Date: 2015-06-15
From: Raven Rock Shelter

To: Rocky Mountain Shelters, PA
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: few clouds

The night sky opened up and unleashed a torrential downpour all night. Fortunately I had chosen to sleep in the shelter and wasn't bothered other than rain pounding on the tin roof and thunder rocking the mountain. It rained close to ~12 straight hours, finally breaking around 8:00am this morning. Moosehead and I were in o hurry and wouldn't hit the trail until 9:00am. During the 2 hours before we left, we utilized the time by eating breakfast, chatting with fellow hikers, and helping a section hiker with a gear shakedown. Carrying close to ~50lbs, we went through each item with her telling her why she needed or didn't need certain items. It was quite a humorous undertaking, but also one I had already taken part of as I was humbled early on in my journey. She thanked us as we hit the trail.Other than a 1-mile stretch through a large boulder field, slowly tiptoeing over wet rocks as we went, we covered the first ~5 miles relatively quickly to Pen Mar County Park, a small park overlooking a flat valley below with a ridge rising above in the distance. The park had a row of several benches dedicated to people who have since passed. Moosehead and I enjoyed a quick snack, filled up on water, and used the restrooms. I saw a plastic bag on the back of one of the benches offering trail magic. Inside was crackers, Snickers, Snyder's pretzels, homemade cinnamon bread, and 1 Coke. I quickly snatched the Coke, a pack of crackers, 2 Snickers, and the pretzels which Moosehead and I shared.We then walked a quarter of a mile to a sign signifying we had reached the Mason Dixon Line, the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania. After grabbing a few pictures, I decided I needed to take my 7th dump in under 3 days. Where better to do it than on the Mason Dixon Line? I walked off the trail ~30-40ft, got my bearings, lined up my shot, and bang. Out. It might go down as one of my most memorable dumps.The next couple of hours would pass rather uneventfully, simply sweating balls and soaking my clothes as usual. We reached Deer Lick Shelters and breaked for lunch. After lunch we followed the side trail to find water which tool the better part of 20 minutes. When we returned to the trail, we found a stream crossing the path no more than 100ft from the shelters. Lame.We reached Antietam Shelter, sitting near a fast flowing creek swollen from last night's storms. Moosehead and I dropped our gear, soaked our shirts and dipped our heads under in order to cool off before the days biggest climb we would soon reach. After another easy mile, we reached Tumbling Run Shelters, sitting just before a wall of rocky steps began leading 900ft uphill over the next mile. I made good time during the climb, listening to music in the process, but sweating profusely. As a result I began to notice chaffing on my balls. It took over 1,000 miles, but I finally got chaffing of the balls, and probably not for the last time. I caught up with Moosehead near the top and we hurried down the mountain to a road that would take us just over a mile into South Mountain, PA. With gray clouds and thunder approaching from the northwest, we knew it was a race against time.Luckily when we reached the road, it took no more than 5 minutes for a nice man to stop and give us a ride into a tavern, the only thing happening in the town other than a large rehabilitation center. Within 10 minutes of entering the place, the skies opened up outside and a large, though relatively short-lived downpour rolled through. We spent the next ~2 hours enjoying cheap (but good) food, a few beers, and chatting with locals curious about our journey. Just as we were readying to leave, a gentleman who has done some section hiking found us a ride back to the trail with 2 local guys.Before they returned us to the trail, they had to run a quick errand. Off we went flying around tight curves and winding roads. We soon found out the 2 guys may not have been 100% sober. Or 75%. Or 50%. Moosehead and I exchanged pur private farewells just in case, but fortunately made it back to the trail in 1 piece. I'm pretty sure what I might've done in my underwear during the drive back didn't help my chaffing either.Returning to the trail around 8:00pm, we had just under 2 miles to reach our shelter. Thunder to our north threatened to open up at any moment so we hurried over the relatively level terrain. By we I mean Moosehead for I was stuck hobbling in the back, a hand carrying my trekking poles, the other holding my balls to keep them from rubbing. I arrived at camp with only 4 others sharing the 2 shelters; Moosehead climbed into one and I climbed into the other. They're already fast asleep or in the process of trying to do so, so I'm wrapping up this journal as quick as I can.Moosehead has us tentatively doing ~22-23 miles tomorrow, but it'll depend big time on how my nether regions respond in the morning. My feet also took a beating because, despite not being that rocky until later, Pennsylvania brought it during our first day in. As the saying goes, though, boots come here to die. If I'm able to cover the miles tomorrow, we should reach the official halfway point of the trail at 1,094.6 miles.Here's to entering the North, avoiding the storm with a club sandwich and cold beer, and closing in on the halfway point.