Day 31/32: Staying Flexible

24/25 June 2016

Start: Port Clinton, PA

Destination: Eckville Shelter

Trail Miles: 15.1

Total Trail Miles: 240.7

State: Pennslvania 

We set our early for our hike. We were both very anxious to get back to the trail due to our unexpected zero yesterday. It's a difficult thing to describe...how's feel when I'm in town yet can't stop thinking about getting back to the trail. But it's there. Looming. People say "the trail isn't going anywhere" but sometimes I feel like I shouldn't get too far away from it, just in case. 

 

We had to mail our bounce boxes, so we couldn't leave until 0900, which was ok because we got to have coffee with Lisa. She drove us back to Port Clinton and we waited for the PO to open...we walk over and try to open the door and low and behold they don't open until 1230! This is not good. Not good at all. The anxiety, already on heightened alert, stepped up a notch. So what do we do? Go to the Barber Shop of course. Across from the PO is a father and son barber shop that takes great care of hikers. Father is an 82 year old WWII vet that worked on fighter planes in 1944. The son is a Marine. His name is Frank. He's really great. And they provide donuts, lots of donuts. And coffee. Steve...a local and dedicated hiker helper, offered us a ride anywhere we needed to go. But we should have been on the trail. What else did we need? 

 

 

We then went to the Port Clinton hotel...yes, again. I mean we had until 12:30 for goodness sake. We wanted a beer! So when we walked back in, Pam, the bartender remembered us and welcomed us back. Great. We're becoming regulars. 

We had great conversation and learned a lot about the town and Pam. I got a picture with her!

 

While walking back to the barber shop I caught a glimpse of this: 

 

Explanations are welcomed. 

When the post office opened, worshipped our boxes and should have been on the road. But, alas, Comton was on the list for a real life barber cut. So Rocky cut his hair! 

While his hair has never been so short (haha), he's also never been able to say he had his hair cut by a WWII vet!

After the cut we headed out to finally get on the trial! It was blistering hot but we started up the mountain. And when I say up, I mean rappelling up the side of a mountain. Ok, basically rappelling. But not quite. Close though. We get about one mile into the hike and we hear tornado alarms go off.  Twice. Weird. The forecast didn't cal for rain. And the sky was blue. 

A few mins later it was torrentially pouring on us. As j mentioned, we were on a straight up incline. No place to stop and pitch a tent. So we hiked up in the raging storm until we found something halfway acceptable to pitch my tent. Once it was up we threw ourselves and our packed into the tent. We were sitting in puddles and puddles, but no rain was coming in the tent. 

I used all my resources and bailed the water purification the tent. One dirty muddy water towel squeeze at a time. Ok, now what? Oh! We have beer we were saving for tomorrow. Let's drink that now. Oh! I have Heads Up. Let's play that too. Music, check. Still raining? Yup. 

 

 

About 1.5 hours later the birds started chirping. We get out of the tent and realize the water is adding about ten pounds to our packs. Fabulous. The muddy waters were running all over the trail. It was a bit of a disaster. But we only hiked 1.2 miles so let's move forward. Wait a minute, everything we own was soaking wet. And the town was RIGHT there. I mean, we could see the traffic light for goodness sake! 

No, we absolutely can NOT go back. We'll be doomed. Plus, Frank had a bet with all the guys we would be back and not hike up the mountain today. 

So we packed up our stuff and started off. It was freezing. And getting dark. And oh what's this...a huge wall of fog moving in. 

We were both pretty defeated by this point. Setting up my tent in that storm was not easy...there was literally no ground. Just rocks. So I had to stake in my tent by piling many rocks on them. Then redoing it when they came flying out again. So the idea of unpacking my tent again was not inviting. But what choice did we have? It would have been. Too dangerous to hike in that weather, over huge slippery rocks. Not smart. 

So we set up camp. Right there. 1.2 miles from Port Clinton. My sleeping bag and clothes were all dry. Sweet. 

The next morning was like operating in molasses. Slow and sticky. And soaking wet. The humidity was down thank goodness, but it didn't help our wet clothes issues. And the squishy shoes we had to put on. We got out early and found a sunny spot to dry out our clothes. That took almost two hours. 

 

 

But hey, what else was there to do? Oh right, hike!

Once we got going after that it wasn't a bad hike. Colton's phone got soaking wet and he lost that. Not good for his soul. No music. No posting. No communication. Hmm, maybe it will be good?

We hiked about 15 miles to the Eckville Shelter. This place has a flush toilet (oh the things you look forward to) solar shower, fresh water and four walls. We set up our tents and waited for our pizza dates to arrive. We met a couple local hikers, Jim, a Special Education teacher, and Carrie, a hair stylist they offered to take us to the local secret spot, Snuzzles! 

Although it was a very long night, it was excellent. Great company, they're hysterical! But I have to admit I was completely zombified-exhausted. I could barely function. Lack of sleep, 15 mile hike with tons of elevation change over rocks and more rocks, combined for some bad company for our new friends. I tried though!

Please excuse the grammar in this post. Well, all of them actually. Writing these on my phone with one eye open is not conducive to grammatical accuracy and literally rule-following

Tomorrow we have some rough terrain to deal with. Surprise! Rocksylvania comes through again! 

 

 

Happy Trails!

Punky Shire