Day 101, Tuesday June 8, 2011

         

Daniel

Windsor Furnace Shelter campsite to Allentown Hiking Club shelter campsite - 16.4 miles hiked today - 1242.4 total AT miles hiked to date.

Today was a brutal reminder of why this part of the AT is called Rocksylvannia.  While I’ve encountered lots of boulder scrambles, ragged rocks, and tough technicals, they’ve never been as continual, unrelenting, and up, up, up.  Today’s climbs totaled over 4000 feet of ascent.   Add in an afternoon of rain and the wet boulders made for very slow going, another 12 hour hiking day to make it to our original destination.

There were some perks however, as we passed several great overlooks, and at least in the morning, they offered great spots to take a break.  They had great names, and I spent time at Pulpit Rock, The Pinnacle, and Dan’s Pulpit.

Also unusual today was the plethora of animal life along the trail.  In addition to the usual suspects (deer, squirrels and rabbits), I saw a porcupine, an orange salamander, a snail, and a snake in the process of ingesting a frog. Also one bike chained to a tree, with no nearby access road to have ridden in on. Quite the menagerie.

Ran into a couple of hikers I hadn’t seen in many weeks. Firewalker, who shared our controlled burn experience outside Franklin Tennessee, passed me early in the day, as did Just Joe, who Rick and I had dinner with back in North Carolina.

All in all, another eventful day on the trail. Hopefully tomorrow won’t be quite as rocky.

Until next time…