I woke up at 6AM on Monday June 11th from another great night of sleep and was packed and ready by 6:15. Luckily Jim and Kathy are early risers because I was able to say goodbye to Kathy before Jim took me back to the trail, stopping for breakfast sandwiches along the way. I hope they know just how much I appreciated their help and efforts to host a nice gathering while I was there.
The rain had stopped and the temperature has dropped, it wasn't supposed to make it out of the 60s that day. Jim dropped me off at the general store around 7:30 and I ran into Cowboy, who had taken advantage of the Trail Magic offered at Caledonia State Park. Those Trail Angels were slack packing him and a few others for the second day in a row.
My goal for the day was to make it to Boiling Springs and find Bird. The miles started off incredibly easy, very flat and well groomed trail. I could tell I went overboard at the grocery store the day before, my pack felt the heaviest it had been since the Smokies, or maybe even since starting the hike. My IT band was really starting to bother me, I was guessing it was a combination of too much weight in my pack and the fact that I had been wearing the same hiking shoes for 1,100 miles. Towards the end of the day there were a series of climbs, some short but steep. Near the top of one of the climbs I looked to my left - forest, looked to my right - forest, looked straight ahead - huge boulder pile…where does the trail go? Huge boulder pile, of course! It's not that I want this trail to be easy, but sometimes it just goes out of it's way to be difficult. If there is a climb the AT will go up it, if there is a boulder pile the AT will go over it, if there is a stream the AT will cross it, if there is poison ivy this trail will find it!
The last couple miles of the day the trail skirted several farm fields just before reaching Boiling Springs. About ¼ mile before leaving the woods I heard a very loud cry - I came upon a fawn who was bleeting, looked to be only a couple days old. I didn't see mama anywhere but I didn't stay in the area long in case she was waiting for the area to be clear of people before coming back. I heard from several other hikers later that day that they had come across the same fawn, some a day prior, and the fawn came up to them and was clearly in distress. Unfortunately I doubt that young fawn survived. 
I got into Boiling Springs at 2:30PM after hiking 18.8 miles and stopped in the AMC Mid-Atlantic Headquarters, which was right on trail. They had a spigot for hikers to fill water bottles and charging cables. There was a pack scale on the front porch - mine weighed in at a whopping 35 pounds - holy hell, how did this happen?! I immediately started running through a list of items that I could get rid of in the near future.
I went to the Outfitter next door and bought a new pair of shoes. I really liked my Salomon X Ultras, they were very durable, kept my feet dry but also dried quickly. I know hikers love their trail runners, but I don't know any other hiker who made it 1,100 miles on their first pair of shoes, most were on their 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th. Mine held up great until the rain in Virginia and then began to deteriorate. The Outfitter carried Salomons but unfortunately didn't have any of the shoes I wanted in my size, but I desperately needed a new pair so I picked up a pair of trail runners. I was able to stick with the same size as before, but got them in wide - a lot of hikers have to size up because their feet get bigger as the get further up the trail, maybe my Superfeet insoles were worth the cost. 
As I was leaving the outfitter I ran into Bird! He had actually hiked in the day before with Coors (who I hadn't seen since the Shenandoahs) and took a zero in town, spending a lot of the rainy day reading in his tent. We ate lunch at the Cafe down the street and then spent the rest of the day charging things at the AMC HQ and setting up camp at the backpacker campsite just on the outside of town. The campsite was full - Orange, MacGyver, Doctor Who, Jalapeno, and a couple section hikers - Bob walked in with an extra pizza to share with the group. The campsite was free but the location was not ideal, it was very close to an active railroad. While eating dinner around 6 I heard half a dozen trains go by in a span of 30 minutes. Everyone was quiet and in bed by 9, but I'm pretty sure no one slept well that night - trains continued to pass frequently throughout the night.
I was excited to hike the next day (Tuesday 6/12) - the first 12 miles were flat and skirted farm fields. There wasn't much water, I had to carry extra so my already heavy pack felt even heavier. But my new shoes made my feet happy! I was hoping to do a lot of miles, possibly a new longest day, so I got up at 4:30AM, and was on trail by 5:15. I had to stop at the AMC again for water before heading out of town, it was chilly enough that I even put my rain coat on to stay warm and tucked my fingers in the sleeves.
