Date: 2004-10-07
From: Pa. 443, Green Pt., PA.

To: Pa. 325
Miles today: 15.6

Today is Thursday Oct 7th. Got up at 6:00AM, and left at 6:45. Drove to the trailhead parking at Pa 443, near the junction with Pa 72. Had breakfast, changed clothes, waited for the sun to come up. Off at 7:30AM, crossed under Pa 443 at creek bridge, and then had to cross the creek soon after. There was no good way to cross, it took us 15 minutes to get over. Cindy got a little wet.  It was 7:55AM when we were crossing Pa 443 again, and Green Pt. School Rd. Then thru a field, gently climbing into the woods. Then steeply climbing to the ridge, following the ridge for a long way. It was kind of rocky, then finally we came down off the ridge on to a nice old road, into a valley with a small creek crossing, Stony Creek at 9:30 AM.At 9:40 there was a sign for a cemetery, then 9:45 an old RR bridge at Rausch Gap, and we are sitting down for our first lunch. At 10:15 we left the gap, but first we read the map on back of the sign. There are some historical structures in the area, and the RR bed is another trail thru the area. We talked to a hiker walking down the RR bed trail, Hes been out tenting for several days and ran out of fuel. He is headed off to get some fuel. We heard the strange noise again now, that we first heard yesterday. The loud farting noise. It was like thunder, except farting. The AT followed the RR bed for a short way, then followed a creek thru the mountains for a while, finally getting on an old road. It was rocky but flat, and we made good time, as it just went and went and went. Its 11:25 and we are getting off the old road, we are at Cold Springs Trail to the RR trail. After this we came to a side trail to the right with a sign that said The General. Terry guessed it might be an old locomotive, but we have no info. We kept on walking , got to a bad section of the trail with water on the trail, Talked to two guys NB on the trail a few minutes, They dropped off a buddy this morning who hikes SB, back to their car, they pass on the trail, and then he drives to pick them up. There are lots of ways to Shuttle. They told us about the loud farting A-10 Thunderbolt fighters, which Terry didn¢t believe would shoot their guns in the mountains, so close to people. Apparently there is a fighter training area nearby. So we kept walking until 12:30 PM, when we stopped right on the trail and put our tarp out. Took our shoes off and had our second sandwich. We stayed 12 hour and took off. Ten minutes later we came to the mail box at Yellow Springs Village. Its just a camp site now. From 1:10 to 1:30 we stopped at yellow Springs Village. I looked at a detailed map and Terry read the journal. In June, many of the thru hikers we met in the spring, were going thru here. Off and on, throughout the morning and afternoon, an A-10 fighter plane could be heard, flying and shooting there gatling gun. What a strange sound, like a gigantic fart. Terry found it hard to believe they were actually shooting just a few miles away. We stopped again from 3:00 to 3:30 at an old fire tower foundation. Again we took off our shoes to allow our feet to cool down. Most of the day we hiked on old roads, especially the first half day, being really nice, the last half very rocky, and sometimes very wet. It was probably the most straight walking we have ever done. The road down from the firetower was straight as an arrow. We finally came to the car at 5:00 PM. WOW! We did it. 15.6 miles.