Date: 2014-03-05
To: Almost to OZ
Miles today: 0.0

Almost to OZPart two on the memories that stick-It has been two years since I have been to Allentown Shelter but I bet there are still clues that you can see. The shelter faces away from the AT and as you walk toward the back wall and around to the left there will be evidence of a line of trees that had been uprooted. And if you sit in the shelter and look up you should see a tree that is missing its top or perhaps the top still hangs there by a few strands. You might wonder what happened. Well, all that destruction happened in a few seconds on one day¢¦and I happened to be there to see it. Saturday, July 07, 2012I woke with a smile on my face. I always do that on the trail. I smiled because I was alive for another day hiking the Appalachian Trail. I was camping not far from the trail in a place you will not find in the guide book. I had found this place just before dark the night before.So on Saturday morning I went about the morning chores in a good mood. But I could not help thinking of what today could bring if the recent past is any indication. The hiking has been dry and hot the last week. Those PA rocks everyone has been talking about are more common now.I munched some cold food not wanting to waste the cooler morning cooking breakfast. In five minutes I had my tent and gear all packed and I was ready to rock on, literally. I spent the morning hiking the ups and downs and twists of the trail. I expected to see Perch, a hiker I¢ve been leapfrogging the last few days, but there was no sign of anyone.By noon the temperature had to be in the high nineties and I was sweating. It had been several hours since I¢d had a drink¢¦the last two water springs were dry. I sat down to eat something for some energy to push on. I came to a road soon after lunch and finally found a hiker.¢Any water around here,¢ was my first question. She was loading a car with her pack and going to drive to meet some other hikers that are slack-packing. She tried to explain that there was a shelter with water just down the street but somehow this concept did not penetrate my dry brain.She ended up driving me for about thirty seconds down the street to Eckville Shelter. Boy did I feel dumb but a shelter behind a house just did not seem right. I thanked her as she drove off. Shelters with four walls and a door, from here north, have a caretaker living nearby.After disturbing the caretaker twice, he was obviously busy doing something, I found the water and my way around. It took me almost an hour to rehydrate and plan what to do next. I learned some interesting facts.Fact one, I think better with water inside me. Fact two, the temp was one hundred and one degrease and climbing. Fact three, I have a medium hike (7.4) to the next shelter, including a big climb up to a ridge. Fact four, I do not want to stay here.It¢s these little decisions that can put your life in jeopardy. So, with water bottles filled I walked back up the road to the trail. Within a few hundred yards after crossing the road I found a spring. I laughed so hard I fell over.About a hundred yards after that I ran into a hiker walking towards me that I have not seen for weeks. (His name is changed to protect his identity.)¢Animal, what are you doing walking southbound,¢ Gladiator asked.¢uh, I¢m not walking southbound,¢ I replied.¢Yes you are, I¢m going northbound,¢ Gladiator said.¢Uh, no, sorry Gladiator, but you are going southbound.¢ I said.Gladiator is angry now, ¢I¢m going northbound!¢I shake my head ¢I promise you, I just came from Eckville Shelter and the road just behind me.¢Gladiator stares at me for a long time before he finally loses his composure completely. I will not repeat the number of expletives used but there was a lot. This happens to most hikers, me twice, and it is a terrible thing when you get turned around for any length of time. We were able to determine that Gladiator had done six extra miles in the wrong direction. He quit his thru hike right there and headed for the road. Believe me I tried to talk him out of it. The climb up to the top of the ridge was tough so I rested for a time and drank some water. As I sat there Perch came up the ridge. We talked about Gladiator for a time and how tough the hiking is in this heat. Perch wanted to make some phone calls so I pushed on alone.About an hour later, as I was rock hopping from one giant bolder to another, I got the first glimpse of a wall of black clouds far in the distance. It was a strange sight on the edge of a blue sky. Like night was creeping towards me. I began to hike faster.I¢ve been caught on top of ridges and mountains in storms and it is no fun. It¢s exciting but no fun at all and incredibly scary to huddle for cover in a small storm. I kept watching the darkness advance and this was no small storm¢¦this was huge. Gusts of hot air hit me hard. I had to slow down or fall over. The dark clouds covered the sun and the wind stopped. Soon I was running to the shelter racing the storm.I won the race and found three day hikers inside Allentown Shelter. They were talking about starting a fire but the area around the shelter was picked clean of wood.        I sat on my bucket inside the back corner of the shelter and waited for the storm to hit. I could see it was unnaturally still but the others did not seem to notice and kept talking about the fire.It got real dark¢¦almost like night and there was this sound like something big and powerful coming, like a train maybe. A tree fell next to the shelter and then another. It came right next to the shelter¢¦a spinning wall of raindrops, branches, and leaves. Water hit me and the inside back wall of the shelter hard. When my eyes cleared I saw another tree go down. Branches and debris are falling everywhere. The funnel left the ground and went up into the air. It hit the top of one tree and broke it like a twig. The rain came pouring down and I lost sight of it. I didn¢t notice when they moved but the other hikers were all huddled inside the shelter. The back wall of the shelter was wet to the ceiling. I did notice that it was about thirty degrees colder now.Five minutes later Perch came in looking like a wet bird. He told us that he hugged a tree to keep from being blown away. I told him about the tornado and looking around he believed me.Later, after the rain died down we had a great fire. The next day the trail was an obstacle course but that is another story.