I moved quickly through the farm fields, most of the trail went through the woods on the edges of the fields. The only thing slowing me down were the puddles of mud. The grass was dripping with dew which immediately soaked my trail runners - I missed my hiking shoes already, they kept my feet dry unless it was pouring. By 10AM I had already hiked 13.5 miles, and had hiked 18.6 miles by noon.
I passed an older man using hand tools on an overgrown stretch of trail. He said he was embarrassed by the condition of the trail - I told him I thought this section was beautiful and thanked him for his hard work.
When I reached the climb at the end of the farm fields I was expecting for it to be challenging, but it ended up being only about a mile of work with lots of switchbacks. I stopped at the Darlington Shelter to see the Taj Mahal Privy - it was a larger privy than most, with two seats - no idea who thought of that idea…
I worked quickly through the next few miles. It got rockier and I kept my eye out for snakes. A southbound hiker in Boiling Springs suggested looking out for snakes over the next couple sections - he said when he walked through one of the rocky sections it reminded him of a scene from an Indiana Jones movie..in 15 minutes he saw 18 snakes, multiple timber rattlers and copperheads.
At the view 1.8 miles from Duncannon I could see down to the river and town - I tried to hurry down but it was a very rocky stretch and I was starting to think I wasn't going to make all the miles I was hoping to that day. On the descent into town I ran into Thor and we hiked the last mile together. He talked about his plans to audition for American Ninja Warrior after he finishes the trail.
I got into Duncannon around 2:30PM and stopped at the Doyle for lunch. The Doyle is a popular spot for thru hikers but I was cautioned not to sleep there, it's very run down. The owners are friendly but only if you have a sense of humor. The trail walks through town, one block off Main Street. I stopped to get ice cream before leaving, it was a hot sunny afternoon - I got a small which was two heaping scoops which left me with a belt ache as I walked out of town.
Wednesday (June 13th) I woke up at 5:30AM but was not in a hurry to get up since it was raining. I started packing up when it turned to drizzle and left the shelter at 5:55. It was still dripping but I was mostly protected by the tree canopy and luckily never got fully soaked. I stopped at Peters Mountain Shelter after 6.7 miles for a snack break right as the rain picked up. Thor stopped in for a snack break as well. I was very unmotivated to keep hiking in the rain, but the water source was down a steep descent, 302 steps down! If the shelter had been 15 miles in for the day I probably would have stayed the rest of the afternoon. But I only stayed for 30 minutes until the rained slowed. It was another 18 miles to the next shelter.
A few miles later I ran into Shaggy and Maggy, who I had met in the Shenandoahs. They were hiking south into Duncannan and get off trail for about a week for a family reunion, so I doubt I'll see them again.
Most of the miles that afternoon were along the ridgeline and flat. The trail descended and then went up the next ridge. The climb wasn't very hard, I just didn't feel like doing it - I had a sharp pain in my shin, I was hoping it was just a mystery pain and would be gone by the next morning. I got to Rausch Gap Shelter (AT mile 1203.9) around 5 after 26.8 miles - it was a nice area with a spring just in front, but the shelter was pretty gross. The good tent sites were taken so I had to sleep in the shelter with Bird, Thor, Songbird (who hiked half the trail in 2016 before getting Lyme and had to quit), and Loner Boner (an older thru hiker who's last name is Boner, and he's kind of a loner…). I was able to give away some of my extra food to Loner Boner, I had been offering food to hikers for the past 2 nights but no one wanted to take the extra weight. Everyone was in their sleeping bags by 6:30PM. MacGyver showed up to the shelter around 8, and seemed to have been trying to catch up to us all day. I woke up the next morning, Thursday June 14th, at 5:30AM, after trying to keep a mouse from rummaging through Bird’s pack throughout the night. A hiker had come to the shelter in the middle of the night asking if there was a bear box - apparently there was a raccoon near his tentsite who wouldn't leave him alone. There was no bear box at the shelter so he decided to just start hiking.
