Date: 2016-06-18
From: Rausch Gap Shelter

To: William Penn Shelter
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: clear sky

13.4 miles today and my feet weren't in agony until I got to camp! Yay! That's the good news...Hung around the shelter fairly late with Grub (and her pup Medusa), Sacagawea, Sunny Side Up, and Baby Face. Hit the trail at about 9:15. It was an eventful night in the shelter apparently. Sometime during the night there was a loud scream back behind the shelter that was described as sounding like someone screaming "no" at the top of their lungs. I didn't hear this, guess I slept pretty soundly. Also had a couple of late hikers come in. I remember hearing someone walk up to the shelter, but I didn't pay any attention to it. I guess with four other people and a pit bull I wasn't too worried. And, at one point, Medusa sat at the edge of the shelter and growled at something in the night for about 10 minutes. I missed that too.We noticed this morning that there was someone tucked in a sleeping bag along the side of the shelter under the eaves. Guess he didn't feel like pitching his tend when he got in late.Had a beautiful hike this morning. Decent climb early on that went great, great weather, interesting scenery. Then, about six miles in, that hamstring twinge that I had yesterday returned with a vengeance! I was in a pretty populated area of a state park, and was about to start a 1000 ft, one mile climb up to the next ridgeline. I decided to just go with it and see how things turned out. By the way, I'm a little over ridgelines...The next seven miles were not my favorite on the AT. There were a couple of areas of legit rock scrambles, but the trail was mostly pretty great, thank God. I kept trying to calculate my pace, trying to figure out if I would make it to the shelter before dark. My headlamp has been rather unreliable, and I expect I will need to replace it.Made it to the shelter with plenty of time, and ended up setting up my hang next to Emerald. I had planned to stay in the shelter, but word is there are kids down there, so decided to stay close to the trail. Jen and Tim are a couple of weekenders who are out just for tonight and were already setup in the campsite as well as thru hiker, Hopper.As we were eating dinner and hanging around the fire (Jen and Tim shared some red wine and some chicken sausage with us) Grub and Medusa showed up, followed shortly by Trix. Trix had some Cecilian pizza that she had carried out from town today that she shared with me. This was all great because I couldn't be bothered to cook anything (even if doing so wouldn't require a trip to the spring), so I had had a pepperoni stick and a pack of tuna for dinner.As we were talking I discovered Jen and Tim are rugby players, so we had plenty to talk about. It's a beautiful night and I decided to hang without the rain fly tonight.Tomorrow I will hike up the trail two miles to a road crossing where I will get a hitch into town. I'm worried about my hamstring and want to at least give it a day off, maybe try to find a doctor. The pain is tolorable, but my concern is that I might have a partial tear or something and that continuing to hike on it could do some serious damage. I'm not pleased. I was feeling really great today, and am ready to start upping the miles again.I wonder if my knee brace isn't putting some kind of weird strain on that tendon. I think I'll hike the two miles out tomorrow without the brace. Yesterday it felt fine around camp, and those first six miles today were awesome. It's a little sore around camp tonight, but barely noticeable. Here's hoping a day of rest and maybe limiting my brace time will help.