Date: 2005-06-27
From: Pine Grove Furnace State Park ( The Ironmasters Ma

To: Alec Kennedy Shelter
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Started @ Pine Grove Furnace State ParkDestination: Alec Kennedy ShelterMiles today: 15.5Total Miles: 1102.4Stayed in shelterDay 108I slept in a little this morning and Skylark and I fixed pancakes and coffee for us. By the time I was packed up and had taken a picture of Donna, Skylark, and LoJack it was 9am. The trail for about the first mile was level and follows a bike trail until the trail takes off up the mountain. It was a gradual climb so not too bad. Then the rest of the day was gradual ups and downs until about 4pm when there were about 3-4 miles left and it went up over rocks and was steep until the outcrop of rocks and the trail wound around in and out and over them. Then further up the trail there was another outcrop that the trail wound around and over. It seemed as if someone was playing tricks--let's see how many ways we can wind them around and over these rocks instead of taking them straight through below the rocks. Maybe there is good reason but I'm sure most hikers can't see it.I ate lunch at Tagg Run Restaurant, which is 0.4 mile west of the trail at a road crossing. After eating a great meal I filled up with water and used the pay phone to make a couple of calls. The waitress told me that hikers are allowed to go to the campground that the people there also operate so I went up and after taking my pack off the owner (I'm guessing he was) came up on a mower and turned it off and asked if I had registered. I explained that I was just getting water at the spigot and that the waitress had told me I could. He said he would have to have a talk with her because she should have given me water at the restaurant. I wondered why she didn't offer but did not ask. He told me to go back down and tell her that he said to give the water to me there. I said that at this point it would be easier to go ahead and get it where I was since I already had my pack off. He said OK, but he was very unhappy with the young waitress. He explained that hikers were going into the campground to use the restrooms and ended up sleeping on the floors in the restrooms--male and female hikers in each restroom. Then his registered guests would go into them and find males and females on the floor. I can't imagine a hiker doing that but if they did it sure does hurt the rest of us.I spent a total of 2 hours at the restaurant with getting water, phone calls from the pay phone, and eating. After an hour or so into the hike this morning I was thinking about things other than the trail conditions, etc., and realized I was not noticing the climb so much. Then I saw 2 hikers, Free and Colonel Mustard that had started out the same time as me but were ahead of me, walking back toward me. Free asked me if I thought we were on the trail because they had not seen any white blazes in a while. Sure enough we had all passed by where the trail turned off. They had walked a lot further but if they had not turned around I may have walked even further because I was in deep thought. So I paid more attention to the blazes after that. There is a couple ahead that I hope to catch up to and meet--Chuckles and Gotta Go. I've been seeing there shelter register entries for a long time and yesterday at Pine Grove Furnace State Park I noticed that they signed it the day before. The 2 hikers here tonight said they passed them on the trail today. The 2 hikers here at this shelter with me are Smokey and Soup. This is only their 3rd day out and they plan 5 weeks of hiking. Soup has been following our journal on trailjournals and said he had hoped our paths would pass.Well, it is dark and I am going to turn off my light and go to sleep. I think I'll only do 12 miles tomorrow because the hike will be in the open sun without much shade. Good night.