Date: 2009-07-31
From: Port Clinton

To: Eckville Shelter
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: light rain

I said my farewell to Port Clinton by 7.30am this morning and made my way the mile or so back to Pa61. The Trail crossed the road just before ¢the bridge of death¢ but did not cross the bridge itself. It was a relief but despite the cool and misty morning I could not account for the bead of sweat rolling down my forehead. I moved swiftly on, not just to put distance between the bridge and me but because the Trailhead car park was an absolute tip. Trash everywhere, it was disgusting. This wasn¢t just the accumulation of the odd mindless or forgetful act but the accumulation of a few ¢sod you Jack¢ type acts ¢ real smart guys and girls, a credit to their state and to their families.A pleasant enough five mile trail led to the next shelter. A climb up to a rocky ridge for the bracing but life affirming stop for breakfast and then some easy walking on forest tracks down through the Windsor Furnace area. Once again I spotted lots of black rocks ¢ smooth and shiny. I wondered if they might be derivatives of coal, anthracite possibly, or were they just some unconnected mineral.At Pine Grove Furnace I had learnt that the original iron furnaces were in places like this due to their proximity to raw materials, iron ore, coal, trees to make charcoal. It makes perfect sense but in our world transportation has changed all that, just think of food miles (I don¢t. I just think of food!). It¢s funny to think how far away from the consumer things are now produced. Anyway maybe it was (coal that is) and maybe it wasn¢t. I walked a mile or two with a small piece, turning it over in my hand, feeling the edges and the smooth surfaces until eventually casting it back onto the forest floor.The shelter itself was another pigsty. I usually pop into them to flick through the Register. This time I arrived, looked, shook my head, turned around and headed straight back to the Trail. My mood for the day dampened but such stupidity and selfishness.The late morning found me at Pulpit Rock and the Pinnacle. Apparently two of Pennsylvania¢s better views. Both were ok but not much more today. Maybe I just wasn¢t in a very charitable mood. I stopped and read at the first and ate lunch at the second.It had been misty and overcast (all be it with quite high cloud) all day but at the Pinnacle I thought I could make out rain in the valley. Maybe the ridges would avoid it today I thought. I thought wrong! Ten minutes later the first spots of light rain hurried me back to the Trail, then the rain got heavier and never let up for the entire 5.6 mile hike to the Eckville Hiker Shelter. Once I was wet (which was quickly) it wasn¢t too bad. I¢d decided to wear my sandals today and I splashed and sloshed my way through numerous puddles. Most of the hike was once again on forest tracks so I could maintain a decent pace and march on purposefully. The Trail doesn¢t usually follow these sort of tracks and barrelling on head down I kept experiencing moments of doubt. It was easy to assume the forest track was the Trail but it would also be easy to miss a turn off. I¢d march on oblivious, then worry, then spot a blaze before marching on for five minutes and repeating the whole process. Was my subconscious on top of things all along? Maybe but I wasn¢t going to take any chances.Eventually the Trail did indeed branch off, taking me down to the road and the short stroll to the shelter, a nice indoor bunk house.Also sheltering from the rain were Dan and Firefly. We chatted and I had a quick cold shower. If there had been a solar element to this contraption then I assume today¢s foul weather negated the benefits of that particular scientific advance. I was getting ready to settle in for the night when at 6pm the rain stopped, the clouds cleared and suddenly we were heading outside to eat dinner beneath blue skies and the warming rays of the evening sun. With this change in fortune I decided to head across the road to a wonderful sunny dell where me, my tent and various twittering birds saw out the rest of the day.