Date: 2018-07-03
From: Rousch gap shelter

To: Pa 183 - rock n sole hostel
Miles today: 26.8
Weather: clear sky

So sunday's air-conditioning in gas station lounge fueled idea to get to PA 183 in 2 days came back to haunt me a little today. After cranking out 29 miles in the brutal heat yesterday I still had to do about 27 today before 5pm. This wasn't going to be that easy.  I got up had breakfast and hit the trail right at 6, took a little longer than the days before since I had retrieve a bear hang and eat oatmeal. The trail right but the shelter was really nice with lots of greenery and then suddenly a huge freaking water source (not marked in the guide) over and including the trail. Turns out that some industrious beavers had made some dams and flooded this whole part of the trail. I switched to my camp sandals and forded the trail, which was knee deep in sections. After the wet excitement, the trail was basically normal, one small hill then another river crossing, on a sweet olden timey metal bridge from then 1800s. Then the trail passed under a big interstate before climbing to a ridge and staying there for a while. The two hikers from the shelter (Walkman and brew) passed me in the morning and I met up with them again under the interstate, where some kind soul had left a cooler full of sodas. I had a mellow yellow for the caffeine and headed up the climb. The climb was real nice gentle trail, but afterwards it was interspersed with tons of crazy rock sections (as in the photo). It went back and forth from nice soft trail to rough rock most of the morning until I got to the shelter 13 miles from where I had started. Here I saw brew and Walkman go to the shelter while I went the other way to the spring. I filled up on water and had a brief shoes off lunch break. It was just about noon when I left, I had approx 13 miles to the road where I would get my shuttle ride and about 5 hours to make it.  I ate my last caffeinated Clif bar, and prepared to use 2 gels as well. I started off pretty good, the heat wasn't as bad as the day before but was still noticeable. Hit a road crossing 2.8 m from the shelter in about 45m, then proceeded apace for a while. I ran into a south bound section hiker and a dad and 4 sons whom both mentioned an incredible swimming hole. This wasn't listed in the guide that I had so was news to me. However I just kept going. Eventually I got to a rock labelled 'swimming hole' with an arrow, but I couldn't see the water and I wasn't sure exactly how far I was so I just skipped it. This really sucked. I love going to and jumping into any sort of even crap swimming hole, so to skip one so highly recommended hurt my soul. I made it to the marker for some monument the .3m away marker the hostel guy had told me to call from so I made the call then headed to the road. I had made it by 440, turns out I might have had some time to jump into that swimming hole, but who knows. The guide was kind of crappy for that whole little bit (1190-1205) but it's generally been ok so I can't fault it too much.  The hostel (rock and sole) had been in business for 3 years and was awesome! It was a bunkhouse in a converted garage and everything was really nice and cool. There were 2 others for a total of 3 hikers. The outdoor shower was great and it was really nice to get laundry as well, the host also took us to Dollar general to resupply and a beer store. The dinner, rides and breakfast being included too for $40 made the whole thing kind of a bargain in comparison to some of the other places I'd been to. Dinner was a really good pulled pork with steamed vegetables and potatoes, I resupplied poorly yet again (not enough bars or similar: pocket food), but I think I'll survive the 90m to Delaware water gap, especially since I'm pretty sure I'm stopping in Port Clinton tomorrow and possibly at wind gap too.