I drive an hour to drop off my vehicle at the Doyle Hotel in downtown Duncannon. My shuttle driver arrives promptly at 8:30, and I am deposited back at Pine Grove Furnace State Park, where I am on the trail at 9:30.
Right before I leave the parking lot, a woman hiker walks by me and we start chatting. Her name is Sundance and she started her Appalachian Trail Journey 19 years ago. She is now newly retired and day hiking the trail with the help of her husband, who drives their camper from place to place while she hikes. She is slack packing all the way to Maine.
The weather is amazing and the trail is absolutely gorgeous . With the exception of the hike out of Pine Grove Furnace State Park, the hills are mild. We stay together and chat for most of the first five miles of the day. We are making really great time, at 2.5 miles per hour for the first two hours.
We hear this really weird humming noise coming from all directions. My first thought was frogs, but I immediately discounted the idea; these are too loud. Sundance suggested locusts. We didn't see any evidence of the locusts at first, but soon the trail is littered with the empty shells and we start seeing live bugs on the trees.
I get ahead of Sundance for a little while and sit for a snack with my pack off at Tag Run, a really nice stream near the Tag Run Shelter. There are a lot of beautiful campsites right here. This is the kind of place I would like to end up today so I can put my feet in a cold stream!
The next several miles the air becomes increasingly more humid and the hills are a little more steep. Sundance and I chat together until I say goodbye to her at a road crossing where her husband is going to pick her up shortly.
I only have five miles to go until the next shelter where I plan on staying tonight. The climb up to Rocky Ridge starts as a strenuous boulder climb and becomes a little ridiculous as I get to the top. I have to throw down my poles and climb up and over huge rock outcroppings, kind of like Old Rag Mountain.
The weather is hot and the sky is cloudy. I think that if the rest of the trail to the shelter is like this, this hike is going to take me a lot longer than planned. The good news is that the crazy rocks don't last too long and soon I descend Rocky Ridge. My daily miles per hour average really took a hit, and there are still two more hills to get to the shelter. Thankfully they're not nearly as rocky or strenuous.
I turn off the blue-blazed trail to the Alec Kennedy Shelter. Piles of sleeping kits are already set up within the shelter, so I decide to take my chances with the weather and set up my hammock. The forecast is for rain tonight but hopefully it won't be an all night event.
I make a trip down to the spring to collect water and I am sitting in front of the shelter eating my dinner when another hiker arrives. I realize I saw him before. It's Daddy Long Legs! He was at the Maupin Shelter south of Shenandoah the night before I hiked the Mau Har Trail, back in April. This is the fifth time hiking the AT. When he is done he will have hiked 10,000 miles on this one trail. He is doing about 15 miles per day. This is one of the things I love about the trail; just when you think you will never see anyone again, they pop up!
I'm almost finished with my dinner when big fat raindrops start falling. The group that was sitting at the table scatters into the shelter and tents, and I finish up my dinner. I put my food bag and stove into the bear box before retiring to bed.
I plan on getting up early because I will have a new hiking buddy! I am meeting Kelly at Boiling Springs at 8 am at Cafe 101. She is going to hike with me for the next month. I will have to get up around five and get on the trail by six so I can cover the four miles to the cafe to meet.
Good night.
Today's Stats: 15.8 miles, 2,500 feet gain, 2, 474 feet loss
Trail Stats: 1,120 miles, 239K feet gain, 244K feet loss
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