Date: 2010-06-02
From: Pine Grove Furnace State Park, PA

To: Whiskey Spring, PA
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: broken clouds

From TrailPhone:"Hi. This is Tim. I've stopped for the evening after a climb up from Whiskey Springs. I'm around mile 1106. I seem to be about 6 miles south of Boiling Springs. I'm going to hold there tomorrow night and make the dash to the Flying J Friday morning. I'm doing pretty good, new blister on the bottom of the foot. Leaving the park last night, I had need of an emergency cathole, multiple times, so I decided to spend the night there near a creek in the national forest. I felt a lot better today. Mostly sipping Propel and ice tea. That's it."We awoke about 7 a.m. to cold. We got up and went down the hill to the creek to purify a fresh liter of water. For breakfast we went no cook with just orange juice and a salami wrap.About 8 we started up the hill further into the forest. WE were passing gas, but no signs of the previous evening's troubles.Noon found us at Tarr Run. We made our way across a log "bridge" and fixed a hot lunch of mashed potatoes on the opposite bank. Purified another liter of water to get us to Whiskey Spring.We departed James Fry shelter at 1 after checking the log and making an entry.At 4 we started our last big climb of the day. At the top of the climb was an open rocky area popular with the paintball set. Pink splotches were everywhere including attempts by paintballers to obscure the white blazes. We followed the white blazes on the rocks around and through the area. Moment by moment the trail became more and more absurd. WE squeezed through a narrow gap and followed by down climbing. At one point the trail went over a high ledge that required us to remove our pack and toss it up and then perform a lie back manuever to get ourselves up and over the ledge. At that point I was furious with the PATC trail maintainers. (Talking with other hikers and reading other TrailJournal entries for this section confirms that nearly everyone finds this section pointless and a needless hazard.) Eventually, around 5:30, we were down off the boulders and descending a normal trail.About 6 we heard the sound of running water and discovered Whiskey Spring was a creek crossing under a road through a culvert and down the hill. We dropped our pack and filled our bottle from the outflow from the culvert. While resting a woman and her dog arrived in a car. She seemed a bit nervous with me being at the trail head. Think about it. Dirty, stinky, unshaven man with a backpack. We also discovered that Whiskey Spring marked the end of the Mason Dixon line.As we had planned to stop for the evening in the area of the spring we started watching for a place to camp. The area before the spring had sported "No Camping" signs. The situation across the road was little better. Campers had trodden the area so much that it too was a no camping zone due for reforestation reasons. We ambled up the trail another hundred yards and found an area of the trail that folks had never used, probably due to its uneven slope. Fine with us. Hung the hammock between some trees and over some seedlings and limbs. We carefully avoided stepping on anything that would leave a mark of our having camped. Leave no trace. To further reduce walking, we decided against pitching our tarp, but kept it nearby should it rain.We made dinner out in the trail itself as it was the only area free of dried leaves. Our mini lighter was out of fuel, likely from all the pre-trip cooking at the office. We found our backup matches and were soon cooking with gas, well alcohol. We had some soup and finished the remainder of our hard salami we had bought at Henicle's Market. We discovered that our Bubblope, while being a good freezer bag cooking cozy, also made a fair insulated fridge to keep salami from spoiling from the day's heat.We bear bagged our food and mess kit along the trail and retired for the evening. We soon fell asleep looking up through the trees at the stars.Thus ended the tenth day.