Date: 2016-05-20
From: Route 501 Shelter, Pine Grove, PA

To: Eagles Nest Shelter, PA
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 3015.1 miles in 9 hours501 Shelter, Pine Grove, PA (1193.4) to Eagles Nest Shelter (1208.5)Weather: Sunshine, high of 85Dinner: Pepper FishWildlife: Several deer, one rattlesnake and chipmunks as annoying as the rocksHikers: One sectional SOBO, a father and son (former thru-hikers) out for a day hike, and 14 people hanging out tonight at the shelterToday I had dark thoughts. Nasty, filthy NOBOs. We hates them. If you didn't get my Lord of the Rings analogy (Mom), this might sound like I lost it. Actually the rocks are nasty things that we hate. I have no idea how the six NOBOs managed to hike more than 5 miles after a grocery run and pizza feed last night, but it took me over 3.5 hours to navigate this section this morning. By contrast, I knocked out the next 5 miles in 2.25 hours. From the beginning, I was like a sullen teenager, dragging my feet and daydreaming about all the mean things I could say about this section like ¢the road to hell is paved with Pennsylvanian rocks.¢ To get a a feel of how my feet felt, take the knuckle of your index finger and push it as hard as you can into the meaty part of your palm where your thumb joint is located. Go ahead. I¢ll wait. Now do this repeatedly for hours on end. After carefully picking your way across the gardens o¢ pain, gripping with toes and grinding into soles, you want to pick up speed as soon as you reach a relatively smooth piece of a pine needle cushioned thoroughfare. But your feet say, ¢Oh no you don't! We're using this time to fully stretch out for a bit. And we're letting you know by sending some soul-crushing (see what I did there?) messages your way as long as you keep hiking. Contestants on one season of the reality TV show, The Amazing Race, were once subjected to one of those painful Chinese foot massages during a ¢road block.¢ It¢s the kind of therapeutic treatment that makes you scream, but then afterwards your feet feel better. Not so with the Pennsylvania foot massage. The day before, Dark Water had showed me how to rock hop in order to make time over these sections. Those fleet-footed NOBOs. They are flitting, flying and hippety-hopping their way across ¢Rocksylvannia.¢ The trick is staying high, using the tallest, most boulder-like rocks vs. trying to place your foot on the softest piece of the ground or maneuvering around them. Still need to be careful where to place your foot, but this really only works on larger rocks. Today¢s rocks ranged in size from russet potatoes to Paris Hilton¢s dog carrier. And they occupied 75 - 90% of the trail¢s surface. You can't do any rock hopping on bits this small. Part of the concern with all these rocks is worrying about my trekking poles getting jammed and then snapping. The rocks catch them. After eating the now-soggy, yet still incredibly delicious sub I had bought the night before, I met up with a dad and his adult son out for a day hike. I was bitching about all the rocks and told them how I will typically will start to look forward to a shelter by late afternoon. Not so today. I pretty much fantasized about getting to the shelter within the first hour. Probably didn't help that is was in the 80s too. Not five minutes after I let them pass, I hear a shout 50 yards ahead. Dad had just passed a trail side rattlesnake that his son saw. Now that will adjust your attitude. After taking pictures, dad used a stick to coax it off trail. If they had been using trekking poles, they might have nailed it. It was maybe 5¢ long and had six or eight rattles and did not like being moved. I noticed that dad let son hike in the front after that. I took a longer break around 2:30 p.m. to work on this entry and read. At 4:15 p.m. And with another two miles to go, rock gardens began reappearing. I took a picture of what hate looks like. Only one NOBO passed me all day. I arrived at the shelter expecting to find it empty. Instead we've got a bustling little village with all sorts of sectional hikers who primarily started north of here, and a Spanish NOBO who just arrived after hiker midnight (8 p.m.) He did over 30 miles. We hates them very much. (Just kidding.)