Date: 2019-06-23
From: Cove Mnt Shelter

To: Peters Mtn Shelter
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: clear sky

TA 2,032  TD 2164 TG 272Last night at the shelter was hilarious. I decided to experience shelter living, sleeping on the floor in the shelter with the other hikers, just because. Normally I hang my hammock outside the shelter. One of my biggest concerns prior to starting this hike was about the mice and rats reported in the shelters-mice that eat into your pack and run across your face at night. I thought about bringing Lysol. This shelter was newly built, two stories, with a loft. Shelters are three sided structures with an open front. No amenities. But the picnic table is often in front, under the roofing system. Hikers hang their backpacks on hooks, nails or whatever they find, put their food bag in a bear box or hang on a bear poll in camp and sleep on the floor wherever there is room. Others sleep in the vicinity, in tents or hammocks. Shelters offer a gathering place for the hiking community after walking all day, a primitive privy and a roof over their head. After eating my tuna dinner, chatting with Brass Compass, Strider and Mo, I set up my 6-inch foam mat and down sleeping bag in the loft, and went to bed at 7:30PM. Tuck away, quiet, silent and listening to sounds. Shortly after that a group of young gent hikers arrived. These are the thru-hikers who are doing 20-25 miles a day. They are fast and furious. Setting up their place in the shelter, eating dinner, their conversation was about their journey, food, facial body hair and dildos, but mostly about dildos. Then the young gals arrived and the conversation changed. Most of us spend our life trying to be a presence and have a voice. There is something to be said about being present, silent and listening. Not the same as being silenced. I slept poorly, the foam pad was not meant to say under me and the down sleeping bag barely enough to keep my face off the floor. Ugg. Had a stuffy nose for the first time and a headache. However, no mice or rats were to be seen. I will stick with my hammock but will miss the conversations from the fast and furious. Lot of ups and downs on the trail today-geographically speaking. Woke up 5:30AM. Brass Compass already on the trail to get breakfast in Duncannon, a town that the trail goes thru. In lieu of breakfast, I get on the trail too.  Met a lovely town girl doing yoga on the rocks before I headed into town, a 3 mile, 1,000 ft, hike down the mountain. The trail goes thru an old economically depressed town with 6 bars, 4 churches, 2 funeral homes, one 'massage' parlor which is open all night long. Stopped into Goodies for breakfast. Sat with Mo, Strider and Brass Compass who was on his second feeding. I ate a pancake, 2 eggs and sausage. That was enough. The Professor came in, a member of my first AT family!. I was happy to see him. He was taking a zero today and staying at the vintage Doyle Hotel. He said it was like the Hotel California and he hopes he will be able to leave. He is newly married and his wife is in Japan teaching English. She talks about the cuddle cafes, where people can go in for a cup of coffee and lay down with someone to cuddle; a basic human need not being met in the busy crowned living conditions of Japan. The Professor is on the trail because this was a commitment before he got married. He made his point. Does he really need to see this hike thru? I sat with him for a while. He said GipCGirl is a day ahead and traveling fast. It is my hope to catch up with her.  Left Goodies early afternoon and continued thru town, on the trail, saw a large wooden-carved standing bear in a front yard (what is a journal of the AT without a bear citing), crossed over the Susquehanna River and then 1,000 ft up to another mountain. Walked the ridge, still under a canopy. Saw rabbits, frogs, birds, and chipmunks. Small pine, oak, maple, mountain laurel. Walking by myself on the ridge and felling good, outside of being full from breakfast. No rain, moist, humid and an occasional breeze. Simply lovely.