Date: 2004-10-06
From: Pa. 325

To: Pa. 225
Miles today: 9.4

Today is Wednesday October 6th. The Motel 6 should be ashamed to call that a continental breakfast this next morning. They had a muffin and some little doughnut holes. We left there right at 8 am and start on the ramp to the interstate, but it was totally blocked. Backed up off the ramp, turned around and went up Highway 11. We finally got down to Pa 581 West. Took that up to I-81 and went over the river. And on up to Pa 225. With a nice parking lot there at the Appalachian Trail. We left everything in the car here, that we would need for the night, and then drove up to Pa 325. There was a nice parking lot there, and we got on the trail at 9:55 am. I'm going to have to carry my tennis shoes on the hike today and Terry has to carry duct tape for tomorrow's hike on the trail today, because we forgot to leave them in car number 1. And Terry has to carry socks for tomorrow's hike also. We had a good climb, we talked to a father and son bowhunters, out hunting. I had my safety vest on, but Terry was hiking shirtless. The bowhunters said you could be fined for not wearing a safety vest on game lands. Terry doesn't believe him. We went on and we're looking for Shikellimy side trail about two and a half miles in. We didn't arrive there until 11:36 am. Which told us we were really pretty slow today. Once we got up on the ridge it was easier going, with some rocks. So we said the Kinter overlooks are about 4 miles down the trail and we still got there by noon time. We rest at the Overlook and had our lunch, took our shoes off for 25 minutes. We took off again and our next objective is the Peter Mountain shelter. We arrived at the shelter at 1:52 p.m. That's when we decided that the Overlook must have been it 3 miles instead of 4 miles (wrong again). When you get to the shelter the first thing you see is the old Earl Shaffer shelter, which looks like the worst shelter on the trail. The Peter Mountain shelter there was really nice, 2 story, everything good about it. It has a picnic table inside and good views. It also had the plastic windscreen, you could put down if you wanted to. We stayed there until 2:15pm. After the shelter there were several overlooks including Table Rock. We rested at several overlooks then went under some power lines. The last two miles we played with our GPS. We tried to guess our arrival time to our next point on the trail (very nerdy). We were ready for the end though. They take you up and down a few more times, than another Viewpoint looking out over the river. We got back to the car at 3:50 p.m.  we got back to the Mini-van, came back down Pa 225, got on whatever it is Pa 22 and Pa 322, down to I-81 going North. Stopped at an exit with 2 motels, but prices were outrageous because of Hershey, Pa. Car show. We got back on the interstate, went north to Swatara Park, soon realizing we had been thru there before, and there was no camping. Went up to the next I-81 exit at Lickdale, to Lickdale campground. Got a nice electric campspot there for $22. We had the nicest showers at any campground so far. Had a great meal at Millers, mom and pop place south of the campground on Pa 72. Had a good nights sleep in the van.