July 14

Pennsylvania Blues

It rained a little bit last night.  I had to get up and string up my rain fly over my hammock.  Nothing was too wet this morning.  The sun was blazing again and dried everything out soon enough.  We made it a few miles to a road crossing and stopped for lunch and a little restaurant that was in view of the trail.  Good food, cold tea, but a little on the pricey side.  Kept on moving.  The trail has started to get exceptionally rocky.  It's expected, I mean, you are in the mountains and all, but PA brings it to a whole 'nother level.  An area called the 'Knife Edge' was particularly tricky.  Climbing up boulders, in some places on just inches of tread space. Playing the find the white blaze game, as you shimmied from one huge rock to the next.  It was kind of like Dragon's Tooth all over again.  And did I mention that it's still obscenely hot?  Every day I'm totally soaked in sweat.  Right from the start.  All day long.  Feet are hurting from all the rocks.  And the water....oh, man the water.  It's a constant guessing game of will the next spring be dry.  Pennsylvania is rough.  It's starting to take a toll on me.  I know a lot of it has to do with the heat.  Than makes everything worse.  And I know it's going to be a mental challenge to force my body to keep going.  All I can think about is getting to town.  Shower.  And I really, really need to do laundry.  I smell like death again already.  We all met up and stopped for a break at Bear Rocks.  There were some really cool views there in all directions.  Haven't seen a view this nice since Virginia I think.  That started to lift my spirits.  I also made a funny video, a-la Crocodile Hunter/Bear Grylls.  That had everyone laughing, and certainly did a lot to brighten my mood.  There was a lot of spray paint graffiti at Bear Rocks, so that wasn't good to see.  Idiots.  We kept moving, with the comforts of town luring us.  We passed the section around Bake Oven Knob.  Crappy looking, old shelter there.  Lots of day hikers in the area.  There's more graffiti on a lot of the rock here too.  More broken glass.  Ugh.  Pisses me off to see all of that.  At least there was one more really pretty section around South Mountain.  We made it to the George Outerbridge shelter a dusk.  It was only a mile into town from there.  The shelter was another older one, and looked pretty dumpy, but we stayed there.  We weren't too sure if we'd be able to get a spot in town this late at the free hostel, and we sure weren't getting a hotel room.  Rates are starting to get really high up north.  I can't wait to get out of PA.  The rocks, the bugs, the heat, the water.

In case you didn't know where you were.... (not pictured - male genitalia, "get high", and peace signs)