The woods in Pennsylvania often have a monoculture of ferns as their ground cover. Not sure why but maybe it’s well suited to very rocky soil. I passed several sections of forest like that today.
After hitting the trail around 6:20, I reached the town of Port Clinton at 10:30. The town had an interesting architecture. Wooden buildings, some from the 1800s, tall and skinny, many painted red.
I meant to eat a second breakfast at the Port Clinton hotel restaurant and charge my battery pack but when I arrived I saw they didn’t open until 11 and I didn’t see the point of waiting half an hour. Especially after checking FarOut and seeing that there was a shelter 15 miles ahead that had a charging station! The only other retail establishment in town was a candy shop. I spent five minutes in there and bought $1.80 worth of peanuts.
There were more hikers on trail today. I met Vermont, who is from Vermont of course, a grandfather and grandson pair (I think Grand Pip was the grandfather’s trailname), a day hiking couple I talked to for 10 minutes about thru hiking, and quite a few other day hikers.
Late in the day I missed a turn and went a long way down a road. Rather than backtrack the whole way, I decided to take a shortcut through the woods. That was probably a dumb idea. Several times I was blocked by fallen trees and had to detour, and I fought a lot with rose bushes and other thorny plants. I found my way to the trail eventually but with lots of bleeding thorn pricks on my arms and legs.
Eckville shelter is an odd one. A caretaker lives in a smallish white clapboard house surrounded by a lush lawn on a country road just off trail. The shelter is the size of a one car garage and whitewashed on the outside, behind the house. There is an actual toilet and shower (the water is lukewarm not hot) in an outbuilding at the other end of the lawn (too far to walk for a midnight pee), and a power cable by the back door of the caretaker’s house for charging.
Ghost was there, along with Bull, whom I hadn’t met. They were hoping Vermont would show up but he hasn’t. Ghost is fast so I asked how I’d managed to catch up to him. He said hid phone died and he had to go off trail and wait in a town for a replacement to be shipped. He also told me Ultra is only a day or two ahead, and that Tortoise, who I was pretty sure was inly a day ahead, is going off trail for four days so I might miss him.
My feet are pretty sore from all the pounding. Other than that, a great day.
Mile 1212.1 to mile 1235.9 = 23.8 miles
This plant, called Fly poison, is suddenly everywhere
Ferns on the forest floor
Pott Clinton architecture
One of several wooden churches
