At 6a we heard snorting and thumping. A doe was about fifty feet away. She would look at us, turn in a circle, snort, and paw at the ground with her hoof. She seemed agitated we were there. Warthog thinks maybe she normally walks through where our site was to get to the stream for water. She didn’t stay long. Maybe she found another route.
We were supposed to get moving at 6a, but I really wanted more sleep. It was around 6:30a when I finally agreed to get out of bed. We broke down camp, had breakfast, filtered water, and were leaving at 8a. Our goal was to cover eighteen and a half miles today.
We started with a small climb, about 1,000 feet of elevation gain. My body was still tired and I had a hard time pushing myself up it. We took a snack break about halfway up. Afterwards, it was pretty flat for the day. Then the rocks started. We had decent sections where we had to hop from rock to rock and carefully watch where we placed our feet. It wasn’t all too bad. I know it’ll get worse.
(Photo Above: Tick Removal)
We had lunch at a shelter and met father/daughter day hikers who were on their first backpacking adventure together. The daughter looked younger, like she was in high school. They were only out for the day, but wore full packs and were eating tuna for lunch. They are practicing for a thirty mile stretch they plan to hike in August. Warthog showed the father how to use his filter and we gave them a couple of other pointers. I think they’ll have fun. I was excited to see them out together hopefully starting a tradition or favorite pastime.
The shelter we ate at was beautiful. It had dark wood walls. Hikers had carved their names into the wall in a sort of gorgeous mosaic. This is probably the prettiest name wall I’ve seen. It seemed as if they were all thoughtfully placed. A lot of times when hikers carve their names into shelters, the placement is random and looks more like graffiti. Here, it looked like a work of art.
We still had about ten miles to cover after lunch. More rocks. I think the famous Pennsylvania geography is officially started. We took a break at an overlook sitting on those boulders. They were hot from a day in the sun. I stretched out on one, pulling my back and shoulders straight, that’s how large it was. We saw a biplane fly overhead and watched shadows of vultures as they circled.
After the break, more rocks. I fell once and tweaked my ankle twice today. I’m not looking forward to the rest of the state. I’m so clumsy as it is, I don’t need more obstacles like boulders!
As we hiked, Wonder Woman stopped and yelled, “Copperhead!” Warthog and I both pushed to the front to see it. The snake was moving off of the path into the woods. We both looked at it and thought it resembled a corn snake. Warthog said there are corn snakes that are native to Pennsylvania. We pulled up photos of both copperheads and corn snakes. No one got a real good look at the snake, particularly the head. So we couldn’t tell if it was dangerous or not. Judging by the body, I think it was a corn snake. I’m sure that’s the one my mom would prefer to think it was too. So that’s what I’ll go with.
The last three and a half miles flew by and we hit our camping spot for the night. It’s right next to a spring that flows into a reservoir near us. There was a rope swing hanging from the tree that someone could use to jump into the reservoir. The shelter caretaker named, “Borderline” (he was from Michigan), told us we should go swimming. He also warned us that the water was the temperature of Lake Superior. Knowing that, Warthog and I didn’t even attempt it. Snow Monkey tried, he only went in ankle deep. That means it was really, really cold.
We ate dinner at our campsite and turned in for an “early” night. It’s 9p now. I’m ready for bed. By the time I go out and use the restroom once again, message family to tell them we are good, do our tick checks, it’ll be 9:30p. We have another early morning ahead of us. Tomorrow we are shooting for twenty plus miles. Which means I need to get start turning in. I’m tired.
-ansel