A 42 Mile Day Through Rocky PA

This morning I woke up around 4:30am in the shelter. I’ve been wearing earplugs so I didn’t even realize that it was raining out lately. I made my morning mocha and then slowly began getting packed up. There were two other people in the shelter, so I tried to be as quiet as I could. It was still raining lightly as we set out for the morning. But we had a big day ahead of us and couldn’t hang around waiting for it to stop.

There was hardly any elevation gain to start the day. We walked along a nice wide dirt trail, and there were hardly any rocks. This is the thing that I forgot about Pennsylvania. When the trail isn’t covered in rocks, it’s usually really nice. I think that’s why everyone gets so bothered by the rocks. Because the trail jumps you between segments of perfectly flat clear trail, and then a patch of rocks varying in size the next minute.

It didn’t rain too much in the morning and the temperature was also pretty nice. It definitely wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t freezing cold. Even when it stopped raining it was nice to keep the rain gear on just to stay a comfortable temperature. And it just felt like it could rain again at any minute. We crossed through an area that is notoriously flooded due to beaver activity. But it actually wasn’t that bad this time around. After that, we continued through the forest and the trail kept on being pretty smooth.

We would eventually cross a large bridge and enter into a park type area. Then the trail picked up along a bike path for a little while which was really nice. Around this time I had service and the trail was unbelievably flat. So for about 20 minutes, I was as productive as possible. I was able to finish the edits on my blog, add photos, and label everything. I don’t think I’ve been able to do that while walking since we were maybe in Alabama. That was a real treat.

I loved walking through this wide open valley after the rain stopped. The gloomy sky made the views even more spectacular.

Eventually, once we got off the bike path, we picked back up onto some regular trail. There was a little bit of climbing to do, and as we got further to the top some patches of rock would pick up. Because it has been raining lightly on and off all morning, the rocks were super slick. I remember not really minding the rocks too much in Pennsylvania. Probably because on dry days you can just jump between them and skip around quickly. But this morning when everything was wet, I felt my foot slip a couple times. So I didn’t want to be jumping around and risk slipping and falling on the rocks. I just have been hiking a little bit slower, which is always annoying.

The time was still going by really quickly though. I felt like we blinked and were about 15 miles in for the day. Sometime around maybe 10am-11am the temperature dropped rapidly. It had been raining slightly on and off but never got too heavy. Then all of a sudden it just got super cold. Previously I had been comfortable in just my rain gear. The only layers I have on under the rain gear are my shorts and my sun hoodie. But around this time I started wondering if I was going to have to put another layer on underneath the rain jacket.

I was comfortable enough though so I didn’t deal with that right away. If I got any colder, I would definitely stop and adjust my layers. It just wasn’t ideal to do that right now when it was still slightly raining. And the trail was pretty rocky every now and then, so multitasking wasn’t an option. We passed by the spur trail to a really nice shelter. I remember sitting down there in 2023 and taking one last break for the day. Then we continued on to the 501 shelter, which is currently only a handful of miles ahead. You can actually order pizza there so that’s what we did in 2023. We stayed in the shelter for the night and got a bunch of food. The mileage isn’t going to work out this time though. And rumor has it that the park service is planning to demolish both the 501 and Ekville Shelters this year! Basically as soon as they can get the caretakers out of the properties.

The trail crossed over this bridge before following along a bike path briefly.

We bypassed the trail down to the shelter and just continued on. There was a road up ahead in about 2 miles. Then we would have another 2 miles to go until we passed the spur trail for the 501 shelter. At this point in the day we definitely were no longer intending to go 30 miles. When we had looked at the math last night, it became clear that we would probably want to do a bigger day today. I think we had about 67 miles to go to get to the Lookout hostel. We are planning on staying the night there so it made more sense to do a big day today and a shorter day tomorrow. Rather than vice versa.

Because of that, it seems like we are going to try to go at least 36 miles today. Originally we were going to go to a shelter in about 32 miles for the day. So this would actually only be maybe 4 miles further. That would mean we would be tent camping for the night. Which definitely isn’t a big deal, but the weather certainly hasn’t been great. The next possible shelter would be about 42 miles per day, which seems like a stretch.

