Date: 2015-06-18
From: Rausch Gap Shelter

To: William Penn Shelter
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: light rain

I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up. I felt just fine. The night before my feet hurt so badly I wanted to cut them off.I went by the shelter to sign the trail journal and met the 33 mile guy from the might before. His trail name is Columbo, and he is from Tennessee, with a thick accent to prove it. He was looking for a bandaid. During the night he slipped on the shelter steps and layed back the skin on his heel pretty deep. I told him I was a Wilderness First Responder and asked if he wanted me to take a look at it. I then asked him to clean up the wound while I went for my gear.As I worked on his injury we chatted. I put on gloves but he told me I did not have to worry because he had his rabbis shots - he was not joking. When he was 12 he caught a baby possum, and it bit him, so he had to have the rabbis shots. He said he should have known better because "everyone knows you never pick up a possum in the day time."The AT is a lot like Homer's Odyssey. As I travel along I visit places and meet people who touch my life in various ways and sometimes teach me valuable lessons. Where else would I have found out that you do not want to mess with possums you find during the daytime???? (Night time possums are apparently OK to mess with.)New Song, who I met while at the Doyle and is a few years older than me, told me that she started a thru hike many years ago and quit. She did not regret quiting right away. But a few years later she started to regret quiting, and she realizes that she is probably too old to ever try it again. She taught me that if I quit, I will probably be able to justify quiting at the time, but I will regret that decision for the rest of my life. I will never again be this young, in this kind of physical shape (despite the pneumonia), or have the wonderful support provided by my husband. NOW is my time and opportunity to do this.Other lessons I have learned while on the AT are never trust a mossy rock, a wet rock, a shiny trail, or a fart after trail food or greasy town pizza. All can result in a slick mess!!Just past the shelter was a sign for a cemetery and some other historical markers. I stopped to look at everything. The cemetery was very small and very old. The headstones were covered with a thin layer of moss, but still readable, dating back to tbe 1800's. A mining town had once occupied the land. My thesis for my masters degree in Industrial Labor Relations was about the working and living conditions of miners before the unions. I found the historical markers to be very interesting. I was probably the only hiker that day to even notice them.The trail was extremely rocky. Rockin Robin and Emma went into Lickdale. So it was also a little lonely without occassionally seeing a friendly face. At Swatara Gap the trail goes over a beautiful old bridge and thru a state park. It also went under an interstate. I felt like a bum climbing around under the roadway.Several hikers went on to the 501 shelter (about another 4 miles) because there is an outdoor shower there. But I called it a day at the William Penn Shelter. I could not do 2 long days back to back, and it was getting late.The shelter was 2 story and slept at least 16 hikers. 3 young guys were already upstairs and 2 hikers I met on the trail were setting up down stairs. Also downstairs was a pile of garbage from folks making their dinner. The thru hikers said the garbage was not theirs. My coversation with one of the young guys from upstairs went like this:Me: are you thru hiking?Him: no, we are just out for a few daysMe: do you know who left this garbage?Him: we didMe: what do you intend to do about it?Him: we will clean it upMe: when?Him: before we leave in the morningMe: no, you cannot leave this garbage here all night. (Apparently he thought us thru hikers were OK with sleeping in their garbage while they slept upstairs) you and your friends are going to pick up the garbage, all your food, all your food wrappers, and anything that smells like food from your pockets and packs, and you are going to put it all in a bag and hang it from a tree like the rest of us, or we are going to draw rats, mice, and bears to the shelter.His eyes grew very big when I said BEARS. I obviously had his attention. He and his friends then took a large black garbage bag out and hung it somewhere.For 3 guys out for just a few nights they had more in the bag than I would have for a month!The 3 guys, who seemed to be college age, went back upstairs for the night. A few other thru hikers joined us down stairs, and we all went to sleep just before a big rain storm hit. Around midnight 2 soaking wet, cold, and tired thru hikers arrived. The 3 boys upstairs, where there was room for at least 8 hikers, gave them a hard time about letting them have any space. (They should have gotten me to help them, but I was asleep with ear plugs and did not find out about this new issue until late the next day.)The AT is call, and I am so very glad I am here. I just wish everyone on the AT loved and cared for the trail (and fellow hikers) as much as I do.