I left a little after 6 and Bird was still asleep. About a mile in I came to a dam that had flooded, it looked like a lake. There was no way around it so I walked through it, soaking my shoes. Thankfully it was a sunny day and they dried quickly. A few miles later I ran into a ridge runner named Wasabi. She said she had met the other Early Bird a few days earlier - she had done 100 miles in 2 days through the halfway point!I stopped at the William Penn Shelter about 10 miles into the day to take my shoes off and dry my socks. I was relieved that the shin pain I had experienced yesterday was completely gone. When I got back on the trail 20 minutes later I saw Bird ahead of me and tried to walk fast to catch up. Even walking as fast as I could I wasn't gaining on him, but I finally caught him when he stopped to look through this pile of trash that was at one point trail magic.
The last 9.3 miles became rockier and were very mentally exhausting - I had to think about each step placement and spent the entire afternoon looking at my feet. At 23 miles into the day Bird and I found a swimming hole with a rope swing and debated stopping for the night. We decided to push on 3 more, for a total of 26.8 miles for the day, so the next day we had only 15 to get to town. Both of us were pretty much out of food. We found a campsite near a road - while Bird was cooking dinner I strolled a little further down the trail while talking to Sixlegs on the phone and found a cooler filled with ice cold Coke and water! I carried some back to the tents and Bird was very surprised when I handed him a cold drink - I'm glad I took that extra walk!
The night was cool, but dry - I was able to sleep without my rain fly on my tent and it was completely dry in the morning, no condensation! I got moving the next morning (Friday, June 15th) at 5AM when I heard Bird get up - I was hiking by 5:25 and Bird was actually out before me. Most of the morning miles were easy with some rocky sections thrown in. There was a steep section that took me by surprise, but I powered through it because I was motivated to get to town. I kept hearing rumors that the descent into Port Clinton was difficult and was expecting a large rock pile. It turned out to be an easy descent until the last ½ mile which was very steep and had a lot of loose rocks. Once at the bottom the trail crosses over a bike trail and railroad tracks before walking through town. There wasn't much there, the town seemed empty. I found Bird and we got a shuttle to Hamburg for lunch and resupply. We were in high spirits - we had walked the 15 miles into town by 10:45 and had plenty of time to eat, relax, and charge devices. We ended up spending 4 hours in town between Five Guys and Walmart before getting an Uber back to Port Clinton and continued up the trail. 
The climb out of town was kind of steep and I didn't feel great (too much town food, as usual). We walked about 6 more miles before getting to a tentsite near Windsor Furnace Shelter (AT mile 1224.6) after 20.7 that day. When we got to the campsite Coors was there! We all tented together and had a nice evening chatting and catching up. Another cool evening and I slept without my rain fly again. There was an animal tearing around the woods that night, running through the trees, making lots of noise - I'm guessing it was a raccoon but it was loud and unnerving. Coors and I left the campsite together just after 6AM (June 16th) the next morning and hiked most of the day together. We stopped at the Eckville Shelter, 9.1 miles into the day at 9:30 for a snack break - there was in a very well-maintained yard behind a caretakers house, had a picnic table, outlet for hikers to use, a flush toilet, spigot for water and even a shower. 
The next 7.4 miles to Allentown Hiking Club Shelter took forever - so many rocks. Pennsylvania is known for having miserable amounts of rocks and we were just finding out why. There were not only piles of rocks but also stretches when rocks stuck straight up out of the ground, pointy side up. We got to the shelter a little after 1PM, Bird caught up and we all needed a break. The walk to get water was a long way down to a spring, took a good 20 minutes round trip. A troop of boyscouts were tenting nearby and offered us fruit - we were each given an apple, banana, and orange! We started hiking again around 2:20 - the next 4 miles were basically on a dirt road and I made it to PA 309 by 3:30. I could see a B&B/Restaurant from the road and considered stopping in for food and a cold drink, but my food bag was full from the resupply the day before and I still had 6 miles to walk.
After a couple more quick miles I got to the Knife’s Edge, which was rock ledges at a very steep angle. There was a family sitting up there, taking a break right on the white blazes - there wasn't a great way to get around them and when they saw me looking for a way past they asked if I was continuing down the trail, basically asking if I needed them to move - I said “well, I'm not sleeping here!”. I had to awkwardly squeeze past them, trying my hardest not to slip off the rocky mountain.
