Cove Mountain to Clark’s Ferry Shelter
Miles Hiked: 8.3
AT Milage: 1153.3
After our long day of hiking and late night of cowboy camping, Flamingo and I woke up and hit the trail at 8:30. We wondered if anyone walked by and saw us passed out on the side of the trail. I was dead tired. I barely slept last night because I was so cold and the bugs were biting me. My legs felt like cement ad we walked three miles over large rocks and down stone steps. I can’t imagine having to go down all the stone steps last night.
In the town of Duncannon the trail walks straight thru it for three miles. We first stopped at the gas station. I got a Gatorade, chocolate milk, and a bag of ice. Flamingo and I sat in the park across the street while we charged our phones on the outlets outside the gas station and iced our feet and legs. It felt so good to ice my feet, shins, and calves after last night. I will probably start buying bags of ice in town more often. After we were recharged, we walked to the local outfitter. I was trying to resupply my food but the gas station prices were outrageous and the outfitters were as well. I was not going to pay $3 for a single packet of tuna that is sold for $1 at Walmart. I did end up buying a $4 jar of peanut butter and a bag of 12 tortillas for $3. It was such a rip off but necessary to survive. The outfitter was the worst one I’ve been to. Not only did they mark up their food prices incredibly high, they didnt sell anything a hiker would actually want or need. I am surprised they make enough money to stay open. I ended up buying a whole large pizza across the street. I ate two pieces and put the rest in Ziploc bags to eat on the trail. A more economical and creative resupply strategy.
We finally hiked out of town around 1pm. Before making the climb back up to the mountains, we crossed two huge rivers on bridges. The one was the Susquehanna river. Back on the trail, we stopped at the first shelter for a total of eight miles today. One part of the trail before the shelter was a rock maze. It took me a half an hour to walk a half a mile wich is incredibly slow for a thru hiker. I felt like trash and vowed to never hike thirty miles on this trail again. I got there around 3pm and took a nap from 5-6. The water souarce was a beautiful piped spring, unfortunately I didn’t get a picture. I washed the sweat out of my tank top and dumped a bunch of water on my head. It has been so hot lately I will probably start doing this more. I called and talked to my sister for a bit and camped with Flamingo, Long Feather, and Toucan. It turns out the person we saw passed out on the side of the trail last night was Toucan and Toucan saw Flamingo and I passed out on the side of the trail when he hiked by us at 6am. It was so funny to hear about each other’s nights and how we ended up cowboy camping on the side of the trail. I slept in the shelter because there was no where to pitch a tent. At 9pm I was asleel and amazingly didn’t wake up all night.
Happy Trails!
Des Hikes Thru 