Total Mileage: 996.6
With mileage like this, I quickly feel like I'm going nowhere. I was kept up most of the night by some heavy snoring, so I was still tired when I finally got up. I spent some time talking to guys that were up, and they offered me a pumpkin pie pop-tart. Who even knew these beauties existed? It was incredible.
The day was gray and thick with fog when I headed out. There were supposed to be some viewpoints along the way, but it was too overcast to see much of anything. I stayed up on the ridge all day, so it was mostly flat and, of course, rocky. I had to cross Route 183, and I managed to step in the only mud in all of PA...up to my ankles. I tried to step on a stick, but it was swallowed too. The road crossing was terrible. Both sides came up around a curve, and I couldn't see anything. Thankfully there was a guy on the other side with his family who told me when it was clear. He had a bit more visibility on his side. I stopped at Hertline Campsite for a break and filled up on water since there was actually a good source, a rare site these days. A section hiker named Blueline was passing by, so we stopped and talked for a while. He tried to tell me a joke, and it went completely over my head. I think he had to tell me about 3 times before I finally understood (Did you hear about the guy who lost his left side? He's alright. All right. Get it?)
I was excited to get to this shelter tonight since there is a place that delivers pizza nearby. The shelter is close to a road, but it also has a caretaker on the property. There was another hiker there who was a flip-flopper. The shelter has two resident cats, probably to keep the mice population in check. There was a shower here as well, or at least something that resembled a shower. It was a hose with a spray attachment through a hole in the wall of the wooden stall, but there is supposed to be hot water when the tank on top gets warmed up during the day. That obviously didn't happen today since there wasn't much sun. It was still nice to rinse off some, especially the mud that had squeezed its way into my shoes. I ordered my pizza and ate with two begging cats circling around. The caretaker stopped by and said inflatable sleeping pads were not advised with the cats, so it looks like I'll be sleeping on a hard wooden bunk tonight.
501 Shelter. Skylights and all.
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