Precious Porcupines in Pennsylvania – The Trek

This morning my first alarm went off super early. I wanted to slowly wake myself up in the hopes that I’d have the energy to start writing and doing a bit of work before getting up. I got a little bit done but not everything I needed to. Maybe I’ll get a  chance later today on a tame section of trail.

Walked past this place in Duncannon. What a name!

I finally got up and out of bed sometime after 7am and began getting packed up. Then used some hot water to make a hot chocolate. I had cakes and whipped cream to eat for breakfast. I got them at the grocery store and ate about 3 last night. But I still had a few more to get through. In the end I had the guys help me finish them off.

Around 8am Jeff said goodbye to us and headed out. He had some stuff to deal with with family and couldn’t stay any longer. The last few days have been a delight, I’m so grateful for all of his support and the time he took to be here. It was incredibly kind and had us feeling good and energized for days.

Road walking through Duncannon.

Not long after that we were all packed up and ready to go. We said goodbye to the other hiker who had stayed there with us last night. He was such a nice guy! And his wife actually reads the blogs which is so funny. She was expecting us to be in the area and had told him about us. While we were in the hostel last night he called her and I got to say hello! That was so cute.

Crossing the river out of town.

We got out of the hostel just after 8am and made our way through town. There is a road walk for a couple of miles leaving Duncannon. We crossed over a couple large bridges with views of massive river below. Then eventually got to the other side where the trail picked back up into the woods. We had. A fairly long climb right off the bat. I remembered it being a tiring one in 2023. There is an alternate route you can take which makes the trail shorter but steeper. We took that in 2023 and it was an ass kicker. This time we just did the red line and it wasn’t too bad actually. The trail was really rocky and there were a fair amount of steps going up. I just took my time and made my way up.

Climbing up a rocky section of trail which rode along this spine briefly.

I’m hoping to take it a little slow to start, just to avoid having my knee feel sore. It hasn’t really been bothering me. But I don’t like to feel any kind of soreness or tightness at all. My baseline is me feeling good without issues. But when terrain switches up quickly it can always irritate something. I’m hoping though to just go a little slower and avoid any soreness today if possible.

After climbing for about an hour we got up to the top of the ridge. Then rode along a rocky ridge for a bit after that. We passed a spur trail down to a shelter and someone called out to us. But I really couldn’t hear what they were saying. Then we just continued along the ridge after that.

A covered overpass that the trail used to cross over a road.

There were about 10 miles to go along the ridge with very little change in elevation. That was going to make for a nice and easy afternoon.  Once we weren’t climbing anymore I cooled down a lot. It felt like it might start to rain. So I just put on my rain gear to keep my warm. And that way I would be ready if rain started. It was definitely the type of weather where you wouldn’t want to get soaked. It was a bit too cold for that.

These Nutella crepes are pretty dang good.

It didn’t really wind up raining though. And as the day went on it did even warm up a bit. I kept my rain gear on though just to stay comfortable. Without doing any climbing I didn’t heat up much. So I felt just fine in the layers.

We walked for a couple more hours and it was pretty nice and easy. My body felt really good too. I think I just had to shorten my gait a bit and be a bit less jumpy on the rocks. I’ve been bouncing around like crazy and feeling pretty great. But if any kind of soreness pops up then I usually try to recalibrate a bit. I’m just glad that my body felt solid all day today.

Fortunately we haven’t seen too much graffiti so far in PA.

Last night my buddy Road Soda who I lived with in Philly was texting me. He was planning on coming out today to see us. But changed his plans last minute because of some work stuff. That was totally fine though! It’s been a jam packed last few days and I just got a bunch of food and stuff in town. He’ll probably come out next weekend a see us though. In 2023 he trail magic-ed my tramily in Duncannon and then near Palmerton. He basically took us the whole way to Delaware water gap too! We had met at trail days and then he came out to see us and help us out.

For the most part the sections of rock today were on the larger side. So I didn’t mind hopping between them.

