Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Day 86 - 6/09

Daily mileage: 17.9
Total trail mileage: 1155.6
Starting location: Duncannon, PA
Ending location: Clarks Valley
Weather: 58-61 degrees during the day. Cloudy and raining all day

I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.451069,+-76.775406

After getting breakfast across the street along with a number of other
hikers, I set out back on the trail in the rain. I was realizing that
the rain doesn't bother me much anymore. Yep, I'll get wet, but I
just accept that and move on. The warmer temperatures help make being
wet more manageable.

However, when I reached the second shelter I stopped for a bit, trying
to decide to stop or continue. I started to get chilled because I
wasn't moving and was soaked, so I needed to make a quick decision.
The problem was that it was still early in the day and I hadn't gone
far enough, yet the next shelter was another 18 miles away.
Fortunately, someone said that there was an area to camp somewhere in
the middle of that stretch. So, Longshanks, Maple, and I continued on
while the others stayed at the shelter.

This stretch of PA has unfortunate shelter placements. Many are
really far apart with a few not that far apart. For example, if you
are sticking to shelters you are stuck with the decision of either
doing a 31-mile day or two 18- and 13-mile days. For thruhikers a 13-
mile day is short, but most people only rarely do 31-mile days. For
many section hikers, 18 miles is too far. So, I am happy with
ignoring the shelters in this section and just camping where I want to.

Other than being near a road, the campsite Longshanks found is nice.
It is right by a stream and is off the trail a little bit. And, there
are plenty of trees for my hammock.

It looked like there might have been a number of lookout points
today. Unfortunately, the view was just a white cloud.

Supposedly the rocks start to get bad at this point. I'll see what
Rocksylvania has to offer. The rocks today were ok, although I did
fall down once on a wet rock. Surprisingly I did not sustain any
injuries during the fall.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Drew,
    have Sue, Joe, Charlie, JJ all here as I read blog
    in Bloomsburg! Good job and maybe you can stop
    by to say hello! ;-)

    See you at end!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm, I think I must have missed the blue blazed trail to Bloomsburg :(. I hope everyone is well and I'll stop by after I am done with the trip (and I'll actually have pictures this time).

    ReplyDelete