Date: 2014-06-26
From: Rausch Gap Shelter

To: Hertline Campsite
Miles today: 23.1

The person who wrote in my guest book, "Don't you dare give up!" doesn't know me well enough, because they'll have to haul my ass out of the woods in a stretcher to get me off the AT. After hiking 25 miles while under the weather and arriving at the shelter utterly spent, I may have let some of the negativity I was feeling at the time slip into yesterday's post. But I can assure you my burning desire to reach Katahdin is not diminished one iota.Having said that, I do appreciate everyone who's rallied around me since then through my journal, email, and texts. It's great to know there are people out there, including many perfect strangers, who'd like to see me achieve my goal. Thanks, everyone, for your support.Fortunately, the rain that fell most of the night had stopped by morning, and the air was noticeably drier, with a refreshing breeze to boot. And despite spending much of the day coughing up phlegm and blowing snot balls from my nostrils, I felt much better today than yesterday.In the morning, I met a southbound section hiker named Tonto, who reported that, although I was the day's first NOBO he'd seen, he passed about 30 yesterday. This confirms my suspicion that I'm right behind a major bubble, which I should catch if I continue to put in big days on my way to Port Clinton.Pennsylvania presents a different set of challenges than the states farther south. Instead of confronting you with constant ups and downs, PA makes you contend with rocks, heat, humidity, bugs, and poison ivy. I've practically given up trying to avoid the nasty green plant that grows along the trail at shin level, but the tree blocking the trail in today's picture made me take notice. I was about to get by this obstacle as I normally would, by swinging one leg and then the other over the fallen trunk. But just before doing so I noticed the poison ivy growing all over it, so instead I did what the other observant hikers before me had done: limbo'ed underneath on the right. In my haste to get to Port Clinton, I missed out on a few highlights that I would normally partake in. Yesterday I walked right past the Doyle Hotel in Duncannon. Had I been feeling better at the time, I would have at least stopped in for a beer and burger. And today, I didn't order pizza from the 501 Shelter, which sits right on PA route 501. I saw in the shelter log that a bunch of others had, including ABear and Thor the Red, but I wasn't staying there tonight, and it didn't seem like a lot of fun to eat pizza all alone.Tonight I'm tenting at the Hertline Campsite, just a chip shot (18 miles) from Port Clinton. The last three 20+ days put me in a position to get into town tomorrow, a day earlier than I originally planned. This will allow me to sleep in a bed, do laundry, and resupply before hiking out of town for a few miles with Margaret and Bryan Saturday afternoon. Margaret had hoped to hike with me when she dropped me at the trail on Tuesday, but a meeting at work prevented that from happening. This will mean two of my three siblings will have shared in my adventure, and my other brother, Andy, plans to come east in July to join me.