Day: 078
Date: Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Start: The Pinnacle (AT Mile 1229.3)
Finish: PA Route 309 (AT Mile 1246.6)
Daily Kilometres: 28.2 (Ascent 1988', Descent 2205')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 2096.8
Weather: Warm, sunny and humid.
Accommodation: Hostel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: New York subs, watermelon.
Dinner: Sweet & sour pork & rice, ice-cream.
Aches: Dave - a few niggles, sore feet and very tired; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: It was a nice surprise to get some excellent "trail magic" - treats supplied to thru-hikers by volunteer "trail angels" - near the end of a hot and hard work day, even though we only had a couple of miles to go to our booked hostel. We had an excellent New York sub, along with cold drinks and other goodies.
Lowlight: Again, the Pennsylvanian rocks! Not just the seemingly never-ending jagged rocks to negotiate along the trail, but also massive boulder fields that had to be crossed. All of the thru-hikers we met during the day were totally over the rocks and just focussed on getting Pennsylvania finished.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
Not knowing what the terrain would be like, even though we only had 17.5 miles to our booked hostel for tonight, we got up at 5:30am and were hiking by 6:30am. Ideally, we wanted to get to the hostel in time to shower and do a load of laundry.
Almost immediately we started hiking we encountered more slow technical rocky trail which seemed a bad omen, but it didn't last long and soon we reached The Pinnacle which gave fantastic views over the rural valleys below in the early morning light, as a reward.
After that, we had a long downhill run on trail that was relatively good and took our breakfast break by a stream in a damp and gloomy valley.
Then began a long climb up onto our next ridge and when we reached the top we were greeted by some unexpectedly reasonable trail through some lovely sunlit forest, but it didn't last (although the forest remained beautiful). Soon we were clambering over boulders or picking our way carefully through jagged rocks at no more than one mile per hour. At least there were some good views from Dan's Pulpit at the top of one rocky outcrop. We met a few other thru-hikers along the ridge and all were complaining about the terrain. It was a lot of hard work and tough on the feet with few rewards.
We took our lunch break around 12:30pm after about 11 miles and then set out for the last stretch to the hostel. It was very slow going for the first couple of miles but then the trail improved a little and our speed picked up. We were on schedule to reach the hostel at about 4:15pm but, when we reached a road crossing, there was some trail magic happening (see above) and we took a half hour break to eat, drink and chat. Very pleasant and always a boost to the spirits.
Eventually we reached the hostel at 4:45pm and found it very busy. It's not big, with one private room, which we had booked, and six bunks, but hikers can camp outside. In total, there are about 16-20 hikers here, some of whom we have met before along the trail. The entire place is run on an honesty basis, with no manager present. Just a price list on the wall, a code to get in if you have booked, and a small store and fridge with prices posted. You are expected to keep a tally of what you purchase and leave cash in a cash box or pay by bank transfer.
The hostel is perched high on a mountain with magnificent views over rural Pennsylvania, and we thoroughly enjoyed our delivered Chinese food sitting outside at a picnic table admiring the view on a balmy evening.
There's only one shower and one toilet, so the place is going to be a zoo in the morning and we will try to make an early start. Even worse rocks are forecast for tomorrow on what will be a hot day. Fun!
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