It was a long night and a longer day! One of the guys in the shelter was a human wood chipper. We went to bed just after 9PM. The two men stayed up for a little longer and then turned in. In those few first minutes of quiet I went into my simulated death sleep mode. CC takes longer to get to sleep so she said the snoring started before she could get to sleep. I remained in my death sleep mode until about 2AM when I was waken by less than angelic singing and the wood chipper. CC had her [View Full Entry]

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Left town this morning after a quick stop at the Post Office. We mailed home a few things we deemed unnecessary and too heavy. The walk through Duncannon was two miles of asphalt. It was tough on the dogs. Walking across the Susquehanna River we could tell there has been little traffic. Cobwebs stretched from guard rail to hand rail so CC asked me to kindly take the lead and break trail. We managed to keep out two mile per hour rate until we crossed the river. Once across the river the trail entered the woods again and went straight up [View Full Entry]

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Rain stopped sometime after midnight, sun peeking through the clouds and birds singing woke us up around 6:30AM. Lazed about packing up and doing breakfast. While the oatmeal cooled, CC and I were sitting at the picnic table. Out of the corner of my eye I caught fast movement off to my right. At first I thought maybe one of the Bumblebees in the area. Then a flash of bright red ruled that out. Not just fast but the thing was abnormally quiet. It banked hard left and came to a hover behind CC head. She was wearing her red [View Full Entry]

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Glorious! The best word to describe today. Another day without rain while we were walking, plus some sun! Morning found us enshrouded with fog. The rain had stopped about 4AM and the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. We were more organized and had lots of room to work so cooking and packing went quicker today. By 8:45AM we had our rain jackets on to keep dry from water coming off the trees, CC still clung to her rain pants. Leaving Shangri-La we started up the 700' climb up to the ridgeline. The Rhodie thickets closed in on [View Full Entry]

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Nice quiet night in the shelter. So far this year we have not encountered any shelter mice, and our one other guest did not snore. We were up at 6AM with slightly overcast skies and a light breeze. The other hiker was up at the same time. He ate cold oatmeal while we packed and heated the water. 30 minutes after he got up he was gone, he had 30.5 miles to get done and was off in a cloud of dust looking like a pack with sneakers. It took us longer, however we were on the trail by 7:20AM early [View Full Entry]

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Nice quiet night with rain off and on. Woke up to song birds singing and no rain drops on the roof. Today is the last food we brought from home, need to stop in South Mountain, PA for the resupply box. Getting out of camp when everything is wet is a slow process. We started north at 9:30AM, CC in full rain gear and me in rain jacket and hiking pants hoping it would not rain. The days trail started like the last few, up a long seemingly steep mountain. The wind was kicking up pretty good so it felt [View Full Entry]

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A cold front moved through last night bringing with it moderately high winds. We both were awakened more than once by the trees shaking and the howling wind coming across the ridge top. Morning found us safe and sound in our nylon home. Out of the tent by 6:30AM, had some hot coffee then fired up the oatmeal. Conversation around the table this morning was light. The one older section hiker was out first headed south across the valley. The four young weekenders went about making pancakes for breakfast. It was comical watching them flip cakes with two spoons, someone [View Full Entry]

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Nice quiet dry night. Everyone settled in and all was done by hiker midnight (10PM). One of the guys was up early about 5:30AM but was fairly quiet. I was up around 6AM making coffee watching the sun slide up over the ridge and the mist disappear into the trees. CC was up around 7AM when the rest of the shelter rolled out. All the guys in the shelter ate cold breakfast, while we did our hot oatmeal. They were all going to do 26+ miles across the valley. We had decided to do a short one today, rest up [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 out of Harpers Ferry, thought my hard work on our schedule was moot last night. We were short on miles due to getting out of town three hours behind plan, we were 4 miles short for the day. Late start and water issues set our camp last night. Plan for today was go to the second shelter about nine miles up the trail. We made that by lunch time. Decided to head for the next shelter, would make for a long day but we were feeling good. We made the Pine knob shelter at 4:45PM. 16.6 miles in 7hr15min [View Full Entry]

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We didn't have a bad night. The tent spot was level and well drained. It took to past 9PM for us to get comfortable and settled. All was peaceful until the rain drops started around 2AM, they came and went until 6AM when it got serious. CC was nothing more than an orange fluffy mound. I figured I'd let her set the roll out time, that was around 8:30AM. We found that by down sizing our stuff we can pack everything into our packs without leaving the tent. One person packs at a time, but it keeps all the important [View Full Entry]

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