[at-l] Ready's Journal: June 29 Tuesday TD 24

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley)]

We awakened early in our lofty sleeping quarters. Already
almost half of the shelter occupants had packed and gone.
It was a struggle to get up and ready. It had been a restless
night for me. The hard shelter floor and high temperatures had
made sleeping difficult. We were both feeling tired and sluggish,
and went about our chores silently, but swiftly. We were walking
the trail by 7:25 AM.
First, it was an easy descent, followed by the longest uphill climb
we've had since I joined the hike. It followed the route of an 1800's
stagecoach road. The trail was rocky, but gently graded.
The steady upward walking, however, seemed endless.
It was cooler than yesterday, but easily as humid.
One thing for which I was exceedingly relieved about was the
relative scarcity of poison ivy in most of this section. Another
anomoly was the sudden appearance of blueberries, and they
were already ripe!
We took delight, particularly in the hot afternoon, feeling occasional
blasts of cold air push by or envelope us. Spur explained that some
believe the cold air was the work of ghosts who are reputed to haunt
this section of trail.
Our energy lagged, especially for Spur who gets nagged by gnats
unmercifully in this type weather. I just put myself on "auto pilot"
and plodded along. Neither of us spoke much today; it was simply
  too much effort!
We came to a particularly poor section of trail maintained
(or more aptly put, *not* maintained) by the Brandywine Valley Outing Club.
At first we were annoyed by the apparent neglect evidenced
by the uncleared blowdowns along the path. After a short time,
it become apparent to us that most of the blowdowns that we
  were encountering were multiple years old.
Clearly this "maintaining" club has a philosophy that blowdowns
belong as part of the trail experience for hikers! Not a bad outlook, r
eally; low-to-the-ground blowdowns can add interest to a trail, not
to mention, that they discourage atv users from damaging the trail.
This situation, with blowdowns of all sizes and configurations every
dozen feet or so, combined with downed branches that tangled you up,
however, is simply excessive!
In some sections, the mud on the trail was thick and covered vast
lengths of the footpath. Blowdowns and muddy conditions had sent
hikers off-trail. The result of these obvious long-term conditions was
that the corridor has become plagued by countless side trails,
threatening further erosion and spoiling the view from the actual trail.
This is such a travesty in our opinion. We agreed that we would pen
a letter to the ATC and to the Brandywine Valley Outing Club.
In it we'd share our views about the trail conditions.
Pennsylvania trails are reknowned for their rocks, and this trail did its
part to uphold that reputation, as well. In some places, Spur and I would
swear that rocks had been deliberately placed onto the trail! We joked
that these, too must have been the work of the "ghosts" that inhabited
this section.
One incident stands out. I had tripped over a rock in the trail, and in
attempting to regain my footing, saw that I was heading for an untimely
headlong encounter with one of the blowdowns.
I attempted to regain my footing and still clear the blowdown. The
result was that I'd indeed managed to get over the blowdown, but
not without falling. My butt came down rather gently onto the tree
and slid onto the trail, itself. My ankle, twisted by the rock it had
tripped over, hurt excrutiatingly, but I knew that I was fine and that
  the pain would subside.
On the other hand, Spur - who was behind me - saw only that I'd
fallen and heard my cry of pain. He rushed over in near panic.