Date: 2016-06-23
From: Tentsite and Dirtroad

To: The Pinnacle
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Thank you so much for the comments! I always enjoy the feedback! Verge and I knew the post office didn't open until 12:30pm, so we decided to sleep in and take our time getting to town! We didn't arrive in Port Clinton until around 11am, so we took a walk looking for water and came upon a house that had a sign for thru-hikers offering their hose to fill water! Score! While we were filling up, a lady walks over and talks to us about our hike. As she was leaving, I asked if she knew a nice place in town to have lunch; she mentioned "3C's" down the street has great breakfast served all day, and she offered to drive us! Wow! Good first impression Port Clinton and much thanks to trail Angels! We had a lovely meal at 3C's (I had a veggie omelette with jam and toast, and Verge had an own faced tuna melt. We had a big fruit bowl and vanilla ice cream for dessert! Mmmmmm!)We finally got to the post office (it was definitely open by now), and someone runs up from behind me and startles me! It's Sweets! She caught up after she was sick the other day! She cranked out multiple over 20 mile days to get back to us (Jingle, Wheels, Great P, Mountaingoat, and Princess Peach and his puppy Scoober were all there too!) The barber shop was really groovy (and had free cookies) and the candy shop down the street was overwhelmingly awesome (but had a grumpy lady running the counter...)We finally left town at around 3pm with weak intentions of going all the way to Eckville Shelter (15 more miles), but Mountain Goat texted me that he and his buddies were doing trail magic just up the trail and to come join! We debated passing them because we really wanted to get some miles in, but we decided if we only stayed until 6:30pm (we would get to the spot at 5:45pm) and made sure we hiked 7 more miles, then we could go. When we got there, however, all our buddies were there! Jingle, Wheels, Mountain Goat, Princess Peach, Great P, Sweets, Chicken Feet; even Tumbleweed and Shiv surprised us by showing up in a rental car to say goodbye before they took a three week hiatus to Germany!! It was such a great time, I couldn't bear to go when 6:30 rolled around! Verge kept giving me the "it's time to go, you promised" look, and finally just passed 7pm, we left. Most of our buddies were only planning on going four more miles to this spot called "the pinnacle" where there's an amazing spot to see the sunrise, but Verge was still set on pushing 7 more miles. After we left, she let me have it. We had a huge fight about how I went back on my word and how we have different goals for the trip and it just isn't going to work out if we aren't on the same team, etc. It was awful. I've never angry-hiked so quickly before in my life. I got four miles in and it was dark and rocky, so I decided I'd wait for her to see if she wanted to camp there or continue in the rocky darkness. She agreed to stop here, and it turned out to be the pinnacle and our buddies were not too far behind. Princess Peach is from the area and has hiked the pinnacle many times, so he suggested exactly where to go and that we should "cowboy camp" (sleep with your sleeping pad/sleeping bag on the ground or rock under the stars with no tent). I decided, it's a perfect, windy, chilly night with a bright moon ,and I've never done it before, and there's no chance of rain,so why not?! (Rattlesnakes--that's why not--but don't worry, they never came out).Verge slept in our tent, but I enjoyed my night of "cowboy camping." The weather was perfect. I slept wonderfully. I woke up at 5am to a sky just turning pink and a crisp breeze making it feel even better to be cozy in my sleeping bag.