Date: 2008-05-12
From: cove mountain shelter

To: peter's mountain shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: light rain

It was cold again last night. Still glad I sent home my winter bag. Around 40 again. As the cows predicted, it rained last night. Hard. The entire night. And it was still raining hard when we woke up. And it was still raining hard when we woke up again and decided that it was going to keep raining and we should hit the trail anyways.Four miles into Duncannon, PA. Ridgerunning for the first part, then the trail took us down so we could cross a rock slide. They love their rocks here in PA. I figure they take us across them to make up for the fact most of the terrain is flat. Really fun after a couple inches of rain.Got into town and headed to a restaurant. This one was open and the four of us had breakfast. Barefodder asked the waitress what was the biggest breakfast they had, and ordered it. TB and I liked this logic and ordered the same thing with homefries. Well, the breakfast was massive and full of homecooked goodness. Pancakes the size of dinner plates and a half inch thick each, eggs, homefries, sausage, and toast. Very good. Also bumped into Spruce there. He's running light so we didn't expect to see him again. He seemed intrigued when he heard our plan to go to the Yuengling brewery for a tour and may tag along.Hiked backward to the supermarket to resupply along a highway with no shoulder in the rain. Lots of fun. One jackass even felt it necessary to lay on his horn as he flew by at double the speed limit.Back to town after the resupply. We hadn't eaten for two hours so we figured it was time for lunch. Hit up a pizza place. Three of us had good subs, and Barefodder went for the eleven dollar stromboli. When it came out, it looked like its price was justified. He ate less than half of it before he gave up and had it boxed to take it on the trail. I couldn't finish my sub because I knew I would regret it hiking out.Left town only two hours later than we planned to. Still raining. The trail went through town for a bit to get to a bridge over the Susquehanna River. Crossed it and hit the hills.Going up the first hill was fun. In places the trail was a river three inches deep because of all the rain. It was still raining, and still cold.Rocky ridgerun for a while. Like scrambling over boulders slick with water. I actually threw my poles down at one point and climbed down on my hands and knees to stay with the trail.After a while it improved and we cruised the ridgeline to the shelter.The shelter is massive, two stories, porch, and covered cooking area. The only downside is the distance to the spring. Down, a lot. 300 stone steps. It was a 20 minute round trip. Could have drank a liter of water after climbing back up.Barefodder joined us and we all had massive dinners to finish off the day. Our town babies are doing well. Velveeta mac and cheese, candy Barefodder didn't want anymore, part of Barefodder's stromboli, and a thing of dried eggs I found in the shelter. I tried to cut the number of prep steps for the eggs in half, but it didn't work at all so I just ate the egg soup.Lots of calories today. Getting ready for a big day tomorrow. 45 already, should be another cold night.