Date: 2014-06-14
From: Eckville Shelter

To: Bake oven knob
Miles today: 17.4

In which today was my most difficult hiking day yet, but I saw 3 deer, rabbits and a rattler.The trail started off with a bang today. It was mostly flat to begin, with you guessed it, rocks and the added bonus of muck and mud. Everything was wet after yesterday's rain including my wet shoes I put on this morning. They pretty much remained that way all day long.The trail quickly turned after the initial climb. It was so rocky and tedious and painful in fact that it took 4 hours to do 7.4 miles which is pitiful by normal standards. The rocks were simply exhausting and plentiful. There were big boulders, little boulders, jagged rocks with very sharp edges all sticking up and the trail was nothing but a mine field to pick my way through.Murphy, Mambo and I arrived at the next shelter, looked at each other and simply shook our heads. These rocks are brutal! Our feet were screaming at us already with 10 more planned miles to go. So we ate our lunch and talked with a boy scout troop out for a few days and used their questions as a welcome diversion and eventually hiked on.The weather today was perfect for hiking. It was cool, breezy and cloudy with no rain. I even had to put on my jacket a few times as it got chilly. The next 4 miles of our 10 miles were relatively easy with intermittent rocks by PA standards and we were able to knock those out in 1.5 hours unlike this morning.The we came to a road crossing and got distracted when we saw a sign which said "open". We couldn't read the sign from the road so we ventured closer to check it out. Lo and behold it was a restaurant! Perfect timing for an afternoon snack and to catch a little bit more of the world cup. Eventually we peeled ourselves away and began to walk again...and this is where is got really bad!ROCKS! Not just rocks but a field of rocks occasionally filled with muck. There were big rocks to boulder hop across which was very tedious and jaw clenching work. Watching my feet commanded all my attention and concentration. I also had the pleasure of seeing one more rattlesnake slither into the bushes on the side of the trail. Finally, we reached the Knife's edge and it's named that for a reason. We literally walked on the edge of the ridge with boulders angled sideway and shear drop offs on either side. My hiking poles were of no use here and I had to temporarily put them away in lieu of scooting on my butt and using my arms for leverage lowering myself and climbing. My short legs really had to stretch in a few places too over gapping holes in the earth. That was a little nerve wracking. This would be a great place to come out on a day hike and play. Today it just threw me over the edge. My whole body was just screaming "no more"!Happily we all survived this challenge and found out we were in for another treat. We thought the worst of the rocks were done for today. Not. The last mile got pretty intense. We had another ridge to climb up and over through more boulders. This required more butt scooting and hand holding down the rocks and this last mile took us an hour to complete. All in all we did 17.4 miles today in 11 hours. Not bad. Just a slower, tedious, more painful day. My feet are throbbing and screaming for mercy.It's now 2130 and I'm wiped! Going to bed so I can do it all over again tomorrow. Peace!