Day 107 – Pennsylvania's First Victim – The Trek

Day 107

Start: Spring

End: Stealth Site 

Miles Hiked: 19.9

Miles on AT: 1187.7

My day started with a short, gradual climb, which, looking at PA’s elevation profile, seems par for the course. Right when I was about to start climbing, I noticed a funny feeling under my foot. Lifting my foot to examine the underside of my right shoe, I found that a piece of tread was hanging on for dear life. Unable to do anything to remedy the situation, I cut off the flapping piece and put it in my trash bag. I guess that was PA’s first victim for me.

The rocks hadn’t started in earnest, so the climb was nice and easy. There wasn’t too much to say about the trail other than that it was flat, rock-free, and cruisey. The hours sped by as I stayed on the ridgeline for miles.

Eventually I crossed a beaver dam bog that only had one little section to traverse over logs. The section was literally 6 feet wide and of course I slipped on the log and got one of my feet wet. Oh, well.

On the other side, I reached the second ridgeline of the day, where I was greeted with rain. It didn’t rain too hard, but I was also trying to navigate a section of overgrown, thorny bushes while holding my umbrella. The thorns tore at the fabric of the umbrella, leaving tiny pinholes. They didn’t do irreparable damage, but it was definitely frustrating to get myself and my umbrella torn up by thorns.

With my patience wearing thin, my goal was to make it to a new hostel called Stay-AT-Swatara that had pizza and snacks available for purchase. I only had about 3 more miles, but they felt like they took forever. Finally, I got there in time for dinner.

There were a few other hikers around, so we chatted while we ate. I hung out for about 2 hours. I strongly considered staying, but it was next to a loud road, not ideal.

Around 7 pm, I left to get another 2 miles in before calling it quits for the day. I couldn’t really escape the loud road noise, but it was a little quieter up on the ridge. It was dusk by the time I found my campsite and dark by the time I got in my tent. I could see the lights of the town and highway below.

It was a windy night, but it wasn’t going to rain. I put my ear plugs in and drifted off to sleep.

And that’s day 107.

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