Total Miles: 1054.7
It was supposed to start raining this morning, but it ended up holding off until the late afternoon. I sincerely contemplated staying in town since I don't feel like I got a wink of sleep and was in serious zombie mode. I went across the street from the Doyle for breakfast and took my time getting ready until checkout at 10:00. My original plan was to attempt a marathon day to Boiling Springs since it would have been a fairly flat day, but the weather and my general state would certainly not have permitted that. There is an 18 mile section between the Darlington Shelter and the Alec Kennedy Shelter where stealth camping is not allowed. This section is supposed to cross a lot of farmlands, so it's very understandable. That made this shelter my only practical option, and 11 miles seemed easy enough.
I still had a bit of a town walk before I headed back to the woods. The first challenge was the ascent, which wouldn't have been bad on any other day. The guidebook warned that there was a 6 mile stretch of very rocky trail, but I really couldn't distinguish much of a difference between this part and any other section of PA.
When I made it to the shelter, I started to unpack my things and found that someone had left a phone here. One of the Captains came up shortly after to claim it. That would have been an unfortunate and inconvenient loss. I'm glad someone didn't take it before he made it back.
The rain is really coming down pretty hard now. I crawled into my sleeping bag almost as soon as I got to the shelter, made some ramen, and hoped that if I kept thinking warm thoughts it would warm me up. Today is one of those days I would love to be sitting on the couch in a big comfy sweater drinking hot cocoa. The rain makes it feel so much colder than it really is. Two section hikers came up a while after I got in, but I was too cocooned in my sleeping bag to be social. I really really have to pee, but I'm dreading heading out into the rain. It's inevitable, so I suppose I should just suck it up and get it over with, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment