To Katahdin: 1009.4
A long, uneventful day. After this my three longest days have all come during the past week. The rain stopped before leaving the shelter this morning and hasn’t returned all day. We were the last ones to leave the shelter, it was still not terribly late, maybe between 8:30 and 9, and it didn’t take long to pass everyone who left before us – they were all weekenders. Most of the day was what has become typical Pennsylvania trail – a path littered with medium size rocks – no boulder fields but also no stretches of smoothness.
Hiking with Landon and Miranda seems to be working well right now. We knew we were on pretty much the same pace, they started just four days after I did, and we all walk at basically the same pace, and right now we both take breaks pretty often. For me it’s to take the pack off, for Miranda it’s blistering feet and sore legs. We probably stopped six or seven times over 23 miles, and the breaks really add up time wise. We didn’t arrive at the campsite until 7:30, and it had looked like it was going to be later until we flew across the last five miles in 90 minutes. The big motivation there was bugs. Swarms of bugs, mostly some kind of small flies, seemingly unaffected by the application of 100% pure DEET all over my head. Mercifully they don’t really bite, but they love to hover all around, sometimes going into eyes, nose, ears, or mouth. We came down off the ridge a ways and the swarms dissipated, we were able to setup camp and cook and eat in peace.
Also today the frame on my pack, the new frame I just got in Waynesboro continued to crack and fall apart. Both times the cracks have been on the left side, where my shoulder hurts, and I realized that the first frame may have even started to break before I left for the AT. I ordered a new pack, a Gregory, that weighs a bit more but that is loved for it’s durability and great suspension by almost every reviewer on REI and Amazon. Right now four out of the five slots where the shoulder strap attaches to the frame are totally gone on mine, hopefully the last one holds up the 36 or so miles into Port Clinton.