Date: 2007-09-29
From: Palmerton, PA

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 110.2
Weather: clear sky

The section from Palmerton,PA to Duncannon, PA brought memorable trail magic, thrilling weather, a visit to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and other notable wildlife sightings. We hiked out of Palmerton on Friday and stayed at the nice Allentown Shelter that night. On Saturday, September 22, we hiked a short day to the Eckville Shelter, within a mile of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. We still had time to hitch a ride to the Sancturary and visit the visitors' center there. Our favorite exhibit was a room with life size models of all the raptors that might be flying over the ridge of the sanctuary. We enjoyed perching on rocks of the North Lookout along with about 100 other people, eagerly anticipating the sighting of migrating hawks. I was impressed with the number of people who were new to birding who had hiked up the rocky,half mile trail hoping to see hawks. Even though we only saw three hawks in the hour we watched, each one was a thrill. Later, we enjoyed a naturalist's program on birding, topped off with my "winning" of a photo postcard done by the presenting artist because he thought walking from Maine deserved the award for coming the furthest to the program. The next day, we hiked 15 miles into Port Clinton, arriving at 5 p.m., just in time to shop at the Peanut Shack, an old fashioned candy and nut shop that sold all sorts of candy by the pound and nuts of all kinds. I was happy to want only raw nuts (out of the dozens of varieties on sale) because that limited my choices to three items: almonds, brazil nuts, and pecans (which made it easy to decide what to get). I couldn't pass up a little bag of licorice, though. We also ate a fine fish dinner at the Port Clinton Hotel, where our first trail magic of the section occured. There was no grocery store in this little town on the banks of the river so we asked the hotel manager if we could buy a few vegetables and some of the rolls from the kitchen. Well, he asked for my wish list, then brought out a bag of veggies and bread, saying, "Happy trails!" What a gift! The next day we walked out of town with four 10" sub rolls, a lemon, a cucumber, two big tomatoes, a handful of kale, and an onion, just perfect for a few days' fresh veggies to add to our meals. In Port Clinton we stayed in the town picnic pavilion where hikers have stayed often. What a friendly town! That night, I talked with my Living Foods friend, Diane, who gave me her dad and stepmom's number to call at the Rt. 501 crossing, which would be coming up in a day and a half. Hiking south again we learned from a northbound hiker that the upcoming springs were dry. We had been counting on at least one water stop, but realized that we would have to hike 18 miles before refilling our bottles. That would have been stretching our water supply, so I decided to check with Holly, Diane's stepmom to see if she could meet us at the road crossing before Rt. 501 later that day. She said that would love to meet us. This began our 2nd memorable trail magic of this section. We hiked at a brisk pace to cover the 7 miles to the road crossing and met her at about 6 p.m. We had a delightful visit and meet three new friends (Holly, Chris, and Cameron). Afterward we hiked off loaded with fresh fruit, vegetables, and PLENTY of water. We stopped for the night within a mile to enjoy a bountiful supper - we couldn't carry it all so we just ate it for dinner and breakfast the next morning! Thanks, Holly!This week's weather brought hot afternoons and early signs of fall color. It's been very dry up on the rocky ridges of Blue Mountain, so we were excited when an evening thunderstorm blew into our camp on Wednesday. Bright flashes of lightning lit up the blue tarp and loud cracks of thunder made us shudder. The tarp did a great job keeping everything dry (but we had to rig up the poncho for a floor to keep it from flooding), and the morning brought sunshine and bright colors. Thursday afternoon, another storm system developed. This time, we hiked as fast as we could to reach the next shelter five miles away before the storm came. Along the way, we saw three big oaks that had been stripped from top to bottom by the lightning the previous night. We felt safe and secure when we reached the shelter, a large structure complete with indoor table and a rolldown wind screen before the wind picked up and the rain started. All night, as the thunder rolled, we slept soundly in the roomy and dry shelter. This shelter was a blessing.Two rattlesnake sightings this week, both right next to the trail deep in the woods, surprised and thrilled us. One was a black timber rattler which John saw AFTER I had already walked by it! We saw it as we walked down a side trail to our campsite in the evening. What was surprising was that it was still in the same coiled position the next morning even after it had rained most of the night. We figured that maybe it had just eaten and wasn't moving much (kind of like US after eating all those veggies that Holly had brought!)The second rattler was also coiled right next to the trail as we came down the ridge to the Susquehanna River crossing. This time, I saw it before going past, but I jumped back when I saw it! It was a gorgeous, yellow phase timber rattler. When I calmed down and looked at it, I marveled at its beauty. We gingerly walked past it and continued on down the trail. I imagined seeing snakes for the rest of the 2 miles down the ridge!Today, we're taking a "zero" day in Duncannon, a very hiker friendly town. We're staying in the Doyle Hotel, a renowned hiker hotel. A baker down the street made a special loaf of "hiker bread", whole grain rye and flax, dense and yummy, just for us! The library stayed open a little late to let us finish writing this journal entry.We're within 45 miles of the official half way mark on the AT, having now hiked 1041 miles from Mt. Katahdin. Fall is beginning to show its colors in individual trees, daytime temperatures are warm and the nights are getting cool.