We got up around 4:30am, said our goodbyes to the family for the summer, and left for the AT by 5am.
Arrived at the Route 325 trail head by 7:45am, made some last minute adjustments, and rolled out by 8am. We planned for an easy 11.3 mile day to Rausch Gap Shelter. The ascent was a long one, nice and gradual though. It made for a good warm up for the week ahead of us.We reached the top of the ridge where Horseshoe Trail meets the AT. The Horseshoe Trail is a 121 mile trail in PA that ends when it reaches the AT.
Not long after that we arrived at the turn for Rausch Gap Shelter. The 0.3 mile side trail that led to the shelter was amazing, a nice soft dirt path with a mix of pine needles, it was the perfect entryway to the shelter. Tucked away in the at the Gateway to St. Anthony's Wilderness, this shelter is among the most memorable. The shelter is simple, but it is surrounded by a rock wall, with a tree in the middle acting as a table, and the spring was directly across from the shelter, making it easy to retrieve water. We ran into a thru hiker here, he went by the name of Bugger.
We moved on from Rausch Gap Shelter. We were originally going to stay here, but decided to move on since it was still fairly early in the day. We moved on towards a campsite right before the PA 72, an extra 5.5 miles from Rausch Gap. The road wasn't too loud, mostly due to the stream next to us which helped drown out the sound of traffic. We were expecting rain in the late morning, so we planned on going to bed early for some extra morning miles before the rain came. Here we met another thru hiker, Scuba Steve. He was quite an interesting fellow, growing up in New Jersey, I told him about my hike there with Prophet and how unexpectedly abundant the wildlife was. We exchanged stories by the campfire, filtered water out from the stream, and hung our bear bag. Since it was hot and humid, we decided to leave the rain fly off for some more comfort. However, the weather surprised us a tad bit early around 4 a.m. We put the rain fly on, and I ran to get our food bag covered by a water proof stuff sack. We didn't get much sleep after that, so we still woke early and broke down camp.
Out by 7 a.m., we crossed the stream using a fallen down tree that acted like a bridge. The rain luckily stopped, as we were originally planning on rain all morning, so it was a nice treat. We arrived at Swatara Gap then began the grueling climb. It was humid due to the rain, and the ascent seemed endless, but the memories of nice trails atop the ridge fueled my every step. Once on top, the trail weaves in and out of ridge walking and trails with overgrown ferns. It felt like we were walking through the Jurassic Period. The poison ivy is notoriously bad on this section since the trail can be narrow at times, but we didn't have to worry about it too much since it hasn't overgrown onto the trail yet. Although our view was hindered due to the clouds, the quality of the trail made up for it.
We took a break at William Penn Shelter. I had stayed here with Desert Fox and his father, Strider. It was nice to relive the memories and share them with Leroy. It was nice to recover from the ascent, but we knew we had to move on.Having gained 5.5 miles from yesterdays push, we decided to have a nice slow day. There was a rumor that the 501 Shelter (4.1 miles from William Penn) was able to get delivery from a local pizza shop. That was music to our ears, so we decided we would go there and get pizza for ourselves and any thru hikers that were planning a stay there. With the thought of pizza running through our heads, the 4.1 miles seemed to fly by.
The 501 Shelter looked more like a workshop than a typical AT shelter. However, to our surprise, it was filled with bunks, had a large picnic table in the middle, a bag full of apples, and a large skylight in the roof. There was one other thing about this shelter, the carpenter bees were constantly eating away at the bunk beds, and you could hear them chewing the wood away.
There was one other section hiker there, but he was recovering from a stomach bug that he thinks he caught from his home-dehydrated meals. We found the binder with the local businesses listed. We picked out the pizza menu, decided what we wanted to eat, then called the number, only to find that they are closed on Mondays. In fact, the whole town was basically shut down on Mondays. I couldn't believe it, we hiked with the determination of pizza only to be shut down. Annoyed and tired, we decided to stay here for the night instead of continuing on, as this was a nice shelter, we had extra miles done, and we could build up our strength for a big push the next day. Only hiking 12.8 miles for the day, we planned for a 15.1 mile day to Eagle Nest Shelter for tomorrow.
