Day 94
Miles Hiked: 22.5
AT milage: 1241.8
Port Clinton to Allentown Hiking Club Shelter
This morning we went to the Dollar Store to grab some Gatorade and then got a Lyft to the trail around 9am. flamingo, Pop Rocks and I all got back on trail. The rest of our friends stayed behind to take a zero. The climb out of Port Clinton was very steep, a great way to get back on trail. Starting hiking so late in the day just makes it feel like it takes me forever to get places. I feel like I can’t hike fast and I have to take a break almost every two miles which is exactly what happened. The weather was still pretty hot but it was rainy and foggy so this GS were cooling down for once. It was a nice day to be on trail in comparison to the scorching sun in the previous day’s. The only bad part was that my feet were wet from stepping in mud and puddles all day long.
I hiked all day except the last 5 miles by myself. I took so many breaks because I felt so tired. I was carrying a full five day resupply so my pack was a lot heavier. There were some really good view point I got to see called the Pulpit and the Pinnacle. The rocks continued which is nothing new but they were a lot bigger today and really slippery. I would use my hands alot to make sure I didn’t fall down and hurt my trail bone. About 3 miles in I got my trekking pole stuck in a rock. This happens all the time, but when I pulled it out of the hole today, the whole handle popped off which was a real bummer. I already had so many things wrong with my trekking poles anyways, this was icing on the cake. I could still use the pole but since the strap was gone I couldn’t let go of it without dropping it. Also I had to try really hard to hold onto the grip that was half gone and very slippery fr my sweat. I guess I will probably be buying a new pair of poles in a town soon. My poles are also bent, the tips have worn away, and the power locking adjustent system isn’t staying in place. As a result my poles shorten about two-five inches about once or twice a mile. I’ve been having to constantly adjust them which is super annoying. Because the tips are worn off, they have almost no traction either. It’s just time for me to get a new pair unfortunately. I don’t want to count on them supporting me on some of the bigger mountains up noth I can fall on and get hurt if they fail.
At 6 pm I was still five miles away so I sat down to eat dinner where Cocoa and Flip were setting up camp. Flamingo and Pop Rocks caught up to me and we hiked the last five miles in the darkening Forrest together. When we reached camp it was pitch black. Pop rocks and I really needed water so we went to grab it together because we knew it was going to be a big long chore. We had to walk 0.3 miles down a really steep hill off the ridge we have been hiking on. When we got there the spring was a giant puddle we had to use a scooper to collect water from. Then we had to filter it all into our water bottles. Sometimes getting a simple thing like water can take forever! It probably took us at least a half an hour to fill up all our water bottles and water for the morning so we wouldn’t have to go back to the spring. We had to then carry it all back up the steep hill to the shelter. It was 10:30 by the time this was done and I was so tired I just set up my sleeping system in the shelter and immediately fell asleep. I didn’t do any of my blogging which I had two days to write about now. It’s stressful for me to get behind on this so I will probably wake up and do it tomorrow morning.
Happy Trails!
Des Hikes Thru 