Date: 2004-06-30
From: Hamburg, PA - PA 61 - Microtel

To: Eckville Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: scattered clouds

The hotel continental breakfast started at 630, so I slept in a bit. Mouse got antsy and went off without breakfast from the hotel. I felt it too, but I decided to reply to some emails I got. The time arrived and I went down, Adam and TreeFrog were already eating. We discussed where today's end point was. I finished up and went back to the room to do a sweep, make sure Mouse and I had not left anything. Went down and found Adam ready to leave. TreeFrog was up in their room finishing packing. We decided to go ahead and leave. TreeFrog does a good job of catching up, which he did before we got to the trail. Walking up a hill with five days of food and full of town food is great warm up. Although the trail was rocky, it was nicely switch backed. Put it in granny gear and head up. Found one blueberry bush with ripe berries. I had a few. I stopped at Pulpit Rock for a lunch break. A young man showed up, looking like a hiker. We talked. It's his fifth day out. He wants to get as close to Maine before the end of summer. He complained about not having companions for the trail. I suggested he do less then twenty-five miles a day. That didn't set well with him. A family showed up. They came up from the Blue Rocks campground. They were interested about thruhiking. They are locals. The wife asked a question I never heard before, what¢s the most difficult thing I've done. I thought about that for awhile. My answer, going into town. The culture shock from trail to town is always jolting for me. Then off I went. Next vista, The Pinnacle. Blue blaze trail to it. There is huge pile of rocks before heading out to the Pinnacle. The story is, throw one on top. I picked up a small rock and threw it up on the pile then walked out for the view. The vista looks over gentle rolling farm lands. But there is an obvious wooded area. Hawks riding the thermoclines. I sat and watched. Very peaceful, soaring up and up. One took a dive. Then start up again. Like they were playing. As I was leaving, ran into PalmTree. He told me that FireMarshall will not be doing the 1200 mile mark, his father passed away unexpectedly this past week. I decided to hike the remainder of today's walk with him. It was nice to have someone to talk with on the walk. We compared notes about who was where and who went off. We had a nice conversation about all sorts of things, getting older, our past experiences, what brought us to the trail. It made the remainder of the day move quickly. Next thing we knew, we were at the road crossing that signaled a turn to the shelter. We walked down the road and found Mouse and Strider and the young hiker here. The young man was moving on, so PalmTree and I got bunks. The remainder of those at PortClinton and the Microtel group has expanded the group here to eleven of us. One of the old faces for me is Boonie. Good to see he's still on the trail. New faces include Eelz, Goodtymes, Blueberry, HotRock. We end up ordering from the pizza place. A huge order plus beer. No weight loss from the food bag, darn. Really, it's okay. We all know that city food is fattening food and we all need to be fattened up. HotRock had been at the Microtel also last night. I had seen him a breakfast. Since he's normally a fast hiker I had expected to see him on the trail, but he showed up at the shelter after I had gotten there. It turned out he didn't know about the highway shortcut. He made a five mile detour. Told him, that¢s why one carries maps. Too bad. Supper gets done and the beer drinkers stay up and rest of us are ready for bed.Namaste'