Date: 2019-07-19
From: Swamp Road, South Mountain, PA

To: Ridge Road Campsite (PA)
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: clear sky

I don¢t have any trouble falling asleep, but then I wake up about 3am and can¢t get back to sleep. I finally get up about 5:30 and everything is soaked in dew. As the sun comes up I try to move things in the sunlight to dry them out. Eventually SC and the guy we tented with the last two nights were up, but with everything so wet, it took us a while to get everything dry enough to pack up. It is seriously hot. At one point I have to go to the bathroom, and the bar isn¢t open yet, so I ask SC for our ¢toilet¢ (a small sack with a trowel, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer) as she was carrying it yesterday. We look all over for it and apparently it¢s gone. I borrow a trowel from the guy we¢re staying with. I call the people who manage the Old Forge Picnic Area as that is the last time SC remembers seeing it. With her sister¢s announcement yesterday, she must have left it behind. They send someone to look for it, and then call me back later to let me know they didn¢t find anything. We¢re all up relatively early, but we still don¢t get going until 8:30 because we¢re trying to get things dry. SC and I stop at a ditch on our way out of town to get water. We then walk through the psychiatric hospital (or as the sign calls it, ¢restoration center¢) and there are actual cars and stuff there. Yesterday evening it looked abandoned. Anyway, the grounds and outsides of buildings look really nice. I hope it is a good place for those staying there.We get back on trail about 9:15. The first thing we do is climb up and over Rocky Mountain. It came by that name honestly. At one point SC asks, ¢ Do you smell the cows?¢ I¢m relieved that she thinks that there¢s a farm nearby. I just thought I smelled bad.We walk to a park with a pool. The guy taking money (he appears to be a park ranger), is super friendly and tells us where to get water and other stuff. We go to the pool. I change into my pajamas to swim and I do sink laundry with the rest of my clothes (except my socks for some reason). The water is freezing. It¢s great. There¢s a water slide and I go down it twice. But then I get antsy. We¢ve only done 5 miles so far. Eventually I take a shower and put on my mostly dry and slightly cleaner hiking clothes. I attach my now wet sleeping clothes to the outside of my pack.As SC and I leave the park, we find ourselves facing a huge hill. I start off slowly, hoping not to sweat too much now that I¢m sorta clean. As I¢m climbing this hill, as insect of some kind lands on the tip of my right middle finger and either bites or stings it. It is so painful. Even as I type this a couple of hours later, it still really hurts. After it stung/bit me, it flew around me for several laps and I was terrified it would hurt me again. Fortunately, it¢s just the one. And my finger looks completely fine. It should swell up or turn colors so that everyone else can see that it hurts.The first shelter after the pool is Quarry Gap. It¢s the nicest shelter I¢ve seen on the trail. Seriously, the privy has art and air fresheners. There are flowers planted all around. But it¢s still early, and there¢s a lot of tenting spots coming up, so we push on. Eventually we reach this campsite just past Ridge Road. Fortunately the traffic is light and consists mostly of four-wheelers and dirt bikes. About a mile back there was some coolers left with trail magic. I didn¢t take anything because, as usual, it was mostly wheat-based products. SC was able to supplement her food and was nice enough to let me have a bag of chips she picked up (but not the sour cream and onion chips¢those were gone before I even got to the campsite). We are not the only ones here: the guy we¢ve tented with the last 2 nights is also here. This is the longest we¢ve been around the same person.