Date: 2006-05-17
From: Windsor Furnace Shelter

To: New Tripoli Campsite
Miles today: 22.4
Weather: scattered clouds

8:42 p.m. Today we woke up and had french toast that Sunshine cooked. Yum. As usual, Kaptain was ready to go first, then Lockjaw and I hiked out at 8:10 a.m. A little over 4 miles into the day we hit the Pinnacle, an overlook that is supposed to have the best view in PA and as far as I am concerned, it does. After sitting there for a spell, we hiked on to Eckville Shelter, which, like the 501 Shelter, has a caretaker. Unlike the 501 Shelter, however, which has the caretaker's house set apart and behind the shelter, the Eckville Shelter was basically a converted garage sitting in the backyard of the house where the caretaker lives. We ate lunche there and marveled at the "privy," which was basically a real toilet in its own little building in the yard. After lunch we had a decent climb and stopped next at Dan's Pulpit, another viewpoint. The word of the day today is rocks! Pennsylvania rocks! And I don't mean by that tha PA is awesome. We were told about how rocky this state was, and today it definitely lived up to it. Lockjaw, Sunshine, and I stopped at a spot called "balanced rocks," which was basically as the name suggests, 3 big flat boulders piled on each other and balanced in such a way that you can cause them to teeter back and forth even though they weigh thousands of pounds. It was pretty cool. We stayed there for a while enjoying some sun, which we've had very little of. We talked about finishing. About summitting, and summitting together, and injuries, and motivation. Kaptain asked me yesterday how driven I was by reaching Katahdin. It was a hard question to answer. When I started, reaching the northern terminus wasn't the plan, so it really wasn't my motivation at all. Now, having decided to finish, and as we get closer and closer to our goal, I find myself more and more focussed on and excited about climbing that final distance and taking my picture by the sign on the summit. Still, I don't think Katahdin alone could keep me waking up and hiking every day. This far in I would still finish even if the people I'm hiking with dropped out or we were separated. It would be a much more difficult mental task than it is now, however, and I do have hopes of summitting together in July. Lately my body has been hurting me. My feet are in bad shape, my ankles continue to roll, my knees bother me, and various body parts hurt every day. Oh well. Anyway, today after the balancing rocks we stopped briefly at a shelter, then pushed on to the road by which we were going to camp. There's a B&B and restaurant on a road that the AT crosses that lets thru-hikers camp in their back yard if they ask permission. It was closed, however, so there was no one to ask, and we felt nervous about camping on private property without permission. We hiked 1.5 miles more to this campsite, Lockjaw a little grumpy, and set up. I got a bug in my eye, but other than that it's been an uneventful one. Only 11.8 tomorrow to where Team Steve will pick us up to go to his house. Trail Days is upon us and I'm happy. Zero days cannot come too soon for my body. It's been over 600 miles since we've had one. Good night.