Date: 2016-05-22
From: Yellow Springs Campsite

To: Abandoned Powerline Campsite
Miles today: 15.3

Today was to be a tale of hindsight. Numerous decisions we later couldn't take back made on both mine and Hobbit's part got us 15.30 miles down the trail but it was a LONG day. It was cool and drizzly when we packed up in the morning. Hobbit opted to pack and get moving down the trail without breakfast in an attempt to warm up. She had decided not to bring under armour and was bit under dressed for 45 and drizzle. I tossed down some hot chocolate and oatmeal, packed and hit the trail about 1/2 hour after her. At least Jackson wasn't going to walk back and forth between us this way.The trail continued with smaller rocks and mud but gently sloped down as we approached Rausch Creek. The trail turned to crushed black gravel of anthracite. This area was an old coal mining town that failed. Quite historical. http://www.stonyvalley.com/rauschgap.html We passed up the side trail to Rausch Gap Shelter and stopped at Rausch Creek to watch the Limestone neutralization system in action, it is a system to clean up the acid mine drainage that pollutes the local creeks. While we watched, Veggie Guys hiking buddy Josh (Mason Jar) caught up with us. We stopped just past the cemetery for second breakfast and Josh and I had a great conversation about hiking / resting / hiking rhythm techniques and to discuss why my backpack was waterlogged even though I'd kept the cover on it.As Waterboy and I reached the bottom of Second Mountain, nature called and I dropped my pack to take care of business. Back on the trail we were about to cross over/under a sequence of roads when Hobbit caught up to us. Wait! You were behind us? She had gotten concerned about hypothermia and had stopped at the Rausch Gap Shelter (0.3 mile off the trail) to dry out a bit and warm up. When Waterboy and I never showed up, she packed up and again headed down the trail. Our new plan now was to stop for the day at the next campsite that was about 2.0 more miles and call it an early day. Both Hobbit and Waterboy needed an early day with some rest. As we passed several campsites both Hobbit and I said we didn't care for the site, let's look for a better one. They were all small for 2 tents, under heavy canopy, and too near the trail. This lack of decision caused us to end up at the I-81 underpass with the next horrid climb dead in front of us. We climbed to the next gravel road crossing and sat down for a makeshift lunch. We'd heard some really bad things about this climb and now had it staring us in the face when we all had hoped to be napping in our tents.Then we climbed, and climbed, and climbed and it was STEEP. But we were extremely proud of ourselves when we summited. Ok, back to looking for a great campsite right? Wrong! There were huge rocks everywhere! Along the trail and every open space was littered with them. We were NOT going to get a tent setup here. So we were back to the indecision about which site to pick and just kept walking. At one point we lost the blazes and that caused some concern. But how far away can they be if you are on top of a huge cigar shaped mountain walking down the spine of it, right? After a brief bit of chaos, we were back on the trail and once again heading NoBo. The only thing on our AT Guide map was this abandoned powerline overlook. We crossed our fingers and just kept moving. Upon arrival, we received a great welcome by OG Bob!!!! Wowser!!! He was very impressed we'd made it that far and so were we.We found the only level spot we could squishing our tents tight together. I dumped what little was left in my food bag on the ground and took inventory. It appeared Jackson was going to eat people food for dinner. Hobbit and I fed him every scrap we could, big hunks of cheese, beef jerky, left overs, granola bars.... he ate it all. He was SO hungry. Hang in there buddy, tomorrow we'll be at the 501 Shelter and your food is there!Plans had been brewing throughout the day for my girlfriend Grace to meet us at the 501 Shelter tomorrow. She was on her way home to Wisconsin from a class reunion in New York. We were to have dinner together. I formed a plan instead that included Grace just driving us to Hamburg and skipping the next 24.4 miles past the 501 Shelter. Hobbit needed to warm up and dry out and Waterboy was a tired mess. I was growing quite concerned. This new game plan was starting to sound like a reallly good idea. Ok guys, tomorrow we hike 6.8 miles and the day after that's a ZERO!!! I got NO complaints! LOL