Date: 2004-07-05
From: Ironmaster's Mansion Hostel

To: Alec Kennedy Shelter
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Start: Ironmaster's MansionDestination: Alec Kennedy Shelter How do you take $2.25 and make a dozen people happy? Buy a box of pancake mix and fix them pancakes for breakfast. That is exactly what I did this morning at the hostel. I was the queen of the kitchen for a time, flipping pancakes and serving them to everyone. It was a lot of fun, watching these people put away pancake after pancake. Too soon though it was time to get back to the business of hiking. The sun was out and not a cloud in the sky. Last night¢s rain gave everything that fresh, clean smell. Something had bitten me during the night and my left eye was swollen pretty bad, giving me a weird look. Of course everyone wanted to take pictures of the hikers as we left. Shagbark had given me some cream for my eye and I took some allergy medicine hoping to reduce the swelling. I swear, if it's not my feet swelling, it¢s my head! I made the seven or so miles to the Tagg Run Shelter where I had lunch. That was when I remembered the potato I bought last night at the store. I meant to microwave it this morning before I left the hostel, so I could have it for lunch. Then I remembered that I had wanted to see the secret room at the hostel. Drat! I ate lunch, and then stretched out on the bench at the picnic table for a short nap. Buckeye was there and already asleep. His usual naptime. When I got ready to go, I tried to be as quiet as I could, so as not to disturb him. As I slung my pack up on my back, the lid to my pot went sailing, bouncing first off the shelter floor, then onto the rock steps. Buckeye came up like a rocket, all wild eyed and confused. I had forgotten to fasten the lid back after lunch. I apologized profusely and left. Today was going to be my longest hike yet. An eighteen miler into Boiling Springs, Pa. I stopped at one more road crossing to grab some Gatorade, then headed north. Going by my guide book, by late afternoon I had less than two miles left. I caught up with Magoo and Veej who were out for a couple weeks of hiking. He asked me if I seen the trail magic back at one of the road crossings. I had not. There was a bag hanging in a tree stuffed with fresh fruit and cookies. He pulled an orange out of his pack and presented it to me. Today was the first time this trip that I had to take my pack off in order to climb up and over some boulders on the trail. The step up was just too high for me. As I finished a mile long section of bouldering, I decided that my grandiose plans of an 18 mile day were shot to pieces. I was too tired. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be able to do the last mile to the shelter.   I came to a vista where I took a short break, checked my data book again, took a deep breath and plugged on. I was running out of energy fast. I came to a road crossing and according to the book; the shelter was 800 yards to the right as was the spring. Of course it was uphill. It certainly did not seem right for a shelter to be this close to the road. But there were the blue blazes. After a least a quarter mile, I turned around and went back. Then I checked the book again, this time heading north on the trail for a quarter mile. Still, no shelter, so back down to the road I went. A couple on a motorcycle pulled off the road for a break. I asked them what the name of the road was. Checking my book one more time I was dismayed to see that I still had 2.5 miles left before the shelter. About this time Magoo and Veej came out of the woods, and between our information, we reluctantly agreed that we did indeed have 2.5 miles left. Back up the trail I went, huffing and puffing the whole way. If I could just get a hold of Wingfoot (who wrote the data book). Then out of no where came some strong winds and big drops of rain started falling. I hurriedly put my pack cover on and started hiking as fast as I could, which wasn't very fast. The rain stopped as suddenly as it started and within an hour I was at the shelter. I struggled to find a level place to pitch my tent. Had I known ahead of time that there was no good spots to camp, I would have stopped a half mile back where the trail crossed the stream. Oh well! I scurried about setting up the tent, and started supper. I sliced my potato as thin as I could and boiled it, and then added some dry milk and boom, I had potato soup. No salt mind you, or butter, but soup just the same. Because I hadn't peeled the potato, I had long strings of peel in my soup. I just pretended it was strips of beef jerky. I was too tired to care anyway. Finally, I crawled into my tent, too tired to write or read, just glad to be off of my feet. I woke up several hours later freezing and had to get my sleeping bag out. I am so thankful that tomorrow I have only 3.5 miles to go. I have not been so tired in a long time. Total miles 15.5