Date: 2013-07-13
From: Port Clinton Pavilion 

To: Hamburg Hotel
Miles today: 6.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 113Breakfast was an all you can eat buffet at Cabela's including eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits & gravy and donuts. The biscuits & gravy was not-so-tasty. I forgot that I was in the north where they don't know how to make biscuits & gravy. I ate a lot of donuts before wandering the store. I needed a new platypus but Cabela's didn't have the right kind. We finally decided where to slack to/from and because we were gettting a late start. We drove to a parking lot .3 off the trail and my dad got out my new boots. They were exactly the same just new and clean. He'd also bought a similar pair but low top from the thrift store. I packed my slackpack and headed down the trail with my dad and dog. We had just started on the AT when we saw blue rocks on the trail. My dad picked up a few and put them in my pack. We'd come full circle-rocks had led us to hiking and hiking back to rocks. He explained that we got into hiking because we would go rock hunting as a family in beautiful forests. Short pretty hikes led us to backpacking and here we were, backpacking the AT and there were amazing blue rocks on the trail. It's pretty spectacular that going on rock hunting trips brought us to hiking and hiking brought us back to rocks. We hiked on, telling ourselves we'd be back with my mom to fill up our pockets because we didn't want to carry rocks with us all day. It was turning out to be a gorgeous day even though it was getting hot. My dad took tons of pictures of the tiny flowers all around and the infamous PA rocks. We crossed the road and wandered under a bridge that had PA AT graffiti. This kind of graffiti acutally looked good. The trail brought us to walk along a muddy river before entering back into town. The sun beat down on us as we made our way back to the pavilion on hot asphault. I knew my dog's paws were on fire from the hot pavement so I was hurrying.Plus, Quaker's friends and family were providing trail magic for lunch. We made it in time before all the ravenous hikers obliterated the food. I gave Bailey some cold water before I got myself a nice bbq sandwhich, chips, and a soda. I'd get a whole plateful of dessert late. I tried to engage in conversation with my fellow hikers but it was just too hot to think well.I finished my food, ate some brownies, ate some more brownies as I lingered then left with my parents to go shopping. We found a small mostly water sports outfitter that had an Osprey 2liter bladder. It was plastic backed, meant to fit into an Osprey pack but it would work. I found a cute pair of light blue shorts. I was excited to wear new clean hiking clothes the next day. We headed back out on the road to look for a hotel. We found a nice Dutch motel just 30minutes away. I was catching up on chores, doing laundry, taking a shower, journaling and chatting with my parents. It was getting late and my tummy was telling me things. My dad and I grabbed some Subway and I was so exhausted I could hardly eat it. I woke up early to beat the heat but we weren't sure what our plans were yet for the day. We decided to spend another night at the hotel so off we went to McDonald's for breakfast.