Date: 2006-05-05
From: 501 Shelter

To: Port Clinton
Miles today: 24.0
Weather: few clouds

6:30 and Dodger and I were up! Then everybody got up. The goal for today was Phillips Canyon Spring. After a few steps out of the shelter the "famous" rocks showed up on the trail. What a mess to walk on. An hour later Dodger decided to do "historical research" by getting on the old AT, while I stayed on the newer relocated rocky AT. The rocks finally seemed to ease up a little and the hiking went faster. before I knew of it I had gone 6 miles. Took a short break and went on. Arriving at the Eagle's Nest Shelter I met Dodger and Moses. Moses does my favorite way of cooking: Pour in the olive oil and garlic while you decide what to cook! The Eagle's Nest is a good shelter but don't even think about using the privy - in fact, don't even open the door to find out why (this is for you NOBOs that are reading this journal.) It was 14:00 so Dodger looked at me and asked "you want to go all the way to Port Clinto - it is only 8 more miles?" Knees a bit sore, feet tender, but the legs felt great so "sure let's go." It was easy walk except for all the rocky sections and there was only one steep uphill and it was short. Had to pull out the Ace band and a couple of Ibuprofen as I got to Phillips Canyon Spring but there were only four more miles to go and I took it easy. Right before Port Clinton you have to get down from the ridge and the trail maintainers must not have heard of Switchbacks because the trail goes STRAIGHT DOWN! Wow, no wonder why this is called the "Chute". As I got down my left knee was really hurting from the constant hard pounding going down that long steep hill. At the bottom of the hill the trail crosses the railroad tracks and the locomotive on the tracks stopped right in front of me as I got down the hill. The driver jumped out and came over to say hello. His name was John and hetold me a little about the history of the engine and gave me a small tour. It was an older engine built by GE and only had 800HP - newer engines have about 4000HP. After ringing the bell and making the horn sound I hubbled on afraid that Dodger might be worried about me as it was almost 19:00. Crossing the bridge into town I saw a guy sitting at the edge of the water fishing we said hello and he mentioned something about Dodger so I walked down there to talk to the guy. Two minutes later, here comes Dodger. He was heading out looking for me and he had brought with him a little motivatorial provisions in form of a snickers and a Dr Pepper - what a great friend The guy fishing was a friend of Dodgers and he was just sitting there waiting for me to arrive. His name was Bag of Tricks and had done a thru-hike of the AT earlier and was now a member of ALDHA (American Long Distance Hiker Association) and an active Trail Angel. It was great fun listening to Tricks and Dodger talk as they knew so many of the people in the hiking community. walking down the street of Port Clinton we said hello to many of the locals and at one of the house we got invited to a soda and cold water. The town has a great pavillion where hikers are allowed to spend the night so we all (Moses, Dodger, Tricks, and I) set up our tents there. Tricks then invited us to Pizza and ice cream. It was four tired and full campers that sat down at the picnic tables to have a cold beer before we turned in at midnight.