Date: 2015-06-21
From: Hamburg 

To: Campsite 1234.7
Miles today: 16.9
Weather: broken clouds

We listened to it thunder and saw the flashes of lighting most of the night and were thankful we weren't out in a tent last night. The storm was a tropical storm that was just in Texas. This morning we looked out the window and the mountains were still in the clouds but at least it wasn't raining. We took it easy because we weren't heading back to the trail until 1000. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and then it was time to get packed up and ready to hit the trail. Our ride to the trail showed up at 1000 and we were on our way. As we approached the start of the trail, the clouds lifted and the sun came out. There was a breeze. We started an uphill steep climb out of the gap by Hamburg, PA. The climb was almost 1000 feet in a mile and a half. We were very anxious about this climb. Our anxiety was lessened because as we climbed, we heard church bells from a church in Port Clinton. The song being rung out on the bells was "It is Well". Our spirits were immediately lifted and we knew we could get through today's hike. The trail was rocky and steep. After last night's storm, we thought the trail would be muddy and wet. But, all in all, the trail was fairly dry and mudless. With a song in our heart, we made it to the top of the climb. We were hot but not soaked with sweat. The breeze had kept us cool. We took a short break to filter water. Then on we went. The trail was good to us today. We had a short decline. Then an incline. Then a decline of 500 feet. There were numerous waterfalls along the trail from all the rain. It was very pretty and peaceful. We saw no thru-hikers in the morning. We had over a 700 feet climb to Pulpit Rock. There were rocks on the trail. But, we are so used to them now they do not phase us. These rocks were not pointing upwards which made hiking on them fairly easy. We finally saw another thru-hiker as we climbed to Pulpit Rock. We also saw lots of day-hikers enjoying the view from Pulpit Rock. The view was spectacular! The sky was clear and we could see for miles. We ate lunch here. Our lunch was cut short as Count was stung by a bee. And then, the bees were buzzing around more. He didn't want to get stung again.   We had a 2.2 mile flat trail to another spectacular view. This time, we were at The Pinnacle. Again, what a view. We saw at least 10 hawks flying between this mountain and Hawk Mountain. They were soaring higher and higher. We also met a very nice family here, Daniel, Sarah and their son Samuel. Today was Samuel's first hike. He was enjoying every minute of it. Samuel turned 1 year old on the day we started hiking the AT.    We saw a few other "sights" here as well. Since today is Summer Solstice, there is a tradition to hike nude on the AT. We did not honor this tradition. But, three other thru-hikers did. Well, not really! They stripped down for one picture on The Pinnacle. Then, they dressed again. It was rather funny as they were so modest, they undressed out of sight and then redressed out of sight. We had a great trail leading down from The Pinnacle. It was an old dirt road, not too steep, not to rocky. But, it was very wet and muddy from all the rain. We still were able to enjoy the hike. We had a very steep climb of almost 800 feet in less than two miles to end the hiking day. We had to carry extra water as there were to be no streams near our tenting area. The extra two liters of water makes our packs heavier. But, on we climbed. Of course, from all the rain, we saw other streams of water that normally aren't present. Go figure. Hiking through a fern infested area, Count came upon a snake on the trail. Of course, we stopped. Count got it off the trail and we quickly ran past that area. We climbed and climbed and climbed. There was no breeze on this side of the mountain. We were sweating, sweating, sweating. We turn a corner and crossed over to the other side of the mountain. There was a cool breeze and everything was dry. We continued on for about a half mile and found a tent site. We set up for the night, ate dinner and relaxed before planning tomorrow's day of hiking.   We must say, we thought the weather was going to not make for a nice hiking day. The weather made for a fabulous day of hiking. Finally, a day without rain.