July 8

Split up

Amber Alert had made it to the shelter with us yesterday, and she, Slims, and Tink were up at the crack of dawn.  They headed out hiking by about 7am, and no sooner than they had left, it started to rain.  Apache and I hadn't gotten out of our hammocks yet, and with the rain falling, we didn't move.  After the passing shower, we finally got up and moving.  Packed up, ate breakfast, and started hiking.  The rain had cooled things down significantly.  Well, it was probably still in the upper 80s or low 90s, but a huge improvement from yesterday!  We stopped for a lunch break at the next shelter, Peters Mountain.  We rationed our water though, since we didn't want to go down the 300 rock steps there to the 'unreliable' water source.  I caught Amber and hiked with her for bit, and with Apache for a bit.  She fell behind though, and I couldn't keep up with him, so I was hiking alone for much of the afternoon.  When I came down off the ridge, there was a parking lot at route 325, next to Clarks Creek.  Apache was already there taking a water break.  I filled up on my water, and dried out my hammock tarp in the sun.  We waited on Amber for a while, but never saw her again.  We hadn't caught up with Slims and Tink there either.  We had no idea how far ahead they were, but we figured that there was no way that they had gone all the way to Rausch Gap shelter.  That would have been a 25 mile day, and that's just not our style.  Well, we've done those kind of miles before, but surely they would have left a note for us if they were planning a big day like that.  It was well past 5pm and we were still about 11 miles from the shelter.  We thought that they must be just camping somewhere in between.  I carried 2 liters of water out from the creek, and headed back up the mountain.  After about 2 miles, I made it to a spring near the top of the climb.  A local had told us that the springs in the area coming up were probably dry, so that's why I had carried so much water from the creek.  I didn't need water here, and I was glad.  The water was clear, but it was running through an area that had been stained a rusty, orange color.  Probably from iron in the rocks.  It probably would have been okay to drink, but I was happy that I didn't have to find out.  Apache caught up with me there.  Still no sign of Tink and Slims.  I would be dark in about an hour, so we could keep going to try to find them.  We'd end up hiking in the dark though, and we had no idea if the upcoming water sources were still flowing.  So we decided it'd be best to just set up camp there for the night, cook some dinner, and get up early to try to catch them in the morning.

 Footbridge crossing PA Route 225 on the AT.