[at-l] weekend hike in PA

[rhymworm@pop.mindspring.com (Robert Rubin)]

I'm creaky and sore from what should have been an easy weekend hike in PA,
Pine Grove Furnace to Boiling Springs. Boy, am I out of shape. On my
thru-hike I did the whole 19+ miles in one day, in 100 degree weather, and
got into camp in BS before suppertime. This weekend I gave out after 15
miles, and collapsed in a dehydrated stupor at dusk at the Alec Kennedy
shelter, 4 miles shy of town. Still, a fine hike, in amazingly good
weather--cool, not too sunny, no rain. It was a revelation to see
Pennsylvania when the springs aren't dried up--at one spot, on the Blue
Blaze to Tagg Run Shelter, a spring was actually gushing up out of a
softball-sized hole right across the footpath. Parts were very swampy and
boggy--not at all like the parched landscape I saw in 97, when (if you were
lucky) there might be a stagnant puddle somewhere at the bottom of the hill
where you were camping.

Stopped in at Shakylegs' shelter, at Tagg Run, and was much impressed. I'd
bypassed it on my thru. Somebody had been shedding garments along the
Trail--I found two bandannas, two fleece hats, a pair of fleece gloves, a
fleece scarf, and a Campmor raingear stuff sack--all of which I rescued
from mudholes and left at a shelter in case the owners came looking for
them. Saw no thru-hikers, and only a couple of dayhikers, one *&^@#$
mountain biker tearing the muddy Trail up with his knobbies, some
equestrians crossing it. One dayhiker and his family were frantically
searching for a puppy that had wandered away from them and gotten lost.
They seemed confident it would turn up. I'm not so sure--that night I heard
coyotes, a bunch of them, howling near the Kennedy shelter. Poor pup!

Tried out a new sleeping bag that I got for Christmas, my first down bag
(LL Bean's best 20-degree mummy). Amazing how much lighter it is than my
old 20-degree semirectangular PolarGuard HV bag from Mtn HardWear, which
weighed me down for most of my thruhike. I didn't weigh the pack, but it's
the lightest it's ever been. If I had my old monster from 97, I doubt I'd
have made even the 15 miles to Kennedy shelter.

It was good to be on the Trail again. Made me want to head for Georgia.
Four years ago today I was starting out in Springer, spending my first
night at Springer Mt. Shelter.

Oh well, time to go to bed so I can get to work tomorrow.

Rhymin' Worm