Date: 2008-07-02
From: Eckville Shelter, PA

To: PA 309, Blue Mountain Summit
Miles today: 11.5

I woke up when I heard Mother Nature walk by my tent at 4:45am. I stayed in my sleeping bag till about 6am, then started packing up.We were packed and left to get to PA 309, so we could slack back to Eckville Shelter.I asked how far it was to get back to 3Cs for breakfast and was told that we had wheels...it wasn't far. :-)I had the 3cs Big Breakfast...2 eggs over easy, sausage, ham, homefries and onions, 2 French toast and rye toast...and lots of coffee! :-)I was smilin' when I left!We drove out to the trailhead and parked the car, then started walking south on the Appalachian Trail back to Eckville.I took the lead...Mother Nature said the slowest person always leads. Huh?It was cool for this time of year, lower humidity and sunny out...a perfect day for a walk!The first four miles went by very quickly. It was mostly on a flat forest service road that took us right to Allentown Hiking Club Shelter.We ran into Meatbag and Doxie just before we got to the shelter and talked a while.Neon and CC Rider were at the shelter when we got there. We were sitting down talking to them when Old Buzzard walked up, and then Gator came in.We stayed there and ate a snack and I got a couple pictures of the shelter with some day lilies growing out of a tree stump nearby.Gator looked like crap! (just kidding...I heard Gatoraide was reading my journal to keep up with Gator) :-)We walked on after I signed the register and used another smiley face sticker. :-)Everyone at the shelter was complaining about the PA rocks, but I think PA rocks! I have always enjoyed walking over the rocks. I just slow down my pace a little and have fun with them.We walked on and made our way through some rocks fields, then got to the side trail to Dan's Spring.We kept going and ran into a woman and her son that I met briefly last night when she stopped by Eckville Shelter.They were up on the mountain to do some trail work. We talked for a while and I could tell she had done some walking before, so I asked. Turns out she's done all three long Trails...the AT, the PCT and the CDT.Her name was Cindy Ross and her son, Bryce was helping her.Bryce did the CDT in five yearly sections starting when he was just 1 year old! I'll bet he's the youngest person to ever do that Trail.We headed on and got to Dan's Pulpit next. We stopped there for a break and to take some pictures. There was a register in a mailbox attached to a tree, so I signed it and used another smiley face, then Mother Nature wrote something bad about me and I fixed it. ;-) (check my photos)It was a 1,000 foot descent from there to Hawk Mtn Road. We got there about an hour later and walked down to Eckville Shelter and Mother Nature talked Smokestack into taking us out to dinner...just because we deserved it! :-)We drove to Orwigsburg and found the Roman Delight...one of the best...and I really mean....THE BEST Italian Restaurants I've ever eaten at!I forgot to mention a new game I came up with yesterday. I had been getting buzzed by gnats pretty bad and I started smushing them by clapping my hands in front of my face.I got a lot of single smushes, some double smushes and 1 awesome triple smush!I really believe I made a BIG dent in the future generations of gnats! It should be nicer for next year's thru hikers now. ;-)We got back to Eckville Shelter and met two nobos, Moses and Black Snake, a father and son thru hiking together.I've got a full belly and am ready to set up my tent for the night.Another great day on the Appalachian Trail....made even greater hiking with Mother Nature and Smokestack! :-)