July 11

1200

Today we had a goal.  Ambitious by our standards.  18 miles to get to Port Clinton.  Thanks to our 'alarm clock', we got off to another great start.  The trail was pretty smooth and flat early on.  We took a quick water break at the Fort Dietrich Snyder Monument, then kept on truckin'.  The temperature is much cooler today, and the woods around us are really pretty, so we were making some good time.  We crossed another milestone this morning.  1200 miles from Springer!  Sweet.  Soon after, we stopped for lunch at Eagles Nest Shelter.  The shelter was 0.3 off the trail, but we needed water, so we definitely needed to stop there.  The water source was almost dry.  It took me about 15 minutes to fill up my water.  It was a laborious process, but I fill up 2.5 liters.  Springs drying up is starting to become the norm, and it's hard to plan out your water needs.  A few miles past the shelter, there was a steep section, that was particularly rocky.  But it was over quickly enough, and we were back up on a bit of a higher ridge line.  In the late afternoon, I came down off the ridge, down into Port Clinton, Pa.  The descent was extremely steep and rocky, and was tough on my knees after a long day.  The trail dumps you off at a rail yard.  An engineer was busy moving various train cars on and off different sections of the tracks.  I crossed over the tracks, where Slims and Apache were waiting, next to a huge chunk of coal that was on display.  Tink came down the mountain soon after, and we all walked down the road to 'The Pavilion'.  Right next to the river, the town here has a large field, and an open walled picnic pavilion that hikers are allowed to camp at for free.  A former hiker, and trail angel, "Can-Do, Will-Do", was posted up there helping out all of the hikers for a couple of weeks.  He had all kinds of snacks and drinks spread out for us, and would take us into the nearby town of Hamburg, all for free, just to help out.  Awesome!  After dark, we got several other hikers involved in an awesome Frisbee tossing session.  Tink had a multi-colored, lighted Frisbee, so we could see it in the dark.  Good times!

The Thinkers