June 29

Leaving the South behind

We had an easy morning.  A few bumps, but mostly downhill, to Pen-Mar park.  We stopped here to take a break.  It was early, but already steamy hot.  Got a soda at the vending machine.  Soon after leaving the park, we crossed some rail road tracks.  Immediately after, there was a sign in the woods.  "Mason-Dixon Line".  We were officially out of the South, and into the seventh state of this hike, Pennsylvania!  1058.2 miles from Springer.  Only (haha, only) 1126 miles from Katahdin.  We snapped some photos, then hiked a few tenths farther to Pen Mar Road, and hitched in to Waynesboro, Pa to resupply.  There was a Chinese buffet in the WalMart shopping center, so of course we hit that up.  We went shopping for hiker food in WalMart, and sat in the lobby for hours, charging our cell phones and cameras, and staying out of the heat.  The temperature was a miserable 102*F.  Dreading hiking in this heat and humidity, we waited, and waited before heading out back toward the trail.  We got a quick hitch back up to the trail and hiked on in the evening.  The elevation isn't very high, only 1300 feet or so, but once we were in the woods, there was a noticeable cooling in the temperature.  Probably still in the mid-90s, but cooler than in town.  We only made it a few miles, to Deer Lick shelters, to stop for the night.  This site actually had 2 separate shelters, each sleeping about 5.  Pretty cool.  For dinner, we had some nice ears of corn that I had bought at WalMart, cooked over the fire.  After dinner, we drank some Birch Beer soda.  I love this stuff, and I had packed out a heavy 2-liter bottle.  Chilled it in the spring.  Totally worth it.  As nightfall came, we started to hear thunder.  I packed up my hammock and set up in one of the shelters.  Good call.  It rained all night.  I woke up a lot during the night.  In part due to the strobe flashes of lightning that illuminated our camp, and also because of the quantity of soda I drank right before bed.

Orion and Slims, excited to finally be in the 'North'.