Date: 2014-06-11
From: 501 Shelter

To: Eagle's Nest
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: mist

I am becoming a bit of a shelter rat. Ordinarily I would prefer to be in my tent for comfort and privacy over the shelter. However, the alternative to a shelter would currently involve packing up in the rain and carrying a lot of extra weight with a very wet tent. Thunder, lightening and rain passed thru from 6 to 7 this morning providing quite the show. Anything that I had put out last night inside or out is no drier than before. In order to fuel the fire I am trying to eat a bigger breakfast this morning. Usually I am not a big breakfast eater with just a couple of bars or something. Today I am having a salami and cheese bagel sandwich along with my breakfast bar. I will save the leftovers from the pizza place for lunch and or dinner tonight depending on how I feel. I got a chance to talk with my wife and we finalized our plans for me coming home for a few days and getting back to the trail afterwards. Logistics continues to dominate my life here on the trail even when it involves going home and coming back. Pennsylvania has been living up to its reputation of having an inordinate amount of sharp jagged rocks that cover a bit of the trail and prevent you from even finding a place to put your foot. The one good thing about them though is that they usually only last a few hundred yards at a time and then peter out. The hard part is you get on a role and are in a grove as you move along the trail and WHAM !!! you have to slow down to a crawl in order to avoid an accident. Speaking of accidents I had a crazy one today. Usually in addition to my water bladder, I carry 16 ounces in a bottle on my chest strap and anytime I come to a stream I drink what's in the bottle and then refill it. This way even if my bladder goes dry, I know I have this 16 ounce bottle to see me thru to the next water source. Well today I came to a stream which was flowing real slow and usually would have passed it up for another one later, but I didn't know where the next one would be and sources were becoming fewer. Any way it was pretty muddy around it and as you can imagine I put my foot in the wrog place and went ass over tea kettle in the blink of an eye. I landed smack on my back or in this case pack and like a turtle I couldn't initially get up. I squirmed for a few seconds until I could right myself and fortunately I had my rain cover on my pack so my pack and most of my back stayed dry. However, my shorts and bottom of my shirt were soaked and covered in mud. Boy did I have a laugh at myself over this. My bandana was put to good use in cleaning up myself and my only injury besides to my pride was a small cut on a finger. What was even funnier was that I only had to go a couple of hundred yards when the same water source popped up in the form of a full flowing stream with easy access. Go figure. The rest of the day was pretty tame and there were no views given the fog and mist. The humidity remained high throughout the day but at least it was a little cooler than the past few days. Now there are only a few things that really irk a hiker and one of them is false information. When I got to the shelter trail head it said the shelter was only .3 miles away which is too bad despite the miles covered in the day. However, as I moved down the trail to the shelter I was convinced that it was much more than .3 and more like .5 miles. Again, I realize for most people reading this they are saying what's another .2 miles, but to us you might as well say another 2 miles. For me today has been one of those trying ones where I have been wet, sticky and smelly for 4 days now, walking in boots that go squish, squish and my wet socks are causing blisters on the bottom of my toes as they try to grab for traction inside my boots. Once inside the shelter I set up a line to try once again to "dry out" some of my gear. It has been wet for so long its starting to really smell. You know the kind of sour smell that clothes get when they have been wet too long. In the back of my mind I hear myself say, "It's only another 9 miles to Port Clinton and a dry room and shower", but I've had enough and settle in for the night. The shelter now looks like a Chinese laundry with gear hanging everywhere. I'm trying a mountain house beef stew meal for the first time. It's one Leo gave me and think it might be that pick me up I need. While waiting for it to "cook" I do some more journaling. The beef stew isn't too bad and now I'm soaking the beans and rice for late at which time I will just have to warm them up. Two kids 17 & 18 from Mechanicsburg have come into the shelter and we talk for a while. There nice kids and seem to have a good head on their shoulders for being so young. A third person Wade joins us and settles in for the night also. Everything is so damp and clammy and feels so slimy. Even the clothes that were in the "dry" bag are saturated with moisture that has penetrated everything. What makes matters worse is not having a shower in over 6 days now. I eat the rice and beans for dinner and of course have my dark chocolate for desert. After dinner I read for a while but everyone is in their bags for bed by 830. During the night the rain strikes with a vengeance along with high winds and thunder and lightening. To make matters worse I get sick with some kind of bug that requires regular trips to the privy. This is not easy or pleasant as the outhouse is quite a ways away on a trail that the brush has almost completely taken over causing me to get wet as I go to and from the privy. I'm hoping this only short term, maybe from the left over pizza or cheese sticks or something simple. Please don't let it be Giardia. Oh yes at least there was one very bright spot today. I went over the 1200 mile mark!