Date: 2016-05-02
From: PA 645

To: PA 183
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: light rain

Some days are better than others. We got off to a pretty good start this morning. It wasn¢t raining, but there was a mist in the air and fog as we approached the trailheads. I dropped Princess off at PA 183 so that she could go SoBo and I drove the car back to where we finished yesterday (PA 645) and started NoBo from there. I think I was on or near the crest of the ridge for most of my hike, but it was hard to tell since the visibility was so poor. Several points had signs suggesting views, but no views today. I wasn¢t really raining, but we both donned our ponchos to fend off the tree rain and keep us a little warmer. The hike was pretty easy, not much climb or descent but a lot of rocks. There were several rock/boulder fields that slowed us down, but they were navigable even with wet, slippery rocks. The rock fields can look pretty menacing as you approach them, but so far it hasn¢t been hard to find foot placements without taking a chance on a rounded or mossy rock. That may change in a few days. I hadn¢t seen any other hikers before I met Princess near the midway point. As we were talking, Sixty and Tenderfoot went by moving pretty fast. After that, I passed a group of 3 and then 2 hikers that Princess knows as the ¢brothers¢. I stumbled as I was passing them, which was pretty embarrassing, (one hand down, but not a total crash) and I reshaped one of my aluminum hiking poles. I was able to bend it almost back, so now I have 2 bent poles. IMHO [in my humble opinion], carbon fiber poles aren¢t worth it to me. The material is great in tension and compression, but it doesn¢t take much lateral force to snap them. After I went through 3 sets of CF poles (Leki & REI), an innkeeper took pity on me and gave me a pair of aluminum ski poles. They¢re a little heavier, but when they get bent I just bend them back. They don¢t collapse (retract), but my carbon pole locks never worked very well anyway. The pole mfgrs tout their replacement warranties, but actually getting them replaced takes time, I didn¢t find many outfitters that would do it, they suggested mailing them back to the mfgr. On the flip side, Princess has been perfectly happy with her Black Diamonds and the locks still work fine. And I have been able to replace worn pole tips with boiling water.So much for gear talk. Our big challenge today came at the end, after the hike. It says in our ISO process manual that we both carry car keys. So we don¢t actually have to ¢swap keys¢ when we pass (that way it isn¢t critical if one of us wanders off trail and we miss each other). Except that today one of us left their key in a jacket rather than putting the key in their pack, and they left the jacket in the car. And that jacket got locked in the car at one end of the trail. And we failed to do a ¢key check¢ when we passed each other midway along the trail. So when one of us got to the car at the end of the hike, it was locked and there was no way to get in. The only key that wasn¢t in the car was 11.3 miles away with the other hiker at the other end of today¢s section. A dilemma.That was the worst part of the day. From then on, things improved. Fortunately, we had cell phone service. We were able to contact a shuttle service in the area, and within 30 minutes the shuttle driver picked up the hiker with the key and drove them back to the hiker with a car, but no key. The problem was solved within a hour and the shuttle fee was very reasonable. I don¢t think this will happen again.   That¢s enough excitement for one day. Tonight we¢re packing up and tomorrow morning we¢ll say goodbye to Pine Grove. It warmed up nicely this afternoon and the sun poked out, but it looks like 4 days of rain until Saturday with temps ranging between 50 and 60. Uncomfortable, but tolerable. Too bad we have so many rocks in the next few days