Date: 2005-06-22
From: Second Mountain

To: Hertlein Campsite
Miles today: 21.3
Weather: scattered clouds

I must have had a longer walk than I thought because I passed Swatara Gap by 8 o'clock. I was kind of surprised, because I must have done closer to 32 miles yesterday. The section right after Swatara Gap is really overgrown, the sides of the Trail and the overhead too, there was no possibility of going through that other than on the Trail. It was like a green tunnel for awhile.I almost got a little confused here. The park here has a long, grassy, wide piece of Trail with markings very infrequently.I started thinking that maybe I had been going the wrong way. I went ahead and walked another 1/4 of a mile and there it was, it just wasn't marked clearly.I started walking at 7 am, which is kind of late for me. I had some trouble waking up this morning, between the long miles yesterday and I kept waking up at night. Something kept rustling in the trees where I was camped out. There were several inches of dead leaves on the ground, so there was no way anything could move out there without me hearing it. I still don't know what it was. Each animal makes its own distinctive noise. If it's a squirrel or a chipmunk, it's rapid, little rustling. This sounded like footsteps, which could have been deer. Deer sound alot like people when they are walking through the woods. It could also have been a bear. Whatever it was, it was in the direction of my food bag, which was about 50 yards away from me, out of my line of sight. I got up several times, coughed and makde alot of noises, and turned my flashlight on in that direction. It would stop and I'd get back into bed and 5 minutes later it would start up again. By the 3rd time I just said, "screw it" and went back to sleep. I figured if it got something, so be it.The Trail is free of spider webs this morning, I'm not sure why. I don't think anyone was ahead of me for that section. Although, I did pass 2 weekend hikers on the side here just before Swatara Gap. The reason I know they aren't through hikers is that through hikers have a pretty distinctive look. You can tell at a glance, the first giveaway is always the gear. A through hiker will never carry a Coleman 4 person tent and very few of them carry external packs anymore. The way they dress is also very distinctive. These guys were a little on the chubby side and there are no chubby through hikers in Pennsylvania at this point. You aren't going to see anyone with extra pounds on them after 1,200 miles on the Appalachian Trail. The exception may be the women, some of them still retain some shape, but they burn stuff differently. There is a saying that, by the time they start reaching New England, all the men look like they came out of the Concentration Camp and all the women look like models. It's quite accurate.I have about 10 miles to go before I see Kevin. I'm going to turn my phone on at 10:00 and give him an update. 10 amI'm on Blue Mountain. Once you do the climb up Blue Mountain, the Trail gets wicked. It is shoulder high in nothing but stinging nettles and poison ivy everywhere. The spider webs I said weren't there before, all moved here. You can hardly see the Trail because everything is so overgrown. It sucks!I should be coming up to the shelter here soon, it cleared up a little bit here. I passed Horizon and Montana Lush. They were on the iron bridge that goes across Swatara Creek. They camped there overnight. They set up a hammock right across the bridge. It was pretty funny, I took some pictures. I stopped to talk to them while they sat there nursing their feet. Horizon's feet are especially trashed from his boots. When I get to the shelter, I'm going to call Kevin and update him on times. It was a rough day today on the AT in Pennsylvania. The rocks were pretty darned tough. Not many changes in elevations, but the rocks wear you out. They make you breathe hard, they make your legs tired, you're stepping on them, and around them, huffing and puffing trying to hop back and forth. My feet are tired. Other than that, my feet are fine, I have no blisters, unlike everyone else I have seen so far. They are just tired, as well they should be after 21 miles of rocks. I think I might have twisted my left ankle slightly, nothing terrible, it will probably be OK by tomorrow, it's just aching a little. That's just part of the package deal. I have been trying different things with my socks to help with the rubbing. I'm actually wearing 2 pairs of liner socks. I actually glued the inner pair to the callouses on my foot with liquid bandage so that the second pair rubs on the sock and not on my skin. It worked out well. The best part of my day was getting to the 501 Shelter. I got there at about 1 o'clock to meet up with Kevin. He brought me all kinds of goodies and we sat at the shelter for about 2 hours. I had requested a Hershey's Vanilla Creme Milkshake and he brought 3 of them. He also brought 3 Becks beers, which of course, I had to take. He brought a big-ass container of chili, which I carried here, it had to weigh 3 pounds, and I ate the whole thing while I sat here tonight. 3Cats and Florida walked in while we were sitting there at the picnic table and they took some of the things he had brought that I couldn't take with me. Thanks alot Kevin! I really appreciated you coming out and I really enjoyed it!!Florida, by the way, is from, of course, Florida, where I'm from. He actually lives within 5 miles of me. Maybe we will meet up after this is all over. I left the 501 Shelter at 3 o'clock and went through the worst of the Pennsylvania rocks so far, the section going north out of 501is what everyone complains and cries about. The reputation is well deserved because it's just nasty stuff to walk through. I kind of surprised myself, because I got to the Hertlein Campsite making better than 2.5 miles per hour through the rocks. I think that was impressive time, considering the terrain that was involved. This campsite isn't really much of a campsite. There's a creek that runs through here, and someone leveled off 2 areas with dirt and put 2x6's around it to make tent platforms to pitch your tent on. Otherwise, there's nothing to pitch your tent on for the most part because it's all rocks and it's all sloping. It's not very promising if anyone else gets here, there's room for 1 more tent and if anyone else gets here, they are screwed. It's 7:30 and I think it's highly unlikely that anyone else is going to walk in. Just around the bend here, on another level spot, right next to the water source, is a deserted 5 man Coleman tent. It's obviously deserted because the bugs are starting to get into it and it's covered in pine needles, but it's still in good shape. The register that's here says it's been sitting here for a while. I got good phone reception here today, coming in from the 501 Shelter. I called Nicki, Mike, and Estee to try to organize and synchronize Mike's coming out and meeting me to do the Palmerton to Delaware Watergap Section. There are a couple of little complications involved, but I think we are going to work them out. I also talked to OC1 a couple of times today. We are keeping in touch by phone. He was in Duncannon this morning, he got there to meet a friend. This puts him 50 miles behind me. That's a full 2 days that he's going to have to catch up, or I have to slow down. He has someone that he's hiking out of Swatara Gap with. I have to sit here for a while longer. The strap on my trekking pole broke yesterday. I'm going to take advantage of the daylight I have left and try to sew it. It sucks not having the pole, and I have to be creative because I don't have a Phillips screwdriver, and that's what I need to get the strap off.That's it for tonight.