July 9

Snakes!  Why'd it have to be snakes!

So much for getting up early.  With our hammocks, we both sleep so comfortably, and it's hard to wake up at dawn.  Still, we got a decent start out of camp, just not as early as we had hoped.  I was pretty low water from cooking dinner and drinking last night, and drinking more this morning.  I didn't fill up at the orange colored spring, and just took my chances.  The water sourced a few miles out at Rattling Run was completely dry.  Boo.  Just before the dry creek there, I just happened to glance off to the right of the trail where there was a little campsite someone had made.  Something looked out of place and caught my eye.  I yelled ahead to Apache.  There was a huge rattlesnake sunning itself there next to the fire ring.  It wasn't the longest snake I've seen on the trail, maybe 4 to 5 feet long, but it was the thickest.  The body of this rattler was a big around as my forearm.  We got our cameras out and started clicking away.  The snake noticed us, and passively slithered out into the woods, rattling its tail as a warning as it went.  My heart was pounding.  So cool!  First rattlesnake on the trail.  It's pretty terrifying to think, one of those guys could be right on the trail at any time.  Have to pay attention to where I'm stepping.  Especially with all the rocks here in Pennsylvania.  A little further up the trail, I found a good spring, and filled up there.  Apache and I stopped for a late lunch break at Rausch Gap shelter.  The old shelter has been torn down, and is currently under construction.  The local trail club is in the process of renovating the area, and rebuilding the shelter this year.  Still no sign of our friends, and since the shelter is in this state of repair, there's no register log for them to have left a note for us in.  Hmmm.  We kept hiking on into the afternoon.  Finally, around 5pm, we rolled into a campsite just before a road crossing that led to Lickdale, Pa.  Tink and Slims had been there waiting for us since about 2pm.  Apparently, yesterday, they had planned to stop just past where Apache and I had camped, but there was no water, so they kept hiking.  They ended up doing a 21 mile day to make it to a water source for the night.  We talked about hiking on, but since there was water at this spot, we decided to stay.  Besides, Apache and I had already done about 15 miles to get there.  That's a good enough day.  We set up camp, and then walked a short distance to the road.  Some other thru-hikers were camped there with us and watched our stuff as we hitched a ride into Lickdale.  The value menu and Wendy's was a much better dinner option.  We were craving Frostys too.  We did a little resupplying at the truck stop across the street and hitched back out to our campsite.  I packed out a couple liters of Powerade, and a huge iced tea.  In this heat, you can't get enough fluids.

Finally saw a rattlesnake!