Date: 2018-07-17
To: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter
Miles today: 22.2
Weather: broken clouds

I woke up to birds chirping at 5 am but I didn't want to get up. I slept in until 6:30 am since I hung out at the bar late last night. Tom showed up and asked us if we wanted to slack pack. I wanted to have all my gear on me and declined. Another guy offered the same service and I had him carry my food bag since it was the heaviest. He also drove us to the local diner called the 3 C's. It was under construction because a car crashed into the building. It was right on the highway. Lupine was thinking about quitting coffee but she just couldn't right now and ordered a cup. I ordered the big breakfast that included bacon, ham, hash browns, eggs, french toast, and toast. I finished most of it except the eggs. We got picked up an hour later then headed out on the trail.It was a steep climb up to the ridgeline but not as bad as other climbs I've been on. Our plan was to push for the Eckville shelter for lunch then go to the next shelter. Once we got to the top it started sprinkling then raining. We played in the rain. My shoes were soaked again and my feet were prunes. There was some rocks but they were not that bad. One part of the trail was an old service road. We talked about having a photoshoot with the bra that we found for a hiker calendar. We thought of different things that thru hikers do like resupplying, showering at a shelter, grocery shopping, etc. All the scenes would include a man wearing the bra. We ran through the rain as we got closer to the Eckville shelter. We arrived a little while later. The shelter was fully enclosed and had a flushing toilet and shower. I saw Grey Goose there whom I hadn't seen since I lost her in the rain storm a few days earlier. She didn't see the sign for the 501 shelter in the storm and walked right by it. I ate my lunch then took a quick shower. I got back on the trail at 5:30 pm.This is the point were Pennsylvania showed its teeth in the form of bolders. There were rocky sections seemed to go on for a quarter mile. You could easily slip and end your thru hike if you were not careful enough. They also tend to harbor rattlesnakes during the day. I skipped on the tops of the rocks to move faster. Sometimes my foot would slide sideways and I would catch myself. After about 2 hours I met up with Lupine on the trail.  We hiked together to the Allentown shelter. It started raining again and getting dark.  The combination of rain, dark, and wet bolders didn't appeal to me or Lupine. At one point it started pouring. We still managed to move across the rock fields. Some rocks were more slippery than others. It became hard to see the rocks and we donned our headlamps. The slippery rocks were shiny and we tried to avoid them. All I could think about was getting to the shelter before I got hurt. We came to a junction and saw Rosie's trekking pole with his buff on it and knew we made it. At the shelter most of the tenting spots were taken and I decided to sleep in the shelter. I made Mac and cheese for dinner and hung out for a little bit before calling it a night.Tonight I'm dry in my camp clothes and glad to be out of the rain.