Date: 2015-05-19
From: Duncannon

To: Unnamed Campsite
Miles today: 14.0

Last night, the thunder started about 7pm. It rained and howled for hours. It was infinitely more enjoyable to listen to from a hot bath than from a dripping and shaking tent. The storm didn't let up all night, and I felt very validated with my choice to stay at the motel rather than hike on.The storm last night had washed out the trail. There were clumps of twigs and leaves all over the place, and even a couple of freshly fallen trees. I left the town about 10am after another filling breakfast at Goodies. The first mile or so out was walking on a pavement, which was nice. Apart from when I was crossing the long river bridge and a large bird kept swooping at me. I had to hold my poles above my head and run. I probably looked like a lunatic to the cars passing by. I think the bird must have had her nest underneath the bridge, and I was a little too close.After that, it was a steep climb up to the ridgeline. It was absolutely brutal. The humidity when I left the town was 90%, and more than 20 celsius. I quickly discovered that I had managed to lose my bandana. This was incredibly annoying, as I mostly used my bandana to wipe my sweat away when it gets too bad. Instead, today I had to suffer through. It was unpleasant and made more so because of all the bugs. Right now I can count at least 10 black flies on my shoes alone. There are three caterpillars, a black beetle, and a mosquito crawling on the netting of my tent just in front of me. I also learned that the crackling sound that I have been hearing on the ground is actually the sound of caterpillar poop. I can't imagine how many caterpillars there must be for them to produce that much poop. It sounds like rain bouncing off my tent (and I can see it piling up, it is going to be disgusting to pack up tomorrow). I do not want to leave my tent to brush my teeth. There are SO many bugs. After the sweaty climb to the ridgeline, the trail was mostly flat but very rocky in some places. It wasn't too bad, but I felt unwell. I think because of the humidity, but I nearly threw up a couple times. I had to stop at the first shelter for a while, and felt a bit better after that. At the second shelter, I met Sixpack and Retro. I actually briefly met Sixpack yesterday in Duncannon, who got on the trail in Fayetteville after an attempt in 2006. Retro had just started his flip flop hike in Duncannon. We chatted for a bit whilst I had a late lunch. I decided that I would wait until they left the shelter, so I could follow them. That way, they would have to walk through all the caterpillars first. I am very tired of the caterpillars. I followed the two guys for about an hour. It was probably the slowest pace I have done in a long time, since they're new to the trail. We decided to camp together, since I had no desire to camp alone again and they didn't mind another tent with theirs. It was then that Sixpack told me about the caterpillar poop. I decided to cook dinner inside my tent rather than deal with the infestation of bugs around here.Tomorrow I will be doing even more miles, but I really hope that the bugs will leave me alone. This is very unlikely, as I ran out of bug spray today. There are still about 3 more days before I go back into town, so I will have to survive without bug spray and my bandana until then.