I was a little ways behind Punisher as I walked. I was definitely trying to take my time on the rocks and also just go slow and be comfortable for the day. The change up in terrain has definitely made my knee a little bit sore, so I want to try to take it as easy as possible

When I was getting up to that next road, I saw Punisher take the side trail to the parking area. Then realized that the object I had seen in the parking lot was actually Iceman‘s truck with his awning rolled out. I didn’t know he would be at this road because he had texted Punisher who was up ahead. So this was an amazing surprise! He has a large full coverage awning for times like this when the weather is bad. It was such a relief to see that and know that I could sit down and get a little bit warm. It was pretty dang cold and I definitely wouldn’t be stopping off for a break in these conditions otherwise. Iceman definitely saved us from what would have been a cold and exhausting day without rest.

The Appalachian trail in Pennsylvania.

Iceman was making sausages when we arrived. And even just stepping into the tent area briefly, I could tell a significant change in temperature. It was definitely a lot warmer in there. He also has a small propane heater, and that thing cooks! I was so grateful to be able to take this warm and comfortable break 15+ miles into the day. Who knows what the weather will do the rest of the day and if we’ll get another opportunity like this.

I ate a mountain of food and drank a Mountain Dew while we sat there for a bit. It was definitely hard to leave behind the heater and the dry comfortable place to sit. But we still had around 20 miles to go for the day if you wanted to do about 36. I knew that was going to take a while so we couldn’t wait around here too long. While we were still there though, Iceman made plans to meet us at the next road in about 11 miles. We could eat the rest of the food that we didn’t finish up and take another break there. Apparently later on in the day the rain is supposed to let up. So hopefully by the time that we get there it won’t be raining anymore at all.

After we left that break, it was absolutely freezing out. Apparently the temperature was reading 38° in town. But I knew it would be colder up here on the ridge we were on. I wound up putting my Sambob alpha 120 top on under my rain jacket to be a little bit more comfortable. When we left there, I felt way better and was glad to have layered up. We just really aren’t doing that much climbing today, so there aren’t a ton of opportunities to get warmed up.

In this next section though we did have a small climb to do. But I was only a little hot just as we got up to the top. Then I cooled off pretty quickly as we continued to just ride along the ridge for the next couple of hours. A lot of the time the trail was relatively flat and easy. There were a few obstacles but you didn’t have to worry too much as you walked. But the rest of the time the trail was covered in either a bunch of small rocks, a bunch of large boulders, or everything in between. That just always left you wondering what was coming up next.

A foggy overlook.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, it rained here and there. Every now and then I would be toasty on the brief climb. But for the most part my temperature was just right. I really never even thought about taking the alpha layer off. Without it, I was super cold and uncomfortable. I’m definitely proud of us for doing a big day today even though the weather is not ideal. It’s easy to want to rest or stay out of the rain when the weather is bad. Especially a day like today with temperatures in the 30s and cold rain. But I think we got lucky and the rain has been just light enough. We’re not getting too wet and we’re staying as dry and warm as possible.

It was around 3:30pm when we got out to the next road. We knew Iceman was going to be there and I was excited to be able to sit for a second and eat something. Especially if we still had a pretty decent amount of mileage to go for the day. We are about 28 miles in already and still had a ways to go. And at this point we had started seriously considering going a bit further for the day. We don’t want to go to the nearest shelter because it would be slightly too short of a day. And past there there aren’t any other shelters besides the one in Port Clinton. That would be about a 42 mile day today. But with it being so cold and rainy it was becoming more and more tempting of an offer. It would be a long day and we probably wouldn’t get into the shelter until about 9pm. But then we would be able to be more comfortable, warm, and dry for the night.

When we did get out to the road, Iceman was there and so was Punisher’s friend DJ that he met down in Florida. He brought his van to the parking lot and we wound up making plates of food from Iceman and then all four of us hung out in DJ‘s van. It was so nice and toasty in there. I ate a bunch of food, drank a glass of chocolate milk, and then had a hot chocolate. I can’t believe how cold it’s been out today. Even after sitting in the van for a little bit, I was still chilled.

From here we would have about 14 more miles if we wanted to go all the way to Port Clinton. Otherwise it was about 6 miles to the closer shelter. We definitely weren’t going to stop there though. The hope was to do at least 10 or 11 more miles just to hit our mileage goal for the day. We wound up deciding to walk for a couple of hours and see how the time went by and how the trail was. And if we decided we wanted to go into town, we’d go into town.

Punisher’s friend DJ apparently lived about an hour away from the area and said that if we did wind up going into Port Clinton, to reach out to him. If we made it in around 9pm tonight he said he could come out to take us to dinner, or bring us something to eat. That definitely added a little bit of energy to the 42 mile day attempt. But we still had a ways to go so we would just start walking and see how it went.

