Date: 2017-05-23
From: Hartline Campsite

To: Port Clinton, PA
Miles today: 18.7

So here I am in a hotel bar in the town of Hamburg, PA. It's late, and I'm on my fourth beer. My buddies have sensibly headed to bed, but I have my trail journal to do. Last night was a minor disaster. One of the last things I usually do is set up my three-liter Hydrapak, which involves dropping an electrolyte tablet into it, and putting it outside my tent in one of the vestibules, threading the tube back in through the zipper so that I can sip on it as I'm reading or journaling. I often finish the entire thing before I turn in for the night. (Yes, I know the inevitable question, but the truth is I have fantastic bladder capacity and have only once needed to head out into the cold world to pee.) Well, in the midst of opening up the wretched Hydrapak, it slipped out of my grasp and water flooded the tent. I was on my mattress, an island in the sea. Once again, I said words like "Ooh, such rotten luck", and "Darn!" And possibly others too. I spent ages mopping up and squeezing bandanas out in the vestibules. I was not happy. But moving on. I actually slept well. I was on the trail at precisely 7am. Not 6:59. Not 7:01. Still Bill had passed by at 6:47. (He was the guy Shebeast and I met when we went horribly wrong on the trail in the Shenandoahs and who convinced us we were heading south, not north.) I was powering up the hill, and caught him in jigging time, as we say in Ireland. I was racing to catch Rooster and Blueberry, as I knew that if I could catch their train, I'd make it to town about two hours faster than on my own. After 80 minutes of practically racing along the trail, I caught them as they were talking at a road crossing to Craig, a hiker who was dropping off a thru-hiker to the trailhead. It gave me a chance to take off my jacket and sun-shirt as I was definitely warm and there was no sun. It was just as well I caught them when I did, as the trail reverted to extreme rockiness, in which I move slowly. Still, we were doing 3mph, no frivolous stops. There was little to photograph and few hikers to chat to. So we made excellent time, although I was struggling to keep up. We reached the highway to Hamburg around 2pm and ended up walking the two miles or so to town. Our first stop was a Chinese buffet. For $12 we had all we could eat. Blueberry generously paid for our meals. I got very cold and had to put on a jacket. I've noticed that this happens a lot with me lately. I went from there to Walmart to resupply. In particular I bought a foam pad to place on camping seats like tree-trunks, rocks, etc. as my butt feels the hard surfaces more poignantly than before. I also bought, like, ten Snickers. And a big can of turmeric. Hey, I'm into healthy eating, what can I say? As I struggled to pack all the stuff into my backpack outside Walmart, a young man asked me if I needed a lift. Austin "Wiki" Thompson, a freshman at a nearby college of technology, he hiked a big chunk of the trail last year. In the hotel, a Microtel, I was impressed with my room. I had a shower, washed out my tent, did my laundry (and Rooster's and Blueberry's, but then again they gave me protein bars, gels, shakes, etc as they both had resupplied by maildrop and were over-supplied), unpacked all my new food from its containers and re-packed it, and went down to the bar for some dinner. At the bar I sat with Still Bill and Blueberry. The bar staff are all that are left now. Time for bed. Tipperary