Scuba Steve passed through, surprised that we left so early that morning, but we were happy to see him. He decided he was going to keep hiking a few more miles and set up his tent somewhere along trail. Since we were going to be out for a few more days with the other section, we took advantage of the solar shower that the care taker set up right out side. The water was cold since the clouds haven't given away, but it was still nice to rinse off. We ate a whole package of tortellini then fell asleep to the sound of the carpenter bees.
Arising early, we got started on our proposed 15.1 mile day. We were making excellent progress when we stopped to take in a few as the clouds started to lift. Here, history was made. Leroy decided to introduce me to the "Launchpad". As shown in the photo, you position yourself so that you can spring forward from sitting. Once in position, you lean forward, poles set back for proper launch, and as you're getting up, yell "Launchpad!!".
Now that we had our Launchpad ceremony, it was time to continue on. It was nice to finally have a view after walking in the clouds the day before. The trail was pretty rocky, winding up and down the rolling hills. We descended into this gorgeous area known as Hertline Campsite. There were two streams that seemed to separate the campground from the rest of the area. We took a break here on the picnic table, about 5.5 miles in. Pictures just didn't do this place justice, I would love to return here someday and spend the night.
We were making great timing, arriving at the side trail for Eagle Nest Shelter. We did some thinking, and instead of staying here, we would just refill our water and take a short break, then continue on. At this point, Port Clinton was about 9 miles, so we figured we would make the day shorter tomorrow. On our way out, we ran into Bugger again. This time we hiked with him, sharing hiking stories, and I was asking him (probably too many) questions about his thru hike. At this point, we were flying down the trail, and strangely we weren't getting tired yet. He was discussing his plans of going to Port Clinton and camping out in the northern part of town. The trail was relatively flat, but we were descending slowly. Then we met this random, steep climb. Having already gone over 18 miles for the day, I felt really good after hiking up. When we reached the top, I told Leroy that we should just go to Port Clinton and camp out with Bugger. Leroy knew we could do it, so he agreed. We took a short break, and Bugger moved on.
Having about 6 miles left, we were set on reaching Port Clinton and enjoying a nice meal at the Port Clinton Hotel. The trail was nice and flat, until we began the descent down into town. I'll never forget how exhausted we were. Trying to walk down this steep grade after hiking nearly 24 miles. I tried to capture the slope on camera, but it is really hard to capture, plus I was shaking uncontrollably from the exhaustion. Every downward step could be felt in our knees. We still had plenty of sunlight so we inched our way down.
Upon reaching the bottom, we walked along railroad tracks on pavement. My feet felt like jell-o, but the end was in sight. The campground was really just an open field that the town decided to allow hikers to stay on. There was a large pavilion, but they didn't want hikers to sleep in there.
When we found Bugger, we invited him to dinner at the Port Clinton Hotel. The food was amazing and the people were very nice, despite our wretched stench. One couple actually gave us trail magic, $40 towards our meal. We were already planning on buying Bugger's meal, so this was a very generous offer.
This evening would go down as one of the worst for Leroy and I. Exhausted, all we wanted to do was get a solid night sleep before we began the next section with Jack Masterson. We were hanging out at the campfire, talking to a younger thru hiker who had just finished high school. He told us that he was going to leave the trail after feeling like he had done all that he wanted to. The next morning his mom pulled up in a mini van and took him home. Sharing stories at the fire, this is when two hikers showed up from the bar, along with two local girls. I can only remember the one name, Kitty Kat. That name will always stay in my memory, for this is one of the worst people I have ever met. She was a drunken loud mouth who woke us countless times throughout the night. They pulled up in a truck, high beams burning into our tent, followed by her yelling, calling us various effeminate names. I believe at one point they actually came up to our tent and shook it, maybe it was just a nightmare I was having.
After the night of minimal sleep, we decided to get up and head to Hamburg for some breakfast, 1.7 miles south of Port Clinton. We had told Jack Masterson where we would be, for he will meeting him shortly for the continuation of our hike down in Boiling Springs, PA. It was nice to be able to get out and hike just with Leroy Bernard. I was nervous about starting a new job with him at Roundup River Ranch in Colorado, so I had flooded his brain with question after question since he had worked there the summer before. Looking back, I'm glad we did the 24.1 mile day. It was a true test of our ability to endure the challenge both physically and mentally. We took a nice relaxed approach to the day, kept a loose itinerary, and just enjoyed ourselves. And although we didn't get a great sleep that night, we still had an amazing time with the thru hikers.
