Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Day 92 - 6/15

Daily mileage: 15.7
Total trail mileage: 1240.7
Starting location: Hawk Mountain Trail
Ending location: Bake Oven Knob Shelter
Weather: 65 degrees in the morning. 73 - 77 degrees during the day.
Partly cloudy and sunny in the morning. Clear and sunny the rest of
the day

I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.700322,+-75.720841 (not very accurate)

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. There were all sorts of rocks today.
There was even a section where I was hiking along the ridge, but the
entire ridge was made up of giant boulders. Some of the other guys
were flying down the trail. I don't know how they do it; I would have
killed myself. As it was, I had to be careful to avoid losing my
footing and going into a crevase. To be fair though, there were also
a number of really easy sections of trail today. It kept alternating
between very rocky sections and dirt roads. And, practically the
whole day was void of climbs or decents.

There sure were a lot of chipmunks running all over the place. I would
see them dash across the trail and then I would see a line of ferns
start shaking. It was like Jurassic Park (or Lost World - I can't
remember which) when the dinosaurs were running through the plants and
all you could see were the plants moving. At least these little
critters don't eat people like the dinosaurs did.

I also saw a few snakes today. There was one that I wasn't sure what
type it was. There was another that I saw while walking down the
trail. I put my foot down next to a funny looking curved stick, but
then the stick started moving. It was a small snake. Good thing it
didn't decide to bite me.

The beginning part of the day went through a section I did a year and
a half ago. Last time I was there was late fall and there was a
little snow on the ground. It is much easier to follow the trail now
because the plants fill in the sides of the trail and form a corridor
to walk through.

I had to get water at the last shelter just before I set up camp. The
water was 3/4 of a mile off the trail down the hill. I think it is
the farthest I have walked off trail for water so far this trip. But,
at least there was water. In this stretch coming up, that is
supposedly a problem.

I heard rumors that tomorrow is going to be a thunderstorm. Well, the
weather is usually wrong so hopefully I don't get too much rain.
Ironically, I need to push through this long dry section so I can have
water again tomorrow night.

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