Duncannon, PA to Stony Mountain
A great start to the morning today...I woke up in air conditioning. Followed that up with a big plate of scrambled eggs and toast (special thanks, again, to Uncle Paul for all his hospitality) and I was ready to go, loaded up with 4 days of food and 3 liters of water. Wait...but you only carry a 2L bladder in your pack, why carry an extra liter? Turns out that the lack of rain is finally catching up with the springs around here and many are aready dry. That made the start of today a 14 mile stretch with no water sources and in 90 degree (and higher) heat. But it turned out that a local trail maintainer/trail angel also knew about the lack of water and happened to be at a parking area at noontime as I passed through. He had severa jugs of water for hikers as well as fresh fruit and other snacks. I sat there and had lunch with him and chatted for a while before moving on. I apologise to this generous guy but I did not get his name to properly thank him here (I did give him the blog address), but thank you again and enjoy your "cyber hiking".
Today was also my crossing of the Susquehanna River and the beginning of the infamous Pennsylvania rocks. They weren't too bad today, but supposedly that changes as I keep moving through the state. Should be interesting to see how these shoes hold up to the rocks...I am not optimisitic.
I took it kind of slow the rest of the day and tried not to exert myself in the heat too much. I was eating dinner near Clarks Creek when I ran into another hiker named Josh who was also thinking aout pushing forward for another hour or so from there so we hiked up Stony Mtn together having a nice talk as we did and ended up finding a campsite near what appears to be the site of an old firetower on top of the hill. And bonus, I have signal from the Peek so you can all enjoy this post right away.
On tap for tomorrow, a 25 mile day to 501 Shelter which is supposedly the start of a 23 mile dry stretch of trail leading into Port Clinton so I need to end a day there and do the 23 miles in one shot in a single day to have water for meals etc... A little bigger day than I would have preferred but it can't really be helped with the water situation. Also I will cross I81 for the fourth and final time this trip.
For anyone who happens to be reading this from the Lehigh Valley, I should be coming through Lehigh Gap at PA 248 sometime during the day on Tuesday the 13th. Probably planning to head into Palmerton from there to do some resupply on my way to Delaware Water Gap.
Brand new pair of brouges, rattlin oer the bogs, frigtening all of the dogs on the rocky road to Dublin...1...2...3...4...5
Sent on the go from my Peek
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