Date: 2018-07-18
From: William Penn Shelter

To: Port Clinton, PA
Miles today: 28.2

Yesterday was a short mileage day due to the rain. After I dried out in the shelter, the rain had stopped but I surely didn't want to get back into wet clothes and resume hiking about 4.5 miles to the next shelter. Other hikers opted to hike onward. Call me a sissy if you'd like. Its my adventure and I call the shots out here. By opting to stay warm and cozy in a shelter with a cell signal the previous day, I left myself with a big day of hiking if I wanted to reach Port Clinton. I started hiking about 7:15 AM.I was short on snacks and didn't bother eating breakfast. I made cold prep oatmeal to eat about two hours down the trail. Cold prep is preparing food without cooking it. We hikers do this all the time. Oatmeal and ramen are good choices for this technique. The trail has a way of providing what you need out here. You can call it luck or from heaven above. Well, about one hour into my hike I came across a road guard with snacks placed on it. I took a bag of sun chips and a pack of crackers. They became my breakfast. When I ate the oatmeal two hours later, I cold prepped ramen noodles for my next snack. I basically ate something every two hours just to keep the hunger at bay. I didn't want to take extra time to cook a rice side or similar. I just needed to hike as much as I could to reach Port Clinton by the end of the day.During the late morning I came to a section of trail that was flooded. Only the trail was flooded, not the surrounding areas. I began hiking with my shoes on since the water wasn't too deep. I played frogger going from rock to rock thinking this would be a short inconvenience. I was wrong. It lasted nearly a mile and my right foot slipped off a log and I got a soaker. My shoes had just started to feel dry from yesterday's rain too! This stretch slowed me down as well but I survived and kept pushing to town.After 19 miles I snuck into a shelter for a break to eat a second ramen noodles and cold mashed potatoes, and to put on dry socks. This would be my last break before making the final approach to town. My break was about 45 minutes and when I returned to the trail Boogerbear was hiking by. He was going to town also but was hiking a shorter distance having started the day closer to town than I. We hiked the final nine miles together while taking turns as to who was the lead hiker. He's from Austin, Texas, and our conversation helped pass the time. When we reached town at 8:15 PM, I'd spent nearly 13 hours on the trail and achieved my personal best of 28.2 miles hiked. I was very proud of myself for this accomplishment. The excitement offset how tired I was.We went to a tenting pavilion setup for hikers and went through the routine of setting up our areas. With that taken care of we couldn't let a night in town go to waste. We heard there was a good chance we could get into the private club a half mile from the pavilion so we went for it. We buzzed and the door unlocked. We walked in and I said, "Who wants to sponsor (sign in) two thirsty hikers? We'll buy you a drink." I then turned to the ATM to make a withdrawal and before I was done Boogerbear brought me the guest book to sign my real name. We were in! I had five beers and five bags of jalapeno potato chips. The locals were as friendly as can be and they bought us a couple rounds. We left good tips for the bar tender to show our appreciation. Whenever a hiker is in need, the trail will provide. For book followers, mile 1,218.9 page 119.