Date: 2018-06-23
From: Raven Rock Shelter

To: Tumbling Run Shelters
Miles today: 13.2
Weather: light rain

This morning Beats said that he was feeling fine,though still stunned by what had happened. Surprisingly his tent was fully in tack. We set out to get to Pen Mar Park. We were out of food and needed to get to the Walmart which was two miles off the trail. I wasn¢t sure yet how we would do that.Shortly after we set out, it began to rain. Again. I hustled as quickly as I could, although I¢m not certain why. Every inch of me was wet and I could not get any wetter. However, my feet only felt damp. They were not sloshing around in puddles inside of my boots. This is a big improvement.When we arrived at Penmar Park there was a third hiker who had arrived ahead of us. Together we headed for one of the three pavilions to get out of the rain. As we approached the pavilion, the park caretaker hollered at us that the pavilion was reserved and we could not sit at it. I said we just want to get out of the rain for five minutes. He replied ¢the pavilions are reserved¢ and pointed us towards another covered area where we could sit. It was early in the morning, it was raining and the park was completely empty except for us....but the pavilions were reserved! Whatever!A fourth hiker named Sista was already sitting at the covered Overlook that we had been directed to. I mentioned to her that we were out of food and needed to get to Walmart. She said she was waiting on a ride from her cousin and we could go with them to the Walmart. The only thing was that her ride would be at least an hour. We were fine with that because it would take us about an hour to walk 2 miles and waiting was certainly preferable over hitchhiking. Sista¢s cousin actually took two hours to arrive, but we were still grateful. She even offered to wait for us and return us to the park once we had finished our shopping. Awesome!As we waited more hikers arrived and took up residence at the overlook. It had stopped raining by now and the sun was peeking out through the heavy clouds. The hikers just kept arriving. The care taker came over and lingered around. What was this group of rabble rousers up to. ¢If you need things from town, you just walk about two miles up that way.¢ He offered. He was thanked. Nobody budged.Finally we saw Beats coming up the trail with a German hiker named Passenger. The gathering of wet smelly undesirables clapped and cheered him in. A sign on one of the buildings said First Aid. Basically it was just a first aid kit inside, but Beats was able to get his head cleaned up better. His gash was still bleeding. Beats and Passenger headed to town and slowly the gathered hikers dispersed, either heading to town as well or else continuing up the trail. Cole, Sista and I were soon all that remained. Cole and I used the power hand dryers in the park washrooms to dry out our socks a bit while we waited.Sista¢s cousin eventually arrived. She was a delightfully funny old lady. She even invited us back to stay at her place, but we declined. We did our shopping at Walmart as quickly as we could and then were driven back to the park. Back in the Overlook, we sorted through and repacked our food. We ate our lunch too. I had bought us ready made subs at Walmart. Cole¢s was 18 inches long. He ate the entire thing. We also ate cupcakes and drank soda. Then we gathered ourselves together and prepared to hit the trail. It was 2pm and we had only hiked 5 miles.Not far from the park we crossed the Mason Dixon Line into Pensilvania. Another state down.After a few hours of hiking, we passed a southbounder who told us that there was trail magic a couple of miles ahead. The word ¢hamburgers¢ was mentioned. Our backpacks were full of food......but no hamburgers! We kicked it up a notch. At a road crossing we found a group of men under a pop up tent frying up burgers...and bacon. There was also home made goodies, pasta salad, vegetables and an assortment of other snacks. Cole ate two huge bacon cheeseburgers, plus an assortment of other treats. He drank two cans of pop. When we had arrived, one of the gentleman asked if I would like a pop.¢ What did you just offer me?¢ I asked with wide eyes and a big smile. A pop? Did you say ¢pop¢ and not soda? I must be home!¢ They all had a laugh. We stayed there eating and talking for well over an hour. By then the sun was starting to set so we continued on up the trail to the next shelter. There were actually two shelters. One was labeled snoring the other was labeled non snoring. Both shelters were empty. We selected the non-snoring shelter and settled in for the night. Not far off in the group camping area, a group of scouts was making a whole lot of noise. I stared out of the shelter watching the fireflies and listening to the noise and thinking what a wonderful day I¢d had.