Another early morning… a 6a wake up and 7:30a trail start. These early mornings are starting to wear on my soul. I’m really a night owl at heart.
I do love this trail. However, sometimes it can be mind numbingly painful. Early in the day I put on some music to break the monotony and distract me from getting too wrapped up into my thoughts. I chose Katy Perry’s album, Prism. As I listened to the part where she sings, “‘Cause I am the champion, and you’re gonna hear me roar!” Right on the “roar” a couple of dogs came flying up to us on the path and started barking, as if to join in. It was too ironic not too laugh. They were dogs that a day hiker had with her. We sat and visited for a while and then continued. Of course, we didn’t leave until Warthog and I had gotten our puppy fix. I sure do miss having animals around.
Today can be summed up in one word: rocks. So many stinking rocks. There were even a few scrambles in there. The terrain slowed us down. As we were picking our way through the jumble of boulders, another thru-hiker named, “Whippersnapper” caught up to us. We’ve been leapfrogging him for the last few days. I asked to take his portrait and he obliged. He is a geologist and even he is angry at the rocks. Seems like a bad sign to me. If a geologist can’t appreciate this stretch, no one else stands a chance.
Thanks to the early start, we were able to make it into camp before dark. We just took longer breaks than normal. On one of those breaks we met a section hiker named, “Rollex”. He’s from New Jersey and works on Long Beach Island. Rollex initially started as a thru-hiker. I’m not sure which year it was when he attempted, but around Damascus, VA, he ran out of funds and had to go home. I can understand it. This trail is far more expensive than we expected. The best part of the story is that he didn’t give up on his dream. Now, Rollex section hikes when he’s able. I believe he’s hoping to have the trail completed in the next ten years. I asked him if he was saving Katahdin for last. His answer, “Of course, there’s no other way I would do it.” I agree. It must end with Katahdin. This hike is too epic for me to want it to end any other way.
It was 8p when we got to the shelter, hitting our twenty miles for the day. We expected to camp there, it’s the last water source for fifteen or twenty miles. There just wasn’t any nice camping around it. We knew a lot of hikers headed to this point. None of them were there. The shelter was old and kind of run down as well. Honestly, it was a bit creepy. The trail ran right through the shelter area. Additionally, the shelter wasn’t too far from a road crossing either. Less than a mile or so. We figured this out when four or five guys who definitely were not hikers came passed. They were wearing normal town clothes and their “walking sticks” were things like a scarred wooden baseball bat, a paint scraper on a long handle, a golf club, etc. They said, “We are just out for some exercise”, in a way that creeped out Wonder Woman and myself. I wasn’t sure where they were going, but I figured they would have to come back through. The best two tent sites were literally less than one foot off of the trail. That’s too close for me.
Behind the shelter and up a bit on a hill was another sort of spot. One that I thought would be safer should locals come through at night. It was up on a hill so if people were focused just on the trail and their step, they’d never notice our tents tucked away in the back. It had one slightly flat spot that was smaller than our tent. Other than that flat spot, everything else was on an angle. Plus dead trees were all around. You never camp under dead trees in case they fall. We didn’t have much of a choice, it was either feel exposed or sleep on an extreme angle. I preferred the angle. Wonder Woman and Snow Monkey set up in that spot with us too. We all wanted to be close to each other because anxieties were high. Warthog and I offered them the flatter spot, their tent fit better there because it’s smaller than ours.
It was almost 10p when we went to bed. I felt so much better knowing we were up and a bit out of sight. Having our friends so close brought a lot of comfort too. All of the hype might be a bit ridiculous, but I didn’t want to ignore any warning signs. There had been a lot of warning signs.
Around 11p or 11:30p I woke up to crunching on the path. I sat up and watched as several headlamps or flashlights made their way down the AT. They walked up to the shelter where they stopped for a minute. Our food bags were hanging down there. I’d rather they not take the food, but more importantly, I was nervous about how the food bags gave away the fact that hikers were near. Soon they continued on and I listened to their voices and steps as they went down the trail. I probably stayed sitting up listening for another ten to fifteen minutes or so in case whoever it was had bad intentions. I didn’t hear anyone and then suddenly there was this loud BOOM! Everyone startled awake. Was it a gun? It didn’t seem to have enough of a pop to it. Was it a fuel canister blowing up? A firework? We weren’t sure. But it sounded uncomfortably near us. I’m guessing it came from the parking lot maybe a mile away. I think Warthog landed on the probability that it was a shotgun. Awesome. It wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve seen lots of signs at road crossings filled with tiny holes from locals using them as target practice. But a big boom in the middle of the night is new to me. I don’t like it. It didn’t repeat itself, so I guess that’s good. Let me just say this, when 6a rolled around the next day, I was incredibly happy to be able to hop up, break down camp, and get out of there. I’m really looking forward to leaving Pennsylvania.
-ansel