Date: 2022-06-07
From: Tent Site mile 1184.3

To: Tent Site mile 1202
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Slept pretty good last night even though you could hear I81 from camp. Only one pee break which was good considering I drank almost 2 liters in the evening. Someone came in and camped next to us and was out by 6 - I only noticed as the pee tree was no longer private. We were packed up and on the trail by 7:10 as rain was predicted starting at 2. Passed by Bovi who was camping just down the trail from us. Mostly flat to start until we passed the Swatara CreekWater Trail and Rail Trail and passed under I81. Then naturally a long climb and the start of a long ridge walk. We kept getting views throughout the day and we passed through extensive fern forested areas many times during the day. Definitely noticing an uptick in the rocks and I¢d say over 1/2 of the trail today was rocky of some sort. The rocks are tiring both on your feet and mentally as you need to constantly focus on every step and therefore spend most of the time staring at the trail while occasionally glancing up. So let¢s talk about rocks. I¢ll classify them as to one of four types:Dirt with rocks. Here the rocks tend to be less than volley ball sized and there is about 1/3 to 2/3 dirt. if you place your feet carefully you can pretty much walk in dirt although you will not be walking normally. Small rocks. Here the rocks are softball sized and typically completely cover the trail. Usually not too sharp and relatively uniform in size. They are typically not too bad to walk on. Medium rocks. Soccer ball sized rocks of all shapes and sizes often at an angle with sharp tops l. Typically almost cover the trail. Usually 2/3 of the time can step on a flatish rock. Must also pay attention to where you plant the hiking poles. These tend to be the worst as you are often on an angle or on sharp edge. Big rocks. 2 cubic feet and up of all shapes and sizes. Here it¢s more of rock hopping and there is generally no specific path through them. Not all rocks are stable so that¢s exciting. These can be fun or challenging depending on how they are shaped and how they stackI¢d say there were some 1/4 to 1/2 mile stretches where I didn¢t step on dirt, only rocks. And if you believe the chatter it gets rockier further north in PA. Between first and second lunch we ran into trail magic from Tyke and Tagalong. This was the first time they had ever done trail magic and I got some fresh strawberries, other fruit, and some candy. Bovi and Joy showed up while we were there. With the impending rain we then skipped second lunch. This was a bad decision food wise as I was pretty hungry having finished all my snacks and flagging energy as we rolled into camp. We managed to get into camp just before the rain so skipping second lunch kept us iff wet rocks. This is the site of an old shelter that is no longer here. Many tent sites that are spread out over 1/4 mile of trail so it took a little time to determine where to setup. Started raining during setup but I had the tent mostly up at that point so the inside and all my stuff is dry. Supposed to stop for a while but only a very brief break in the rain to cook dinner, hang our food, and pee. Raining pretty steady (edit now hard) right now. It¢s very humid so everything is sticky- the sleeping pad and bag really aren¢t the best to sleep on in humid conditions. Camping by the stream so that¢ll be a nice background noise tonight but it doesn¢t drown out the road and truck noise . Thunderstorms predicted later tonight. Hopefully the tent stakes hold. ATC registered number 600 on June 5th. That¢s 185 people in the 9 days since we were there. From what we can tell we are on the leading edge of the bubble. Steps 27700Weather Forecast: 74/63 with rainStarted at AT trail Mile 864.2Jen (my awesome video editor) also created a website to consolidate info: https://atwithduckie.wixsite.c...