“I believe someone made a grievous mistake when summer was created; no novitiate or god in their right mind would make a season akin to hell on purpose. Someone should be fired.”
~Michelle Franklin
June 1, 2022
Ascent: 1481’
Descent: 639’
Weather: mid-90’s, humid, and hazy — in other words, MISERABLE!
Sightings: a copperhead and a rabbit
High point: breakfast at Blue Mtn Shanty
The walk today was powered by coffee, blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup, heaps of scrambled eggs, and bacon, all courtesy of Lynn at the Blue Mtn Shanty. It really was a breakfast to remember!
Lynn drove me to the 309 trail head, and Trail Angel Mary picked me up from there and drove me to Duncannon to begin my walk.
The first mile was through the second half downtown Duncannon, and it was just horribly hot. Then I followed the white blazes along the bridges that crossed the Juaniata River and then the Susquehanna River. All of this was in the blazing sun.
Immediately after crossing the two rivers there was a steep rocky uphill. I was dripping sweat. Thankfully I did notice the copperhead in the middle of the trail, and after a few minutes of waiting for him to move I just detoured very far around him. So we both went on our way.
(Picture is enlarged — I was about 8’ away from him.)
At the top of the ridge the trail became really rocky. It wasn’t quite a full-blown rock scramble, but it was rather nasty. Eventually I reached the first shelter and discovered that much to my surprise it did have water. It was supposed to be dry, so I had just lugged nearly 4 liters of water up that crazy incline! I knew that the shelter that I was going to do for the night did not have any water, so I stopped at this shelter to refill my bottles in preparation for the 6 mile slog ahead.
Thankfully right after that first shelter the trail became much easier.
I did get a great view of the Susquehanna River.
Some powerlines make the weirdest buzzing sound when you walk underneath them! It sounds like a swarm of bees.
I dripped sweat and continued to put one foot in front of the other. About two miles from the end the trail got noticeably easier.
When I arrived at the shelter I found about ten young Amish men having a camp out, so I set up my tent in the tenting area and eventually three other folks joined me. We are all too tired to socialize much.
Today is a great day for a long walk in the woods!