Date: 2006-06-18
From: Campsite outside Ravsch Gap Shelter

To: 501 Shelter
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: few clouds

I woke up at about 9:30 last night, yes I had already been sleeping for about an hour. But, I was woken suddenly by what sounded like rapid gun fire.   Gun shots are just my favorite thing to be woken up by out in the woods. Especially when it sounds like someone with and AK-47 just going nuts out in the woods. It went on for about an hour sounding at least a mile away. I imagine that is what it sounds like waking up at base camp during a war.This morning, Swansons and I decided it was probably a bunch of people playing pain ball. But, when it's night time and you are in the middle of nowhere, your imagination tends to run a little deeper than just some kids having a little pain ball battle.   Well, at least my crazy imagination does.The wonderful thing about this morning wsa Swansons and I actually got to sleep in . We were in our tent and no one else was really around so we had no motiviation to wake up early. We only had 17 miles to do so we figured why not? And, we slept till 10:30 AM. A first for on the trial. It was a beautiful thing. The morning was nice and relaxing and I even got to take a shower in the creek. Only problem with sleeping in was that we got such a late start and the high for today was 92 degees. So, we were in the thick of it.It was hot, but we were easily distracted by yet another day dedicated to the snakes or Pennsylvania. This morning we started out with a water snake in a little creek by a road. Then we went on to a humongous rat snake up on the ridgeline, or was it a king snake? W e don't know. But he showed us how tough he was by twitching his tail in the leaves to sound like a rattle. We were very impressed.And, of course we had to finish the day off with a poisonous snake. I was stumbling gracefully over those wonderful PA rocks when suddenly I noticed the thick body of a diamondback curled up right where my foot was about to land. That would have put my spider bite to shame. But I jumped back and I'm pretty sure I flew around him. All and all good times with the snakes. They were all very beautiful if nothing else.On top of the snake action I also experienced real genuine thirst for the first time today. I really never knew what it was like to truly be thirsty until this afternoon. That sun was blazing and water was scarce up the ridgeline. When we finally got to a water source you would have thought we found gold. I drank so much so fast that I could have sworn I felt drunk from it. I will never take any drink for granted from this day forward.Tonight we are at the 501 Shelter, where we got a ride into town from Welsh Nomad for dinner. She is the best kind of trail angel, a former thru-hiker herself. She was just the sweetest thing and seemed willing to take us anywhere we wanted to go.We had an awesome dinner buffet at the truckstop with her. And I even got to call my Dad for wish him a Happy Father's Day. Now we are stuffed and happy, relaxing in a shelter that is really more like a hostel. Complete with bunkbeds and a table and chairs!Tomorrow we are only doing 15, and we are finally below a thousand miles left to go till Katahdin! It feels great to think of how far we've come, plus we are almost in Jersey!