Date: 2006-11-02
From: 3.5 miles N of Rausch Gap Shelter, Pa

To: Table Rock Overlook, Pa
Miles today: 21.9

It rained most of the night and stopped shortly before I woke up this morning.It's finally cooled off some...it was 41 degrees when I woke up and I think it stayed right at 41 just about all day.I started walking at 6:20am after having four Entenman's chocolate donuts and a coke for breakfast.I know, that sounds horrible, but I had the coke with me and I needed some caffeine. :-)))We climbed Second Mountain first and that warmed me up nicely.There was a 500 foot descent, then we slowly climbed up to Rausch Gap Shelter. We walked by the side trail to the shelter without stopping, but thought about Superstar and BP. They were supposed to be there last night and said they would be leaving early so they could get into Duncannon tomorrow. Well, I figured that Superstar was still there because I can't think of any time that I know of that she got started before 10am. :-)))We kept walking and about an hour later, I saw that there was someone walking ahead of us. There was a wet shoe print on a rock.There's a trail register at the ruins of an old village called Yellow Springs. When I looked in the register, I saw that it was Blister that was just ahead of us.I hadn't met him yet, but Superstar told me he was in the area.Yolanda and I stopped and I ate a snack and got off my feet for a short while.We walked on and in about three miles, we caught up to Blister.He also flipped from Duncannon this year, so there will be two hikers finishing their thru hikes in town tomorrow.The three of us walked together down off the ridge to Clarks Creek at Rt 325 and sat down for lunch.It felt nice and warm in the sun with no wind hitting us.Yolanda and I walked on after we were done eating. It was an 800 foot climb up to the next ridge. All of today has been much less rocky except coming down off the last ridge.We walked by the Shikellimy Trail, then the Shikellimy Rocks, then the Shikellimy Overlook.The wind was blowing in at about 15 to 20 mph and that along with the cooler weather kept me feeling good all day.We kept walking until we got to Peters Mountain Shelter.I went in and signed the register while Yolanda went into the privy to leave her mark on the mountain. She just can't pass up a privy. :-)))When she was done, we walked on another mile and found a good place for the night.There's a rock overlook here at Table Rock. We sat on the edge of the cliff and ate dinner.It was nice...the 3/4 moon was coming up on our left and the pink sky of dusk was to our right.The wind was being blocked a little, so even though it was cold, it felt great out.I guess I should write a little about my ol' buddy Chief. I talked to him on the phone the other day and he seemed like he wasn't getting the respect in the hiking community that he deserves.He was telling me about his last walk with Xmas. They went 7 miles the first day, 9 miles the next day, 6 miles the next day, 3 miles the next day, 9 miles the next day, then he said they were tired, so they took a short day.I couldn't hide my amusement because I thought those were all short days. Ha!!! :-)))Chief, you are a walking machine!!...a walking machine that still wears pink tights!!!If anyone doesn't know Chief, go to my '06 journal entry dated May 22, 2006 and take a look at what he was wearing at Trail Days.