Day 87, miles today- 11.3, total- 1,153.8

June 14, 2013

Duncannon, PA to Peters Mountain Shelter.

I got up this morning at 6:30 am. I went across the street to the diner to get a cup of coffee.

The weather forecast for today didn't look good at all. They were calling for a lot of rain this morning and high winds with hail in the afternoon. It looked like there would be a break mid morning. I decided to wait until 10:00 to start hiking.  I ate breakfast out of my food bag. I had some time to kill, so I went to the diner with Fables when she ate breakfast. I had another cup of coffee and a bowl of oats. Another customer, who asked about our thru hikes, paid for our meals.

Fables and I started hiking at a little after 10:00. Tugboat, Life Raft, Calamity Jane, Hooker, Finder, Fables and I all left within  about 30 minutes of each other.

I was going to hike about 11 miles today. I would have liked to have done more miles, but the next shelter was another 18 miles, after the 11. So, at 10:00 I was on my way. I stopped after five miles at the Clarks Ferry Shelter for a break and to get water. Fables, who I hiked with for a few miles was there along with Tugboat, Life Raft, Hooker, Calamity Jane, Finder and a guy named Steady.

A couple miles after my break I caught up to two thru hikers I hadn't met before. One was "Don's brother" the other was Molar Man. Molar Man was a A retired dentist from Springfield, Ohio. When we got to the next road crossing, his wife was doing trail magic. She goes by Sweet Tooth. She's following along with her husband. I think he's slack packing petty much everyday. She gave me cookies, potato chips, and a cola. It was a nice treat. Life Raft, Tugboat, and Binder got there a little bit after me.

The cicadas were making a lot of noise. Their shells were all over the trail.

I hiked a little with Steady, he lives in Portland, Oregon. He's hiked the PCT and CDT. He went beyond the shelter.

At the shelter tonight are eleven or so thru hikers. There's Tugboat, Life Raft, Spacey, Pfeiffer, Lintel, Pilgrim, Binder, Spider Mac, Calamity Jane, Fables and me. The section hikers Jim Dog and Firefly are here also. This is the largest group of thru hikers most of us have seen in one shelter for a long time. Jim Dog played his guitar. He's pretty good. Spider Mac played too. It was a great evening.