Arising early, we got started on our proposed 15.1 mile day. We were making excellent progress when we stopped to take in a few as the clouds started to lift. Here, history was made. Leroy decided to introduce me to the "Launchpad". As shown in the photo, you position yourself so that you can spring forward from sitting. Once in position, you lean forward, poles set back for proper launch, and as you're getting up, yell "Launchpad!!".Now that we had our Launchpad ceremony, it was time to continue on. It was nice to finally have a view after walking in the clouds the day before. The trail was pretty rocky, winding up and down the rolling hills. We descended into this gorgeous area known as Hertline Campsite. There were two streams that seemed to separate the campground from the rest of the area. We took a break here on the picnic table, about 5.5 miles in. Pictures just didn't do this place justice, I would love to return here someday and spend the night.
We were making great timing, arriving at the side trail for Eagle Nest Shelter. We did some thinking, and instead of staying here, we would just refill our water and take a short break, then continue on. At this point, Port Clinton was about 9 miles, so we figured we would make the day shorter tomorrow. On our way out, we ran into Bugger again. This time we hiked with him, sharing hiking stories, and I was asking him (probably too many) questions about his thru hike. At this point, we were flying down the trail, and strangely we weren't getting tired yet. He was discussing his plans of going to Port Clinton and camping out in the northern part of town. The trail was relatively flat, but we were descending slowly. Then we met this random, steep climb. Having already gone over 18 miles for the day, I felt really good after hiking up. When we reached the top, I told Leroy that we should just go to Port Clinton and camp out with Bugger. Leroy knew we could do it, so he agreed. We took a short break, and Bugger moved on.
Having about 6 miles left, we were set on reaching Port Clinton and enjoying a nice meal at the Port Clinton Hotel. The trail was nice and flat, until we began the descent down into town. I'll never forget how exhausted we were. Trying to walk down this steep grade after hiking nearly 24 miles. I tried to capture the slope on camera, but it is really hard to capture, plus I was shaking uncontrollably from the exhaustion. Every downward step could be felt in our knees. We still had plenty of sunlight so we inched our way down.Upon reaching the bottom, we walked along railroad tracks on pavement. My feet felt like jell-o, but the end was in sight. The campground was really just an open field that the town decided to allow hikers to stay on. There was a large pavilion, but they didn't want hikers to sleep in there.
When we found Bugger, we invited him to dinner at the Port Clinton Hotel. The food was amazing and the people were very nice, despite our wretched stench. One couple actually gave us trail magic, $40 towards our meal. We were already planning on buying Bugger's meal, so this was a very generous offer.
This evening would go down as one of the worst for Leroy and I. Exhausted, all we wanted to do was get a solid night sleep before we began the next section with Jack Masterson. We were hanging out at the campfire, talking to a younger thru hiker who had just finished high school. He told us that he was going to leave the trail after feeling like he had done all that he wanted to. The next morning his mom pulled up in a mini van and took him home. Sharing stories at the fire, this is when two hikers showed up from the bar, along with two local girls. I can only remember the one name, Kitty Kat. That name will always stay in my memory, for this is one of the worst people I have ever met. She was a drunken loud mouth who woke us countless times throughout the night. They pulled up in a truck, high beams burning into our tent, followed by her yelling, calling us various effeminate names. I believe at one point they actually came up to our tent and shook it, maybe it was just a nightmare I was having.
After the night of minimal sleep, we decided to get up and head to Hamburg for some breakfast, 1.7 miles south of Port Clinton. We had told Jack Masterson where we would be, for he will meeting him shortly for the continuation of our hike down in Boiling Springs, PA. It was nice to be able to get out and hike just with Leroy Bernard. I was nervous about starting a new job with him at Roundup River Ranch in Colorado, so I had flooded his brain with question after question since he had worked there the summer before. Looking back, I'm glad we did the 24.1 mile day. It was a true test of our ability to endure the challenge both physically and mentally. We took a nice relaxed approach to the day, kept a loose itinerary, and just enjoyed ourselves. And although we didn't get a great sleep that night, we still had an amazing time with the thru hikers.
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