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Day 1 - 5/18/2002
Stayed Friday night in a cheap hotel off of Route 78 one exit
down. Hotel went by several different names, Fort Motel, Budget Inn.
I stayed here because Chunky the manager at the Port Clinton Hotel
would not take a room reservation. From the comments that the thru
hikers I ran into later made, this was probably good. Chunky seems
to treat the younger (especially female) hikers badly, makes them take
a shower before serving in the dining area, and the rooms were full in
any case. After seeing the room I should have negotiated for a lower
rate, since, I ended up paying $ 50.00 plus tax.
I left the room at 7:30 AM and after a quick breakfast at the local
Burger King I met Robert Obeon. Robert lives next door to the Port
Clinton Hotel. Robert is a 70ish man who supports hikers in the area.
He brings water and food up to the Port Clinton Pavillion which is a
local hiking shelter and he was listed in one of my hiking guides as a
potential shuttle. Robert and his wife are a very friendly couple.
After dropping off my car at the Port Clinton trailhead we headed off
to the PA309 trailhead at the top of Blue Mountain Summit. As we started
off the rain was pretty steady, so, I expected to be walking most of the
day in the rain. My plan was to hike 12 miles on day one from PA309 to
Eckville Shelter and 15 miles on day two from Eckville to Port Clinton.
I was also doing my first hike with my MountainSmith Spectre pack.
We arrived at the Blue Mountain Summit where the Blue Mountain Bed and
Breakfast + resturant is located. I noted this a potential spousal lure
for a trailhead drop off on a future hike. We had a little trouble finding
the trailhead, it turns out to be about 100 feet South of the Summit.
I offered to pay Robert for his time in shuttling me, but, he refused to
take any money from me. Instead, he gave me some mints and said to eat
these when the rocks start to get to me.
I said goodbye to Robert and his wife and started off in a misty light
rain. The trail footing was pretty good considering all the rain, mostly
a nice woods trail on the ridge in this part. However, it did not take long
with the famous Rocksylvania rocks to start appearing. Footing was tricky
with the slick rocks, thank God for hiking poles. I went thru a section with
Ferns everywhere, the rain really brought out a their brilliant green color.
First view I came to was a place called Tri-County Corner, so named because
three PA counties come together at this point. Unfortunately, it required
a rock scramble to get to the view. Since it was still raining, I decided to
forgo this view lest I fall and crack my noggin. As I was walking along
I ran into two retired thru-hikers, Twinkle Toes and Artsey. Pretty nice couple,
we talked about the rocks (how they wear you down, etc) and then went on our
way.
The rain started clearing around noon as I came to a view known as Dan's Pulpit.
I greatfully shed my rain gear at this point and took in the view. I found a bit
of trail magic here in the form of a day-glo orange salamander. Never seen anything
like it before, particularily here in the mid-Atlantic states. Found out later from
a NOBO thru-hiker that they are actually pretty common down in Georgia.
I continue upon my way and started to run across more weekend hikers as the day
improved, including a bunch of youth groups. As I started to descend the mountain
toward heading toward Eckville the trail was getting mucky from rain runoff. Several
times I had to detour off the trail to avoid standing water and sinking mud.
Eventually I came down the mountain to the Eckville Shelter. I was pleased with my
progress that day since I averaged 2 miles per hour and the new pack rode perfectly,
with just the right amount of weight.
There were four thru-hikers at the shelter, the two younger ones that stayed at the
shelter with me were Yukon and Terragon (a girl). Two older guys tented across the
road in a field. Most of the hikers told me that they started around February and
that they were walking 20 miles a day. All of this group also decided to forgo
traildays in Damascus. The shelter was one of the nicest I have seen on the trail
and being enclosed helped since we got record cold in the 30s that night. You can
get sodas and Gatoraid at the shelter and it has an outbuilding with flush toilets and
shower. Very interesting plumbing for the outbuilding, the water runs thru a
garden hose hooked to pepcocks to the outbuilding and the plumbing drains to the
care-taker house's septic system.
A couple of interesting characters at the shelter were the care-taker and the
hiker called Yukon. Yukon appeared to do everything at hyper-speed. If he opened
a Nalagene bottle he took the lid off as fast as he could; he also wrote letters
and moved the same way. Really wired if you ask me. The other character was the
care-taker. He insisted on taking pictures of all of us, but, did not want anyone
taking his picture (maybe he is on a wanted poster :). The care-taker also seemed
to have screaming fits in the house when he was alone. I hoped that he was not
going to show up in the middle of the night with a hatchet to chop us to pieces.
The next morning I woke up at 5:30 with first light to get ready for my 15 mile
hike. After breakfast we said our goodbyes and I started off on my SOBO hike.
I hit the first significant climb of the day (minor compared to the James River
hike). Most of the trail was a wide woods road with lots of fist sized rocks,
a lot of runoff on this part of the trail. A senior citizen day hiker flew by
me about mid-morning and warned me that the trail was poorly marked and in
particular that there was a left turn that is easy to miss. I couldn't even
catch this spry guy, eventhough I was averaging 2 miles per going uphill.
I ran into the hiker again at the Pinnacle.
The Pinnancle is a beautiful rocky outcropping. The view was just spectacular
and there was about a dozen hawks soring on the thermals. I contemplated eating
my lunch there, but, instead took a leisurely snack enjoying the warming rays of
the sun. Hard to leave this hilight of my trip, but, I had miles to churn.
About an hour after leaving the Pinnancle I ran into some day, weekend, and one
thru-hiker at an unnamed view that looked back to the Pinnancle. I continued on
and stopped at the Windsor Furnance Shelter to cook my lunch. What a dump, this
shelter should be bull-dozed!. After lunch I continued on the hike, not to many
views from that point on and plenty of Rock fields to scramble over. I met
another thru-hiker as I neared Port Clinton, I suggested that he bypass the
Windsor Shelter and head for Eckville. After much ridge top rock scrambing I
finally started the decent to Port Clinton. As I approached Port Clinton, it was
hard to find the blue-blaze to the trailhead because of all of the undergrowth.
Also, you actually make a steep climb up rock steps to get to the trailhead
parking on Route 61. Not easy to do at the end.
All in all I was very satisfied with my hike. I beat the bad weather, the new
pack rode extremely well for a lightweight, I made good miles, my gear was not
too heavy despite carrying my 120 oz of water (Mike got me into that habbit).
Many of the hikes in PA are kind of rocky and boring, but, I recommend this hike
and St Anthony's Wilderness as the best that I have seen thus far.
Tom S
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Allentown Shelter along AT in PA.
By Tom Stevenson
Dans Pulpit on AT in PA.
By Tom Stevenson
Inside Eckville, PA shelter.
By Tom Stevenson
Small orange Salamander.
By Tom Stevenson
Pinnacle Views along AT in PA.
By Tom Stevenson
Entering Port Clinton, PA.
By Tom Stevenson
Stream along AT in PA.
By Tom Stevenson
Tom at Eckville Shelter, PA
By Tom Stevenson
Another view along AT in PA.
By Tom Stevenson
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