There was one more climb for the day up Bake Oven Knob - it was ½ mile up and ½ mile down the other side to the shelter. It was a rocky pain in the ass - my feet and legs hurt from stepping on rocks at awkward angles, and I was mentally exhausted from concentrating so hard on walking all day long. When I finally got to Bake Oven Knob Shelter (AT mile 1251.1) after 26.5 miles Bird had already gotten there and set up his tent. The trip to get water was a solid 30 minute round trip. Most of the trail in Pennsylvania is on a ridge and when the springs at the top of the ridge are dry hikers have to drop down off the top to the next spring, which in this case was also dry - we finally found cold, running water at the 3rd spring down the ridge.
We read that there was an active porcupine at the shelter, so when I heard lots of rustling in the bushes nearby while we were eating dinner I put everything inside my tent that night. Never found out what was making the commotion. I didn't sleep well because I was up all night listening to the animal(s) run around the woods, and my sleeping pad kept deflating - this was my second pad and I was very frustrated it was leaking.
I was hiking by 6am on June 17th - the first 6.8 miles were a pain in the ass - cobwebs, gnats, mosquitoes, and rocks..I was not enjoying the miles, these rocks were definitely living up to their reputation. It took forever to get to the next shelter but at least the water source was right on the trail. I stopped to rest my feet and snack until Bird and Coors got there - the rest of the day was going to be difficult. Long, rocky stretches with no water sources until the next shelter, which was over 16 miles away. We descended into Palmerton and crossed the Lehigh River. The trail then makes its way up a steep boulder pile - I needed both hands to work through the rocks, at times it was difficult to see where the trail went. Some of it was rather scary. It was exposed, no tree coverage and the afternoon was hot and sunny. Since there were no water sources in the next several miles I had to conserve. Combined with the constant need to look out for snakes and ticks, the afternoon became very stressful.
At the top of the rock pile the trail takes a detour around a Superfund site, so even if you did find water through that part of the trail you wouldn't want to drink from it. The detour took us along an overgrown dirt road on the side of a ridge, but there was nothing nice to look at. Then the trail took us back into rocks. Rocks all afternoon. Rocks as far as the eye could see. At times it was difficult to see where the trail went, but I found if you just looked for the biggest rock pile and walked towards it then you would probably be heading in the right direction. 
With 10.9 miles left to hike that day I took a break at a road crossing with a parking lot. I thought it would have been a great place to find trail magic, maybe even a water cache left by a local trail group, but there was nothing. The last miles were slow, painful, and frustrating. I was pretty much out of water and mentally and physically exhausted. There was one more road crossing before the last 3.5 miles and as I approached I could hear talking. Then I saw people. Then chairs. Then a table. And then...coolers! Such perfectly timed trail magic, before I even made it out of the woods I could feel my eyes welling up. I stopped for a moment, I told myself 'Don't cry, that's stupid!' But I couldn't help it, the relief just washed over me and as the trail angels surrounded me I felt the pain from one of my hardest days on trail so far start to fade.
I finally got motivated to finish the last 3.5 miles to Leroy Smith Shelter (AT mile 1247.7), 23.6 miles of hiking that day. The miles were still a pain and I was relieved to hear that the water source would only take 10 minutes to get to..I couldn't wait to get out of Pennsylvania. Salt/sweat was caked on my dress. It was another hot night, I tented without my rain fly on again. A hiker tenting nearby found a copperhead by a tree - it was the first venomous snake I had seen in Pennsylvania. After all the worrying, I had only seen 4 snakes in PA…
Monday June 18th I woke up excited to know it was my last day in Pennsylvania. I left the campsite around 6AM, not feeling that great, probably from being dehydrated most of the day before, and decided to go slow. Coors, Bird, and I only had 20 miles to go to get to Delaware Water Gap. The first five miles were slow - cobwebs, bugs, rocks, and my belly hurt. Climbing out of Wind Gap Coors passed me - the rocks were just as bad as the past two days. Rocks. And more rocks. Ugh.
At 10AM I got to Wolf Rocks, a ledge with a nice view - I was going to stop for lunch but I was too excited to get into town, I only had 9 miles to go, so I pushed 2.3 miles further to the Kirkridge Shelter and found Coors taking a break. There was a spigot with cold water! Coors and I walked the remaining 6.5 miles together. The trail eventually started to smooth out until we were basically walking on a dirt road. We stepped onto a paved road and entered the Delaware Water Gap…we walked into the Church of the Mountain Hiker as the church bell rang 3 times. 
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