Date: 2015-06-18
From: Yellow Springs

To: PA645
Miles today: 20.1

We were awoken again early this morning. This time it was because it started to rain. We quickly closed our tent flaps to avoid becoming wet. It was 2:00 am. We had a hard time getting back to sleep and had actually thought about hiking with our headlights. But, since it was raining, we tried to go back to sleep. We were praying the rain would stop before we woke for the day. We woke around 6:00 to hear it was still raining. We laid in our dry tent for a bit hoping the rain would stop. By 7:00, it was still raining. The inevitable of having to hike in the rain made us eat breakfast and pack up. Ugh, the outside of the tent was wet. We tried to dry the tent off but as quickly as we wiped the dampness off, more rain fell. We gave up and just rolled the tent up wet. From the looks of the sky, it looked like an all day rain. Not a good way to start the day!   The hiking day started with a climb. The trail was wet and muddy from the rain. Ugh!! We hiked on. As Count was looking up the trail, he saw a large black bear scramble into the woods. Then, we started noticing bear prints in the muddy trail. We actually saw two prints, a large one and a small one. It must have been a mother bear and her cub. That was totally taking over the fact we were hiking in the rain. Well, at least for a little while! We had a bit of flat trail as we hiked on an old mining road. It was a coal mine and there had been a small town called Rausch Creek.   The mine was unproductive. So, it closed and the town was abonded. We could still see the after effects of the mine as the streams near here had an orange color to the water. We did not use this as our water source!    We had a 500 foot climb up to the top of second mountain and by the time we were at the top we were in a heavy fog and it was misty.   Of course, when you go up then you have to go down. We had a 900 foot descent down to the valley and out of the fog. In the valley we walked across an open field and then across two roads. We had another short but steep climb and then we went back down. As we were going down the last bit of trail before crossing a road, there were steps cut into the side of the dirt edged with wood. Count stepped on the wood. It was wet and slippery. Down he went. Yes, he fell. Lavender attempted to help him and slipped on the mud falling also. At the time, it wasn't funny. But, we had to look silly. We were just at the edge of the road. Nobody was passing in a car or they probably would have helped us. We got up from the fall, muddy of course. Count's hiking pole had clasped. He checked the pole out. Thankfully, it was OK. We knew we had a very steep climbing coming up.   We crossed PA72. Then, we crossed a beautiful iron bridge. We walked a fire road before we crossed under I-81. This the last time we will cross over I-81. Now we had our biggest climb of the day, a 1000 foot climb over just 2 miles. It was a steep and at times rocky climb that had us sweating even though the air was cool. We were nearly at the top when we decided to stop for lunch.      It was foggy and misting. But, we had to stop as we were hungry. We ate quickly as we were getting wetter and wetter. No setting our tent up to dry at lunch. If you remember our other post from the Soakies, you will remember we had a similar experience there. But, we learnt from that as we quickly made our tortilla, peanut butter and trail mix wrap. Then, put all the supplies in our dry bag. This kept all our food dry. Just our wrap became wet. It is humiliating eating a damp wrap in the mist sitting on a wet log. Not our idea of bon app©tit. But, we ate and were on our way. The trail became VERY rocky for at least a mile. We could see no ground, just rocks. Yes, we are experiencing our first Pennsylvania rocks. They were wet and very slippery. We had to go slow. Lavender almost fell but the wings of angels saved her. It was very scary. We finished the rocks and continued on the ridgeline. The trail became very narrow. Weeds were over growing on the trail. Between the mist, the wet weeds and the narrow trail, our legs, socks, and boots became wet. Lavender wore gaiters but the toes of her waterproof boots were still wet.    We stopped into a shelter for our afternoon break. Count took his boots and socks off. He wrung his socks out to help try to dry them. We were frustrated and concerned about sleeping in a wet tent tonight. What were we going to do? We looked at our AWOL guide. Two miles ahead was Pine Grove. There were several hotels that offered hiker rates. We called one. They had a room available. We decided to stay in a hotel. We quickened our steps. As we came upon Earth, another thru-hiker, he was celebrating. We had forgotten, we had just crossed over having less than 1000 miles to hike to Katahdin. We celebrated also. Only, 999.9 miles to hike! After our quick celebration, we were on our way. We arrived at PA 645 where we caught a shuttle to the hotel. We checked into the hotel looking like hobos, all muddy and wet. We set up our tent to dry and hung everything else up in the room to dry. We turned the hairdryer on to help our boots dry. We rinsed out our muddy clothes, no laundry at the hotel, and hung them to dry. We showered. We put on our dry clothes and went to have dinner. We bought some Epsom salts to help ease the soreness from our bruised and sore bodies. Count has continued to battle blisters. Lavender's shin has been hurting. Her hand is bruised from today's fall. The Epsom salts should help.   We hope!!