Date: 2016-05-20
From: Hertline Campsite

To: Port Clinton
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Hiked 18.5 miles from Hertline campsite along the AT to Port Clinton where I'm staying at a B&B. Below the B&B is the Port Clinton Barber Shop. Just got an $8 haircut from a 90 year old barber (Rocky) who has been cutting hair for 72 years! His son Frank operates the shop. Rocky also trimmed my 2 month old beard - besides my smell, you'd never guess I was a hiker. The place is a hiker haven and Frank always has great music playing (and by that I mean like Neil Young great), a pot of coffee on, and today cookies and corn muffins. He welcomes hikers to chill in a rocking chair, charge their devices, and stay as long as they like. It was the highlight of my day. Along the way today passed a monument commemorating Fort Dieteich Snyder. It turns out the fort was actually some guys house, but it was used during the French and Imdian War as a lookout post to "look for the approach of enemies." The trail remained flat and rocky in spots, but not as bad as everyone keeps warning. The weather partly cloudy and low 70's.   Past a hunter in full camoflouge.   He said he was hunting turkeys...I was glad I was wearing my orange shirt and glad he wasn't deer hunting - I saw some of the biggest deer I've ever seen today. They seem a little skittish - I'm guessing with good reason.Saw some bits and pieces of coal but nothing liked I saw when I got into Port Clinton itself (see photo log here or my Facebook). It turns out that this area was rich with Antrhacite Coal - see this from Wikipedia: "Coal deposits are scattered around the globe, but the coal from a 500 square mile region of northeastern Pennsylvania is special. During the Paleozoic era, 300 million years ago, what is now rugged and mountainous terrain was a steamy plain filled with swamps. Tropical plants grew and died here, and as decaying matter, sank to the bottom of these swamps to form a dense organic substance known as peat. Over millions of years, shifts in the earth's plates and other landscape changes compressed prehistoric peat deposits into mineral layers known as coal. In northeastern Pennsylvania, however, the ordinary process of coal formation was accelerated by a violent upheaval known as the Appalachian Revolution. In this "revolution," rising mountains literally folded over, splitting open and thrusting up rock and peat formations from deep inside the earth. The extra pressure from this process yielded coal that was more pure, harder, and of higher carbon content than other types of coal. This coal is anthracite and over 95 percent of the Western Hemisphere's supply comes from this special region in northeastern Pennsylvania." Also learned a little bit about Port Clinton as I was coming into town. The Schuylkill River flows through it and apparently during the revolutionary war logs were floated down it to Philadelphia for shipbuilding and later coal was moved through the Schuylkill Canal. The town is cute, but much like those that relied on a big industry like coal, seems to be a bit economically depressed. The forest in this area is anything but "old growth" - am guessing between shipbuilding and coal mining, a lot of this had been clear cut in the past. Expecting rain all day tomorrow - yippee.