Date: 2017-05-31
From: William Penn Shelter

To: Eagles Nest shelter, PA
Miles today: 19.2

5/31/17 Eagles Neat Shelter, PAMiles hiked: 891.0 Miles to go: 1298.8I awoke around 6:00 AM to thunder and rain pelting the roof of the shelter. I turned over and went back to sleep. We finally dragged ourselves out of bed a little after 7:00 AM and started packing up, hoping the rain would end. I had everything ready to go before I finally pulled on the dank, musty, damp clothes that have been wet since Monday. Ick. Our stalling did pay off, though, because by the time we finally left the shelter at 8:30 AM the rain had stopped and the sun had begun to peak out. As we hiked, the clouds continued to clear. Before long, we were hiking in full sunshine. The trail profile for today was incredible. We ran for miles along the ridgeline and our hike was almost completely flat. The trail surface was another matter. The rocks continue to get more numerous. I'm pretty sure that someone is coming out every day and turning the rocks to make sure the pointiest sides stick straight up. After a few miles, we came upon a trail angel who was providing trail magic. He thru hiked last year and his trail name was Earnhardt. I don't know what Dale Earnhardt looked like, but 1st Sgt said he could see the resemblance. Earnhardt also had his dog, Clyde Miller, with him. Earnhardt's last name is not Miller - just Clyde's. Anyway, being a former thru hiker, Earnhardt knew what we liked. He had Mt Dew, Gatorade, oranges, apples, chocolate chip cookies, various chips, muffins, Snickers bars, gum, candy, toothpaste, and a charger for us to charge our phones. Wow! We sampled a little of everything and took chips, Mt Dew, and apples for lunch. We continued on our way, occasionally struggling over particularly nasty rock outcrops until about nine miles into the hike we came to a beautiful stream at just about lunchtime. Perfect! We put our Mt Dews in the stream to chill, hung out our still sopping tarp and tent to dry, soaked our battered feet in the ice cold water, and basked in the sun. By the time we finally got ready to hike again, it was already 3:00 PM and we still had 9.5 miles to go. The afternoon passed quickly. It's amazing the difference a day (and the sun) makes. Whereas the woods felt uninviting and oppressive yesterday, today the woods were warm and lovely. At one point, we came upon Cheap Sunglasses and Rabbit hanging out talking to another hiker named Piccolo. We hadn't seen those guys since just before Duncannon and expected them to be ahead of us after our weekend off the trail. I guess they are in no hurry. It turns out that someone had picked up Piccolo's food bag at the last shelter, so he had no food and was trying to figure out what to do next. After visiting awhile, we headed out again. Now it was 5:30 PM and we still had 4.5 miles of rocky trail to cover to reach the shelter. It was going to be another late arrival. We hoofed it over the next few miles and arrived at the shelter around 7:15 PM. There were only two other guys at the shelter - Nico from France who was doing a southbound section hike and a Flip Flopper named Wizard whom we had previously met at Tumbling Run Shelter. While we were fixing dinner, Piccolo arrived , hoping that someone had brought his food bag here. No such luck. However, it did turn out that Wizard knew who had his food bag! Another hiker mistakenly thought someone had left their food bag at the shelter and had picked it up. Wizard was able to call the other hiker and make arrangements for Piccolo to retrieve it tomorrow. In the meantime, The Dad's sprung into action and we came up with enough food to tide him over until he gets his food bag back.I am now resting comfortably in my hammock with tired feet and a full belly. We have a 9 mile hike into Port Clinton tomorrow and a forecast of full sun. Yay!