Date: 2016-05-21
From: Raush Gap Shelter

To: Hamburg, PA
Miles today: 41.7

Box Turtle here. Thanks to El Loco for posting earlier about the start of this year's hike. We haven't figured out how to update the journal title to 2016 yet, simple though that would seem. Also, this old computer in the Hamburg library isn't accepting my recent trail photos. (Which are Awesome, thanks to my iPhone, new this year.) However, since the only people reading this may be a sibling or two (and Hi, Mom!), eventually I can share these pictures. Suffice it to say, the AT in Pennsylvania in springtime does not disappoint! Beautiful trees leafing out--hickory,oaks,beech,maple,blackgum, witchhazel, tuliptree--and alot of migrating warblers and other birds in them, singing--Wood Thrush, Ovenbird,Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager,Eastern Wood Pee-wee,Eastern Phoebe,Red-Eyed Vireo,Common Yellowthroat,and alot of the warblers I can't identify by sound yet, or see, because they are in the treetops and I sent my binoculars home with Ellis on Day 2 in order to save weight! Each morning around sunrise is a fantastic "dawn chorus"--as birders call it--when the birds are all just going at it, singing like crazy. It's very motivational, as I usually don't feel so perky at 5:30am, considering from my tent or shelter space the prospect of trekking to the privy (or digging a hole), after a night of spinning like a rotisserie chicken in my sleeping bag. Sleeping on the trail has its pros and cons: on the one hand, it's generally peaceful and quiet--some evening birdsong,the moon shining into the tent or the pleasant sound of rain pattering down through the trees or hitting the shelter roof, maybe an owl or some unknown rustling animals; on the other hand,even with my new, improved sleeping pad (which unfortunately requires a lot of inflation), you're very aware of your shoulderblades...and then there are snoring hikers and fear of bears, the latter still be-deviling Box Turtle(the fear that is, not any actual bears). The hiking's going well so far, with interesting terrain crossing the flat Cumberland Valley out of Boiling Springs and then up onto the Kittatinny Ridge. It's pretty cool to see soaring birds--vultures and hawks--flying past nearly at eye level with the ridgeline trail. There's a nice assortment of wildflowers blooming, although not in profusion--some Wild Columbine, various types of violets,Pink Lady-Slipper Orchids, and my favorite, a light pink, very fragrant azalea. I can see alot of Mountain Laurel that'll bloom in a week or so. The trail surface can be nice, or it can be terribly rocky, and the next fifty miles or so is legend in that regard. "The rocks of Pennsylvania" are often sited as the worst part of the trail. As a Pennsylvanian, I feel a bit defensive about this, and fall back on citing the other benefits of the PA AT-- lovely forest, birds, vistas, river views(the Susquehanna and now the Schuykill), and proximity to Yuengling Brewery are some. (I'm not visiting there, but I am enjoying some Yuenglings on tap here in Hamburg, along with some...d-uh,hamburgs.)Back to trees--the ash trees are everywhere, all dead from the Emerald Ash Borer. The hemlock trees are still in evidence, but I know they're threatened by the Hemlock wooly adelgid so I am enjoying my state tree while I can, and hope perhaps a biological predator will be found that can safely chow down on the adelgids. I've seen quite a few American Chestnut trees, which were wiped out in the chestnut blight of the early 20th century,trying to grow back from old stumps. They try--the ones I've seen are all about four feet high--but they don't succeed because the blight is still in the roots or soil and kills them. The American Chestnut Fdn., The Nature Conservancy, and other groups are working on reintroducing a blight-resistant strain of chestnuts which could, eventually, make mature chestnut trees a part of the forest again. (Heads up, nut-eaters!) All along the trail, I see evidence of the exotic plant, Garlic Mustard (among others),which competes with the native wildflowers and is a target of eradication for various volunteer groups all over the state (including in Pittsburgh parks). Nature along the AT--increasingly,like nature everywhere-- is all about remediation of one kind or another. It's hardly an untouched Eden out here. I saw signs for aerial spraying for insect control near Clark's Creek, and saw acid-mine remediation wells (using a limestone filtration system)along Stony Creek, and fenced areas for forest restoration. You may wonder why Box Turtle doesn't write more about her hiking companions; apologies to the more gregarious of you who would prefer anecdotes of hiker life to rants about plants and birds. BT camped with Seeker and Otis all week-- a sixty-something guy and a mid-thirties guy--and I guess we share a slightly different approach than many of the younger (faster!) hikers. Though Seeker and Otis remain visibly uninjured, I've met a couple of other middle-aged hikers --one hiding a huge bruise behind sunglasses, another with a head laceration requiring a drastic haircut and big bandage--and I hope injuries are not the pathetic sign of my hiking demographic! In fact, Box Turtle acquired a leg scrape and bruises her fist day hiking alone as she stumbled clumsily through a rockfield. However, I think I've just about gotten my "trail legs," as they're called, which means that soon I'll be hiking more like a machine: turn on the legs, and adjust the pace! For Box Turtle,the trail itself provides the real entertainment. It's just really fun to walk. (PA rocky stretches excepted) The literalness of moving forward is very satisfying: no ambiguity about whether or not you're making progress. Though just like last year, mid-afternoon hiking is always a bit of a slog, and the poetry-learning is really helpful with that. I've learned poems by Mark Possanza and Anna Catone for PA ("Urban Birding" and "Green Drake Hatch")that are great--witty and wonderful--and I recite(often aloud,likely cementing my reputation as a real trail weird-o)the seven other poems I learned last year --and in fact, all the other poems I know by heart!--when I get bored with making grand plans, psychoanalyzing my family, plotting out my children's lives, or imagining the next meal in town.