Date: 2020-08-05
From: Port Clinton rail trail (Hamburg)

To: Windsor Furnace Shelter
Miles today: 6.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Slept fitfully thanks to truck traffic throughout the night, but awoke refreshed regardless. The temperature dipped enough that I had to pull out my sleeping bag in the middle of the night.I half expected a cop or some landowner to find me and kick me out during the night. If I was trespassing there were no signs and the pavilion had obviously been used by others, if not hikers, and was not maintained. So really just my conscience bothering me. I had tried to pay for a room. Another hiker later told me he had plopped himself in the Microtel's lobby until the unhelpful manager had "found" a room. Not sure what to make of the place suddenly filling up on a weeknight.I walked to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, then Walmart to resupply. My wife Sara drove my two younger sons Jonathan, 12, and Nathan, 10, up from the Philly suburbs to join me on trail for two days. The storm knocked out power at home for most of yesterday into the early morning so it was questionable whether this would happen. But the boys were excited about coming and had already packed before the storm. I was overwhelmed to see them. It had been two whole months since their older brother and I had left for Georgia.Sara took us to Port Clinton, also giving Jaws a lift, who had found his way to Walmart after sleeping in the Port Clinton town pavilion last night, a place I'd avoided for its reputation as a hangout for locals. In Port Clinton I took the boys to the Peanut Shop for some trail sweets, where we were spoiled by uncountable choices both traditional and contemporary, then headed to the trail by the rail yard where the boys checked out the boulder-sized chunks of anthracite coal. The trail wound under busy route 61 where it looked like one or two homeless people had set up. Then it went straight up Blue Mountain, a fairly steep incline up 600 feet. I knew this would be very tough for the boys and we prepared by loading up on sugar. They tackled it with resolve and made me proud. We had lunch at a nice set of boulders with a view that Nathan picked out before climbing further to the ridge. After a couple more miles over fairly rocky trail we reached Pocahontas Spring. Yesterday's storm had turned it into a small creek and flooded the trail around it. Similar story at Minnehaha Spring, which had been dry two days ago. And a mile farther there was a raging gusher of runoff that wasn't listed in AWOL or Guthooks at all. The no-see-ums started to get to us as evening approached. Fortunately we soon reached the Windsor Furnace shelter, an open log structure with mortared gaps. A brown mouse kept peeking out from underneath, as if curious about his new tenants. The privy here has been torn down and a new one is in the early stages of construction, so bring a spade if you stay.We built two fires in the large fire ring to test whether Fritos and Doritos were the better firestarter. The Fritos won out, though the Doritos seemed to have the early lead. For dinner we rehydrated potatoes and ramen, the boys' favorites.A hiker from Virginia named Bear Bag walked in around 7. Said he had started in Daleville and hoped to reach Katahdin this year, though he'd already taken twenty zeroes. Said he was thruhiking. Named a bunch of hikers I'd never met, presumably far ahead of us. Also complained incessantly that the side trail hadn't an explicit sign for the shelter. Probably because it's so close to a parking lot, to minimize day use. He bummed some paper off me to go out a sign so his buddy would be sure to find the place. That hiker arrived at dusk looking generally unhappy and set up his tent before cooking in front of the shelter well after dark. After a hard day of hiking I expect the boys and I will sleep pretty well tonight.