained by the fact that we had just walked there from georgia. We buttered this group up the most and casually found out that our destination was on their way. Once we posed the request however, they freaked out a little. Suddenly their plans changed and they were unable to accomodate us. This is one aspect of hiking the trail that irks me the most. A lot of people jump to these crazy conclusions that we are low class tramps. We may look like hobos, and I understand that hitch hiking is based on appearance. In this case we had long inteligent conversations about our proffesions and the hardships of the trail vs. normal life. We proved to these people that we were not homeless bums and they still shyed away. I didn't press the issue because they were uncomfortable which made me uncomfortable. We left and walked back to the main highway. Again, thumbing was not going well. I wanted to find another place where I could chat with people face to face to articulate a proper conversation. we found a KFC restaurant a block away and noticed a few young teenage lads walk in which gave me an idea. I approached the three of them with the proposal that if I bought their dinner they would then drive us the 20 ish miles. They accepted. Score! We also had to have some KFC or it would just be rude. They dropped us at Wal-mart where we sat outside and ate the KFC. Leap appeared from nowhere and the four of us went food shopping for our resupply. We split up in pairs for the last hitch back to the hotel. This was the easiest of the day. We hopped in the bed of a pick up for the three miles back to Port Clinton. We did a combined load of laundry and had a few beers at the hotel bar. We now had four gents in a one bed room. It's still better than the floor of the shelters. The minimal cost of splitting the room was a welcome bonus also. We decided that Perigrine could take the bed, since he is our senior by many years, although he doesn't show it on the trail. Back to the walking tomorrow. I'm done with hitching for a little while.