May 17 Eckville Shelter, PA to Tripoli Campsite, PA 13.5 miles

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What a storm last night! Man was it good not to be in our tent with all the rain and wind. Snoring was not too bad, even one of the young ladies added to the chorus. We were up around 6AM doing our morning ritual when Randy came back into the shelter saying there were showers headed our way shortly. He calls his wife every morning for weather updates off the computer. This forecast just added to our lackadaisical attitude on hitting the trail soon.

We moved out at 8:45 with a medium wind and a temperature of 48 degrees. CC had on her rain pants, shorts, hoodie and rain jacket trying to stay warm. I had my long pants, long sleeve shirt and stocking hat. The trail of course headed up rather steeply to Dan's Pulpit an overlook of the Lehigh Valley I believe. There was a work crew doing trail maintenance clearing trees and close hanging brush was
trimmed back. The crew had five people with everything from a chainsaw to hand clippers. We thanked them for all the hard work and moved on. We saw a number of day hikers and section hikers headed south. Seemed Randy and us are the only northbounders. Randy had an hour head start on us as we danced across the stone heaps that is the trail here. We saw loads of Lady Slippers today as we walked. CC shot some video clips of me crossing some tricky sections. We will be sending the camera card home to be posted on a Shutterfly account I believe. This way you will be able to see more of the photos and hopefully the video clips, not just a few choice shots. Pictures are not easy to get up on this site so we are trying something new.

There is a cold front moving through today and tonight. Most of the day the temp stayed near 50, it did get as high as 58 during a brief sunny period. We have been bundled up and had to walk steady and quick to stay warm. When we would stop to answer questions from the other walkers, it didn't take many questions before one or both of us was cold. The things we do to put a good face on AT hikers.

Today was a normal mileage day just over 13 miles and we hit the camp area at 4:15PM. Randy only beat us in by 10 minutes, for someone in his early 70s he moves real well. There is no shelter here but there is water. Like in VA we are walking the ridgeline and have to go down hill to find water. Tonight the camp area and water were 1/4 mile down off the ridge. It stinks come morning but tonight it got us down from the worst wind. Randy's wife said to expect temps to drop into the high 30s. CC will be OK in her down bag; I will see how my synthetic 40 degree bag works. I'll be sleeping with my socks and long underwear plus my stocking hat and gloves if I have to. The barometer is on the rise so rain is unlikely, just the cold. I'll let you know how it all works out.

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

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