Everyone is still sleeping in the hostel, so I make some coffee and go out to my truck to organize my things.
When Kelly wakes up, we talk about our options. We were planning on getting back on the trail with our packs. The weather report keeps changing by the minute, and now the forecast is for some thunderstorms this afternoon. We mull it over and we decide that if the stars align and we can get a bunk for the night here and we can arrange a shuttle from Eckville, we will slack pack today as well.
I send a text message to Zoom Zoom and see if she's available to pick us up this afternoon. YardSale, the hostel owner, comes in and we ask her if she has bunks for the night and she says they are available.
At almost the same time, Zoom Zoom texts back and says she can pick us up. Our stars in alignment and we now know we can just slackpack today. We get our day packs organized, and we drive to Port Clinton, where we left off yesterday, and we are on the trail minutes later.
The trail follows the Schuylkill River before heading up under a bridge. We cross a road and a gentleman in a car says that his brother and his brother's two daughters are hiking the trail and he is going to hike in with some trail magic a little way up. We tell him we can't wait to see him down the trail and start climbing up our first big hill of the day.
I was told that the trail out of Port Clinton is really difficult, and it is steep with a lot of big rocks, but it's not too terrible. We make good time to the first big ridge, and we are cruising at three miles per hour until some big boulders pop up.
We stop for some water around 5 miles in because there will be no water available for the next 6 miles. Just when we finish up filtering our water, we pass a man and a girl that must be the hikers the gentleman at the road was talking about. We meet Tad and his younger daughter. His older daughter is behind them. They are flip-flopping. I think it's amazing that he is out here with his girls, making memories and trauma bonding.
About a mile later we descend a hill, and we see the gentleman from the road crossing with plastic containers filled with snacks. He tells us to take our pick. I see a man walking away from him. It's Daddy Long Legs. Kelly and I both start yelling at him and he turns back around to meet us on the bridge, where we grab some really amazing snacks like Tailwind electrolytes and Gu gels with caffeine.
Kelly and I say goodbye to Daddy Long Legs and the trail magic man and we're walking down the trail. I feel light as a feather. So light, in fact, that I feel like I'm missing something. We are about .3 of a mile up the trail when I realize I left my hiking poles behind at the trail magic! Ugh! I have to go back. I turn around and jog back to the site of the trail magic and then jog back to meet Kelly.
We continue hiking up the ridge. The trail follows the forest road and is really easy with a gentle slope, but as we increase in elevation, the trail becomes more narrow and significantly rockier and soon we are boulder hopping.
At the summit the trail opens up onto a wide rock ledge called Pulpit Rock. The comments on the FarOut app state it's the best views in Pennsylvania, but the fog is thick in the valley and we can only see the ridge to the north. At least we can see the ridge, which is an improvement from this morning.
We continue on the trail, hoping the view continues to improve, because two miles further we come to The Pinnacle, considered to be one of the best day hiking spots in Pennsylvania.
We take a blue-blazed trail to the east of the A.T. and see one of the biggest rock cairns I have ever seen in my life. I can't imagine this pile of rocks is naturally occurring.
We are walking over some huge, slanted boulders when my legs fly out from underneath me and I land on my right butt cheek and right arm. I have the wind knocked out of me and it takes me a minute to get up. I'm uninjured, but I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow.
We walk out to the rocky ledge and get a little bit of a hazy view of the farms below. We grab some greenbrier tips to snack on, and Kelly asks if I saw how dark the sky was to the south. I didn't, but I turn on my phone data and check the weather. There is a fast-moving line of rain heading straight for us.
I pull on my rain jacket just as the rain starts. Kelly brought her umbrella, but I left mine at the hostel. The sky lets loose for the next hour, but there isn't any thunder, thankfully.
Almost the entire remainder of our hike is on a lovely, wide, fern-lined forest road. I plod through an inch of water, but at least there isn't any big rocks.
I get a text from Zoom Zoom that she is going to hike in and meet us towards the end of our hike. About a half- hour later, as we walk past the most amazing campsite next to a fast-flowing stream, we see her walking up the road.
We still have two miles to get to the road and she tells us about the work she does with the local ATC chapter to maintain the trail here. We talk about the planned demolition of the 501 and Eckville Shelters planned for next year, and what's going to happen to the caretakers who have called the locations home.
We arrive at the road and pile into Zoom Zoom's car. She points out places of interest and tells us about the area. We even see The Pinnacle from the road. I love the big red barn that punctuate the countryside with bright dots of color.
We arrive at the hostel. We are staying here again tonight, because with the rain forecast for the next 3 days we will slackpack as much as we can. The rocks are treacherous on a good day, but with the rain and a full pack it will be absolutely awful.
There are three men at the hostel. One of them is named Mountain Man and he lives in a shed on 30 acres in eastern Tennessee. We talk for a while about simple living and life on the trail.
Today's Stats: 15.2 miles, 2,618 feet gain, 2,454 feet loss
Trail Stats: 1,235 miles, 253K feet gain, 260K feet loss
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