Date: 2009-06-23
From: Phillips Canyon Spring, PA

To: Eckville Shelter (Hawk Mtn Road), PA
Miles today: 19.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Cell (forgot to check)OG notesWe had an excellent night last night in a little campsite that we had all to ourselves. >We camped there to be closer to town this morning. This was our first night without anyone near us. We weren't sure if someone would set up during the night while we were asleep but no one did. This is one milestone in our level of comfort out here.We had a peaceful hike into the town of Port Clinton, PA. The town had one of my favorite stores on the whole AT, The Peanut Shop. This store is the neatest little candy shop I've seen in a long long time. It has candies I thought were out of production for decades. The term "Like a kid in a candy store" applies to this place.Besides visiting the candy store, we had a real breakfast in a diner, picked up a box at the post office, and visited with friends. We were so comfortable in town we took our time leaving it. We restarted our hike at 2 pm and we wanted to hike another 15 miles. The first leg of our journey went well and we reached the Windsor Furnace shelter where we prepared our dinner before moving on. We pushed hard over the mountain with a destination in mind. We ended up walking into the darkness of the evening. The lucky part of the hike was that the last 4 miles were mostly on a dirt road. The lucky part was that there is a wide gap in the trees over the road so the forest isn't as dark on the road. The trail left the road about a half mile from the shelter, that meant we had to turn on our headlamps and night hike. We finally arrived at the shelter a little after 9 pm and it was quite dark. This shelter is a little different than most, it is actually at a house along a paved road. The building is owned by a local hiking club and is opened to hikers. The shelter already had a capaity crowd when we arrived so we set up our tent in the lawn across the street, which is also part of the shelter space. This has been a long and tiring day, goodnight.   C6 notesWhat a day! For the first time, we finished hiking after it got dark.   Some people write in the shelter logs about hiking at night. Some people really like night hiking...not me. We started the day early enough, but got into Port Clinton and ended up being in town for 4 hours!It was a wonderful 4 hours. We picked up our resupply box from the Post Office, then went to a pavillion they call the "hiker pavillion." Hikers are welcome to sleep in the pavillion. It's quite large (thru-hikers could probably sleep about 90 people in it), covered, and has a waist high sides that are solid. A bunch of people we know were there, so we visited for a short while then walked down the street to a restaurant for a delicious late breakfast. Other hiker friends were there, so we visited with them for a while, too. We were thrilled to see Prarie Dog, Angry Beaver, and Leon. We thought they were way ahead of us. When we returned to the pavillion, Newt and Miss Scarlett joined us as we went to check out The Peanut Shop...a fabulous candy store! If you ever pass by Port Clinton, PA, you have to check it out! They have candies we haven't seen since we were kids! And nearly every other kind of candy you can think of! Fun!We went back to the pavillion and sorted out our supplies and packed them while thoroughly enjoying chatting with Newt and Miss Scarlett. We enjoyed the visting so much that by the time we left town it was 2pm! We really wanted to get to this shelter tonight, so we decided to hike until after 9pm, so it was dark when we got here. We feel good about the miles we hiked today, and we're glad to be here, but it's 10:40pm and I'm all keyed up. I became anxious as the darkness set in, and it takes me a while to settle down when I get anxious like that. I'm going to read for a while. Good night.Old Goat & Check Six