Date: 2021-06-06
From: Black Swatara Creek campsite 

To: Port Clinton Pavilion 
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: light rain

We woke up today just down from the Black Swatara Creek campsite. We could hear last night that several hikers had camped there, so we were glad for our quiet campsite.  Sleeping with the canopy half on and half off worked really well. It never got too cool during the night. We are going to use this lot. With the canopy still attached halfway across, we could jump out and pull it over the rest of the way if we needed to. Whipperpoorwill, Defcon, and Spirit came into camp about 8pm. They had leftover pizza they had gotten at the 501 Shelter and offered us some but we had just finished eating dinner. We talked for a bit and then everyone went to bed. It was a really hot day with temps in the 90¢s. Every now and then we could feel a slight breeze. It was not a fun day. Constantly hiking over rocks in the trail is so exhausting, mentally and physically. Even though we were doing a lot of walking on the ridge, it was just hard because of the rocks. We finally started the descent into Port Clinton and it was downright dangerous. The trail was straight down, no switchbacks, and loose dirt. Near the bottom, I slipped on the dirt and slid down on my side and elbow. I had to unbuckle my pack to move. I scraped up my right arm pretty good. We are sooo done with PA and yet we still have 76 miles. We walked into Port Clinton and started down the street to the pavilion. It¢s a quaint little town built around the railroad. We had to cross the railroad tracks to get to the sidewalk to town. There were huge pieces of coal displayed on the grass. We passed a house with a sign that said that hikers were welcome to get water at their spigot. Thank goodness! We were dry!The pavilion is dedicated to Robert Breon, who was very active in the town, his church, and with AT hikers. There is a huge covered building with tables and chairs and across from that a large grassy area for tenting and hammocking and another covered eating area with a fireplace. There was a porta-potty too.One hiker was already there, ¢Q¢. We thought the place would be crowded because so many of the hikers that passed us mentioned stopping in Port Clinton, but it was empty except for Q.A woman drove up in a white truck. Her trail name was Chaser. She was following her husband, Silver Goat, who was hiking the trail. They both started in Springer, but after 3 days she realized that she could not keep up with his daily mileage of 15+ miles, but she didn¢t want to go home either. So she came up with the idea that he would hike north and she would drive up ahead and then hike south to meet him and they would camp together. Then the next day they would hike north together to the truck and then she would repeat the process. This way she was getting to hike with him but not the 15+ miles a day that he was putting in. That has worked out well for them plus she brings trail magic to whoever she meets up with. We got cookies and fruit!We sat and talked with Q and Chaser for quite a while. Q is going SOBO so he gave us all kinds of advice and suggestions for upcoming towns and mountains going north. He even gave us the name of a trail angel in Palmerton named Squeak. She¢ll let you tent in her backyard and use her shower and do laundry for free. There is also a drive-in at another town that will let you camp by the screen and watch the movie for free. I went down to the river and washed up. Nice to have non-stinky feet and pits! Put on clean clothes too. I felt like a new woman! David cleaned up with Wet Wipes.  He smelled like a new man!David had checked the hiker box in the pavilion and scored a can of Spaghetti-Os and sliced pears! Woo hoo! Living high tonight!!Another hiker came in a little later, Waymaker, and set up a tent. Chaser drove down and picked up The Lost Boys about 8pm from the trailhead. There were 4 of them and they hammocked.At 10pm it was s till 86 degrees. The pavilion is right next to a small 2-lane road and parallel to a 4-lane highway that was never quiet. Also a train went through about 2 or 3 am. I was so exhausted I didn¢t really acknowledge any of the noise. Just slept like the dead. Poor David didn¢t sleep well. We hiked through 13.3 miles of hell today.