| July 20, 2005 |
|
Leaving 510 shelter 7:10am.
Starting off as a pretty morning. We never did get the rain
last night. 501 shelter sleeps about 12 people, a big skylight
in the center of the room, a large table, a solar shower with cold
but refreshing. |
|
It didn't take long to get into the ankle
buster again. Lucky the trail right now is level. A lot
of ferns and a lot of briers. The trail is still rocky, but
level enough that I can look up and enjoy the sun coming through the
trees. The woods is very open here, a lot of ferns, but weeds
and briars to contend with. It seems the trail gives you a
reprieve for your feet, for only about 100 to 200 feet, then back
into ankle busters. |
|
Simon kind of picks his way through and
does OK. He doesn't seem to have sore paws at this point.
When I start out from Port Clinton, I'll probably have to put his
boots on at that point. I'm standing on the on top of some
large boulders and I can look out over into the farm valley.
The haze has really lifted and I can see way out, the farms in PA
are just beautiful! |
|
I'm stand out on huge rock pile of boulders with
a good view, I see a car moving, but not much else this morning.
Everybody must be still in bed. |
|
I'm still hiking along the PA hunting
grounds. I just came across a big black snake in the trail.
He was trying to get his head down into a hole. He was
patterned, but he didn't look like he had any rattlers on his tail.
I don't know if he was a rattler and just a long black snake. I
threw rock at him for while to try to get him to move, and he was
determined that he wasn't going to move. Finally I hit him a
time or two, and got him chased off to the side enough we could get
by. |
|
This is really a nice area where I am now.
The trail goes through a hemlock forest, a little stream running
down on each side. Good water supply. A couple of camp
sites in this area. Several stream crossing, but I can cross
on the rocks. Going straight uphill away from the creek, in an
extremely rocky area that has been washed out. Water logs and
ferns across the path that are pretty high. there's a cool
breeze blowing through the trees right now. I certainly need
that after coming up over the hill. |
|
In this area it's hard to tell where
the trail is, it has washed out in so many areas that there's just
trails all over the place. I have to be careful that I keep an
eye out for the blazes. They're not putting those blazes very
close together either. |
|
I came out to a half-dirt road that was
very, very wet, but that's where they put the Fort Deatrich
Snider Monument was placed, in 1775 Fort Deatrich was a
revolutionary fort to guard against the enemies coming into the
area. There were no remains of anything left. It is how
the land just kind of stretched out and became very flat.
This is a really easy hiking section. Then it becomes real
rocky. |
|
I came into the Eagles Nest Shelter to cook
myself some supper, rest for a little while and get more water.
This is an older log shelter, one story, made a little differently
than the other ones. Leaving now at 5:05pm headed towards Port
Clinton. I don't know if I'll make there tonight or not.
Still about 8 miles away, but I'm going to give it a try, if not
I'll stay in my tarp someplace. Toady has been warm, but not
as humid. My clothes have been half dry today. so I thought
I'd take advantage of this evening coolness and get as far as I can. |
|
I've seen a total of three snakes today
across the trail. The first one was a black snake, the middle
one garter snake, and the last one was a huge big black snake that
was stretched across the trail. I did fall in the larger
boulders today. I was putting my poles down and the right pole
went down into a hole just as I was taking my steps and the other
stuck which pulled me back. Simon was right beside be, so I
kind of fell down across him. He helped to break the fall, and
I landed sitting on a pointed rock. I'll probably have a black
and blur rear in the morning. |
|
I had a brief encounter today with the lady
that worked at the ATC office and was there the night was really
raining in Hot Springs. I met her and a friend on the trail
doing some trail maintaining. She comes up to me and she says
I remember seeing Simon the other day. Your picture made it on
the Harrisville Newspaper. She said it was quite a caption
underneath the picture of Simon and I. Also a lengthy story
the back page. It's interesting how people remember Simon and
know that they have seen him before. He is a real drawing
card. |
|
Had a real steep hill to come up, probably
a half a mile in length, very stony and soon camped near the
Startles Ville Road. |
|
Swing'n Jane and
Simon |
|
Back To Top |
Next Page |