Then almost 6 months later I wound up moving into an extra room in his apartment in Philly. A city which I now call my home base whenever I’m off trail. It’s funny how you can live somewhere for just a handful of months and just fall in love with the energy. I was so excited to go back to Philly for a bit after the CDT. I think I would definitely live there again intermittently between adventures.

These are my current hyper fixation! I’m obsessed with them.

After riding along the ridge for a long time we eventually began a gradual descent. That brought us down to a road and parking area which I remembered. Then we would begin another gradual climb up to the next ridge. I was a little ways behind Punisher and saw him up ahead talking to someone in the parking lot.

I walked down the side trail to this overlook for a second. I so vividly remember sitting here in 2023 with my tramily.

And I was utterly shocked to see that it was Iceman! I was not expecting to see him today. He had been talking to Road Soda too and thought he was still coming out today. So he drove out to see Soda! But Road Soda hadn’t told him of his last minute change of plans. Luckily he lives close by so he didn’t come too far. And he was possibly planning to come out sometime in the next few days to give us some support.

Pennsylvania has no in between. The trail is either super rocky or absolutely pristine and flat.

We hung out in the parking lot chatting with him for a while. And he whipped out a hot pizza and a cooler of sodas that he had in his car, just in case. That was an incredible surprise. I definitely wasn’t expecting to see anyone today. And we had gone about 18 miles so far for the day so I was quite hungry. I did do a good job eating alot of snacks today though. But was definitely in need of a refuel.

Making my way along a section of smaller rocks.

I sat down in the parking lot and we dove into the pizza while chatting and joking around with Iceman. I even tried to call Soda because I thought it would be funny, but he didn’t answer. That was such an amazing break and I felt refueled and ready to rock. We crushed the pizza between the two of us and I drank a delicious coke too. Iceman might be coming out tomorrow to help us out some more! Well just have to see what winds up happening. It was so great to see him again. He’s just a delight to be around.

Heading through a really nice stretch of trail. Many times today the walking was just mindless!

From there we had just under 12 miles to go for the day. And once we got up this next small climb we would just be riding along a ridge all the way to the next shelter. That next climb was just as gradual as I’d remembered. Which was great. I listened to music and made my way up. And it wasn’t long before the trail flattened out and we were just cruising along. I felt the best that I’d felt all day. And I can tell that my leg had loosened up a bit and a good amount of the soreness had gone away. I just needed to take it a bit more easy today.

A trail register that we went past. There are definitely a couple hikers up ahead of us!

The last couple of hours were so cruisy. The trail wasn’t very rocky and made more easy mindless walking. I even noticed an adorable porcupine walking alongside the trail! That was one of the best animal encounters of the whole year. As we passed through sections that I recognized I thought a lot about the AT in 2023. Hiking with Boosted and Sweet Pea was such a blast! I have so many vivid memories of our time in PA. I remember everyone saying that Pennsylvania was going to be a nightmare because of the rocks. But it wound up being one of my favorite states along the trail! I had so much fun hanging with Road Soda then though too. That made our experience in PA even better.

Not the greatest photo ever, but this was the cutest little guy! The highlight of my day was watching it walk around for a little while.

The trail was basically flat and downhill all the way toward the shelter in the end. The Rausch Gap Shelter was a little bit off trail, but the side trail over to it was entirely flat. That didn’t bother me one bit! When we got there I was expecting a few hikers to be there. But there were actually only two. The guy we stayed with in the hostel last night was originally planning to stop there. He had slack packed so he was getting on trail 15 miles north of us. He must have gone further for the day though.

What a magical day once again! Surprise trail magic and porcupines definitely put a smile on my face.

There were two hikers inside when we arrived. We got set up in the shelter and got comfortable for the night. Then I ate some cheese and crackers for dinner. I had eaten a few snacks along the last stretch of trail, so I wasn’t super hungry. I ate more of my glazed walnuts though. And immediately wished I’d bought a few more bags of those. They are definitely my current hyper fixation!

After I ate I got comfortable and did my stretching. Then laid down to do a bunch of writing before calling it a night. I didn’t have service so I couldn’t do much editing on the blog itself. But I got things written up and ready to go for tomorrow. Then did a little video work and called it a night.

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