Of course when we left there it was raining lightly once again. I’m just glad it never turned into significantly heavy rain. But it has definitely been raining frequently today. I guess I would rather a day of light rain for most of the day rather than a day with brief, but very heavy rain. Who’s to say. When we set out from the parking lot I decided not to put my music on for a little while. I’ve been spending a lot of time lately, just with my thoughts, rather than listening to a book or music. And somehow I got incredibly caught up in my day dreaming and before I knew it we had gone almost 6 miles. I was shocked how quickly that it had gone by. At first, I thought my phone must’ve been wrong.

That meant we only had about 9 miles to go for the day. Which meant we would probably get into Port Clinton right around 9pm. Which actually wouldn’t be too bad considering we’re doing 42 miles today. All in all it would be about 15 hours of walking. That makes sense considering we took a couple breaks today.

Iceman’s lunch spread on a rainy day! Being able to eat a big lunch, twice, made the day so much easier.

For the rest of the day, it really didn’t rain too much more. We got a light sprinkle here and there but nothing steady. I was pleasantly surprised by how few rocks there were in this next section. We enjoyed probably two hours of walking along relatively slot and easy trail. Every now and then the rocks would pop up and we would do a section quickly. Then be back to the nice dirt track.

As we walked for the next couple of hours, I had service and did a little bit of stuff on my phone . But I’m trying not to fall and trip over something, so I don’t use my phone too much. when we did have service, I watched a YouTube video or two. It’s funny, this is actually the first year of my entire life that I’ve been watching YouTube. Other than maybe sometime in the late 2000s when YouTube was just starting to get big. I’ve enjoyed checking up on some of the hikers we ran into this year. And there is a female Hiker who just started a great western loop, and I’m super excited to follow along with that. That 7000 mile trek is definitely on my bucket list. and as of right now, no woman has ever completed the great western loop. It’s definitely a true I’ve had my eye on. So I’ll be curious to see whether this woman is able to complete that this year. She seems like she knows what she’s doing though and should be just fine.

I was really expecting the rest of the day to drag on. So it was a very pleasant surprise at the time wound up flying by. Plus, we really only had one small climb left. Then we were just riding on a ridge for the rest of the day. I vividly recall though that the descent into Port Clinton is horrific. In my memory it is one of the steepest miles of the entire trail. With my knee being a little bit sore, I wasn’t super excited to do that. But it was over relatively quickly. Though the grade was unbelievably steep and uncomfortable. Every time that I thought we were getting close to the bottom of the hill, we would round another corner and keep going. My knees were very excited to get back onto some flat ground for a bit. I definitely wasn’t in pain though. I think that that descent would have been hard on the knees even on my best day.

By the time that we got off that long descent I was definitely tired and just about ready to be done for the day. I’m pretty impressed that we managed to do 42 miles today, even with the bad weather. And we started walking just after 6am! It felt so good to walk along the flat bike path briefly and heading into Port Clinton. We only had a short distance to go to get into town. Then we ran into Punisher’s friend DJ who had grabbed us Burger King for dinner! We walked through town until the road turned off toward the shelter. Then DJ drove us down the rest of the way to the shelter to save us the side trail.

Once we got there, we sat in his car and ate dinner. I downed a whopper and fries so fast. Then we said goodbye to him and headed into the pavilion to get set up for the night. I brought a sprite with me and a Hershey pie for dessert. Then got myself situated inside the pavilion and got comfortable for the night. It felt so good to lay down and stretch. This was our biggest day of the entire border to border calendar, year triple crown. And probably the biggest day I’ve ever done on the Appalachian Trail. Especially considering we were going through some pretty rocky terrain today and it was raining for most of the day. I love that we turned what could have been a short day into such an awesome day. It’s always tempting to stop early and stay in a shelter when the weather is rough. It was frigid for most of the day today, especially with it raining. But with the support from Iceman and DJ, we were able to get a couple breaks in. That was all I needed to push through for the day.

After I got set up and was laying down, I did my stretching. Then I got some writing and video work done before going to bed. I didn’t do as much as I had hoped, but that was ok. It was super late already. And I know we’re going to get in to the Lookout Hostel pretty early tomorrow. So I’ll have plenty of time to get work done then.

If you enjoyed this blog and would like to support my hike by buying me a soda or a snack along the way, there is a “Tip the Author” button below! It links directly to my Venmo. Any and all support is incredibly appreciated!