Date: 2021-05-26
From: Rocky Mountain Shelter 

To: Stealth campsite near PATC cabin
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: overcast clouds

We left Rocky Mountain Shelter about 7:30am. Pole^ (Po-LAY) had woken at 5am and was long gone. David was wearing his camp shirt because his hiking shirt from yesterday was still soaked from perspiration, even after hanging it out overnight. My socks were the same way. I put on a new pair and hung the wet stinky ones off my pack to hopefully dry during the day. It was a tough day starting out. Neither of us was in a long-distance hiking mood. It happens. Every day can¢t be sunshine and roses. Some days you just want to check into a hotel and spend the day in bed flipping through TV channels.  It was weird that hiking the .3 out of the shelter didn¢t seem to take anywhere as much time as it did last night hiking in. That was good. We had a couple rock scrambles to negotiate pretty early on. Welcome to PA! Once over them the trail smoothed out and it was easier going. We made it to Caledonia State Park (had to take a reroute from the AT because of storm damage on the trail but we covered the same number of miles). Yay! Flush toilets and hand dryers. David was able to dry his shirt somewhat. It took some time. Then he laid it out in the sun to finish drying. I took my socks and bandana in the bathroom and dried them quickly using the hand dryer. Of course, now the bathroom smelled like gross stinky feet. Sorry about that, campers!David pulled out our little cookstove and made himself a cup of instant Starbucks coffee. After everything was dry we forced ourselves to pack up, put the rain cover on our packs, and headed out. Naturally the climb out of the park was 1000 feet up. It finally leveled out and we had some nice level ridge walking. We walked through a shelter called Quarry Gap and it is the gold standard of shelters. You walked through a little wooden gate with a welcome sign on it and flowers planted in a tree stump. The shelter was immaculately clean with baskets of flowers hanging from the posts and benches everywhere. There was even a swing with ¢Quarry Gap¢ carved on it! And the privy!! Flowers planted in a flower bed outside and inside was a little fan and a framed picture on the back wall and an air freshener! And the water source! Literally 10 feet down a shaded path ending in a stream with a little pool at the beginning to scoop water from. It was the cutest shelter and so clean! It was only 1:00pm so we knew we couldn¢t stay and spend the night. While we were there swinging in the garden swing, Hippy came through. He had stayed at the Rocky Mountain Shelter with us last night and we had seen him at Caledonia State Park earlier too. He made the comment that we were the only people he had seen on the trail that actually took the time to stop and enjoy things instead of rushing through ¢to get miles in¢. We told him that we looked at this hike as a journey not a quest. The sun shone and the day stayed hot and humid, so we took our pack covers off. Kind of like washing your car on a sunny day. You¢re just asking for it to rain! While walking through a narrow meadow we could hear thunder overhead. We stopped and quickly put on our pack covers. It started to rain but it only lasted 5 minutes and then the sun came back out and the thunder sounded like it was moving off. We had 2.4 miles to the shelter. We passed by a cute little cabin and stream. The cabin is owned by the PATC and can be rented out. We hiked just past it and found a nice stealth campsite. We were both just too tired to go on. We set up the tent and I got water. The gnats were enough to drive you crazy! I pulled the netting out of my hat and looked like a beekeeper but it kept the bugs out of my eyes and ears. And then the thunder started up again. We just got our stuff in the tent and the storm hit with a vengeance! Thunder, a little lightning, and torrential rain! It poured buckets for half an hour! The waterproofing held up and we stayed dry! We took a map during the storm. Thank goodness we decided to stop and camp. We would have been caught in that storm halfway to the shelter and drenched! The sun came out again after the storm passed. Hopefully it would dry the tent. We ate dinner in the tent. A delicious meal of cheese filled tortillas. We had to use up the cheese. We complemented that with Wheat Thin crackers. I put some of my cheese on the crackers. Camping appetizers! We¢re so fancy!Hiked only 10.6 miles today.