Date: 2005-07-30
From: Eckville Shelter

To: Bake Oven Shelter
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: overcast clouds

How stupid is this? It¢s been nearly ten years since I¢ve had any diet soda. So, last night when I went to the fridge looking for cold water and didn't find any, I thought: ¢No problemo. I¢ll have a diet Pepsi instead." A few minutes later I thought, "As a matter of fact, the first one was so good, I think I¢ll have another to boot! Why not?" Well, the aanswer to that question I now remember is because diet Pepsi is loaded with caffeine, a fact that never crossed my mind until about midnight at which time it was all over! Eyes wide open, I was awake for the duration. For a while around 3AM, I sat on the picnic table and looked at the stars, tired but not in the least bit sleepy. Around 5:30AM I got up and got ready to hit the Trail after having accumulating probably a maximum of two hours of fitful, ungratifying sleep over. Hopefully 10 years from now if I'm tempted with the sweet delights of a cold Diet Pepsi before bed, I will remember the"NOT" part of the retorical, "Why Not?" question. To my surprise, however,the day was great: beautiful weather and having gotten off to an early start was, in itself, uplifting. I felt good all day long (maybe the half hour of sound sleep I got after lunch helped a bit as well!)and I knocked off some serious milage without feeling a lot of effort.The Trail was rocky most of the way with a few colossal boulder fields thrown in. This is much more like the ¢Pennsylvania AT¢ that I remembered. One boulder field called the Knife Edge was quite challenging but afforded spectacular views off to the east. The first vista that I passed during the day was Dan¢s Pulpit, which was a good place to stop and rest having just finished the climb up from the town of Eckville.   To my delight the steel mailbox where the hikers' logbook is kept still had the 2004 register in it. I flipped it open and read entries written over a year ago by ¢Pegasus¢, ¢Blue¢, ¢Stretch¢, ¢Coyote¢ and many others whom I knew only by their Trail name. It was wonderful to see their familiar handwriting and read their words, which seemed as fresh as if they had written them yesterday. But now they are gone from the Trail. This part of their journey is complete. But others have come in to take their place and to scrawl their names and thoughts and impressions in this year¢s journal, only to be replaced yet again next year. And so it goes.Lunch was a burger at the Blue Mountain B&B on Route 309 (yum!) It was quickly followed by, as I said, by a deep nap, and then 3 12 more hours of hiking. Having heard that that the spring at Bake Oven Shelter was dry due to the lack of rain I carried in an additional two liters of water with me all afternoon as did many others. Although cumbersome (especially crossing the boulder fields), I¢m glad I brought the extra water along because it came in handy as I re-hydrated and cooked dinner.I¢m now in my tent in a small clearing 30 yards from the shelter, which is very old and very small and very occupied by a family of four overnight hikers. Everyone else from last night is spread out in the woods along the ridge not too far away. I went ¢visiting¢ after dinner and had a nice chat with ¢Trooper¢ and ¢Lumbar¢ (really Mary and Doug) at their campsite. They¢re very nice people. I¢m now about to fall asleep but I feel good about covering 17+ miles today, especially since this is only my third day back on the Trail. Imagine what I could do after a good night¢s sleep! And that¢s exactly my intention right now ¢ to get a good night¢s sleep!