Day: 076
Date: Sunday, 09 July 2023
Start: Green Point (AT Mile 1183.5)
Finish: Black Swatara Creek Campsite (AT Mile 1206.8)
Daily Kilometres: 38.6 (Ascent 3406', Descent 2352')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 2029.0
Weather: Warm and overcast in the morning, thunderstorms and rain most of the afternoon.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Egg, cheese & sausage bagels, hash browns.
Lunch: Ham & cheese roll, Trail mix
Dinner: Trail mix
Aches: Dave - some niggles; Julie - nothing to report
Highlight: It stopped raining in the late afternoon so we didn't have to set up camp in the rain as feared.
Lowlight: We both got very wet in the afternoon as thunderstorms passed through and it rained continuously for about five hours, often torrentially.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
As we left our motel room at 6:30am, Dave said that if we were smart we would have booked in for another night given the weather warnings we had just seen on the morning TV news - severe thunderstorms, tropical downpours and flash flooding for most of the day in eastern Pennsylvania. Of course, we weren't smart, so headed back to the trail with the shuttle driver we had booked and were hiking by 6:45am on a muggy overcast morning.
After crossing Swatara Gap and passing under the freeway we climbed steeply up onto Blue Mountain ridge which we followed for the rest of the day. Although there were some slow rocky sections, as expected in Pennsylvania, there were also long sections of easy and pleasant fern-carpeted forest walking that was relatively flat.
As the morning progressed, almost continuous thunder could be heard to our east and we did get some light rain. Despite the weather, there were occasional good views to the east and we took our first break at one of them after six miles.
By the time we took our lunch break six miles later the rain had started to set in and thunder was rolling constantly. Then the rain got heavier and the trail became much rockier and wetter and hiking was not much fun. We started to regret not staying at the motel as before long we were very wet, particularly our feet.
We were going to have our afternoon break at another lookout, but there were no views and the rain was too heavy so we just kept going. The next couple of hours were even more miserable as the trail turned into a stream with massive puddles and the rain continued.
Then, around 5:30pm, the rain eased and then stopped and our spirits lifted a little. We walked another hour and a half, hoping our clothes would dry out a somewhat and that it wouldn't start raining again and eventually set up camp by the trail.
Given we were wet and a little cold we decided to just set up the tent, get out of our wet clothes and into some dry ones and eat a cold dinner in the tent. Eating in your tent is a "no no" in bear country but we decided to take our chances tonight.
We passed 1200 miles today. Less than 1000 to go!
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