Day 91 - 6/14

Daily mileage: 16.9
Total trail mileage: 1225.0
Starting location: Port Clinton, PA
Ending location: Hawk Mountain Trail
Weather: 73 - 77 degrees during the day. Cloudy and humid all day.
Brief drizzle in the afternoon

I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.770214,+-76.221489

I got up to watch the first soccer game of the day, went to the post
office to get my package (yay, they were open), took a shower, and
checked out of the hotel. I was on the trail by 10am. I am not sure
if I should have bothered with the last shower before leaving town as
it was quite humid and again it was a climb out of town with a full
pack. Back at Boiling Springs was one of the first times I left town
without a climb and I didn't even resupply in that town :(

I entered into an area that I am familiar with. Earlier in the trip I
had covered sections that I had previously hiked, but those hikes were
so long ago that I didn't remember much. I have been to this area on
multiple trips somewhat recently. The Pinnacle had a spectacular view
of the countryside just like I remember. The streams and hills and
clearings were in the right places. The sections of rocks exist just
like before. However, one thing that is different is my perception of
difficulty. These "mountains" are baby hills compared to what I had
climbed further South. Miles feel much shorter now that I have walked
over 1200 of them this year. My pack feels lighter, because, well it
is.

Today I met two other thruhikers, Thrasher and Turkey, that I did not
expect to. I had never met them before, but I had listened to their
audio journals before starting the hike. They started mid February
and at that time I was looking for anyone posting journals to get an
idea of the trail conditions right before I started. It turns out
that they took a few weeks off shortly after I started the trek so I
missed them and they were behind me since. But then I was off the
trail which put me behind a bit. Again, the trail is a unique place
for running into people.

I met a number of other people today, both day hikers and thruhikers.
It seems like I have been meeting new thruhikers everyday. I think
there are so many thruhikers around me now that the faster ones will
keep passing me. Earlier a few would fly by, but they were usually
spaced pretty far apart. Now I am right in the main bubble of the
large number of people that had started in April. I can't remember
all the names of the people I have met; I have such a terrible memory
for names.