Date: 2017-05-30
From: Stealth campsite, PA

To: William Penn Shelter
Miles today: 26.4
Weather: mist

5/30/17 William Penn Shelter, PAMiles hiked: 871.8 Miles to go: 1318.0If I were compiling a list of the ten best hikes I've experienced out here, today's hike would not make the list. Far from it. In fact, I'd have to put this on the 10 worst hikes list. We had rain off and on all night and awoke to blowing rain this morning. I had to pack away my tarp soaking wet. It's amazing how much weight wet equipment adds to your pack. We quickly ate a cold breakfast and got walking to warm up. It was just nasty weather all day - cold rain, fog, and wind. How do you have both fog and wind, anyway!? When it's like this, the woods become almost oppressive. Everything is wet, so you can't sit down. The trees drip on you and your feet and legs get soaked brushing against weeds along the trail. And, of course, my glasses fog!l At one point, I finally just took them off. It's better to  see fuzzy rocks than not see anything at all. Although the majority of the hike was on the ridgeline, we did dip down into a couple of gaps. Then we had steep climbs to get back on the ridgeline.  Wet rocks just added to the fun. The rocks continue to get worse the farther north we hike, which is really beginning to take a toll on our feet. We reached the Raush Gap shelter at noon and stopped for lunch. We had already hiked thirteen miles, so we were ready for a break. This shelter was built in 2012 and was pretty nice. Unfortunately, it was way too early to stop for the day. Even more unfortunately, the next shelter was another thirteen miles away. The afternoon was more of the same - rain, rocks, and ridgeline. We passed several bright orange streams - leftovers from the bygone coal mining industry in the area. Any of my WV friends are all too familiar with acid mine drainage. As the afternoon wore on, we began thinking about a campsite for the night. Everything was soaking wet and muddy. Besides, if we stopped, we would just set up our tent/hammock and jump in to escape the rain. There is nothing more boring than lying in a damp hammock for hours. So we kept on hiking. At some point, we made the decision to continue to the shelter. We knew that it was a large double decker shelter, so it shouldn't be full. There would be nothing worse than hiking all that distance to still end up in the rain. We had a particularly steep, rocky climb to the ridgeline after crossing under I-81.  Then, just to make sure we were really miserable, the thunder rolled and the rain increased in intensity. We continued to trudge to the shelter, telling each other corny dad jokes (the ones that were sure to get eye-rolls from your kids) to pass the time. The only problem was we both knew the same corny dad jokes. So, we moved on to old commercial jingles ("My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R....). One cool thing that we did see today was hundreds of little orange salamanders. Or maybe newts. I don't know my lizards very  well. At least someone was enjoying the rainy weather. We finally arrived at the shelter around 7:30 pm as the fog was beginning to get pretty thick. It turned out to be a huge shelter with only two people in it. 1st Sgt and I got the loft to ourselves, where we could spread out our wet things to hopefully dry them a little. So, for now, we are safe, warm, and dry, albeit, a little beat up from the tough, wet hike. Unfortunately, they are calling for the same weather tomorrow.