Duncannon to Swatara Gap Day 17-19

Leaving Duncannon, we stopped by Goodies, but Daryl was very apologetic that he had no hand warmers for me.

The day started with a light rain and walking through neighborhoods. A little road walking to warm up the previous zero day muscles, although we did try to walk everywhere.

As we crossed the roadway, and the bridge, I was struck by the fact that roughly eighteen days ago, I had rode southbound on the way to Harpers Ferry.

Heading up the hill, I enjoyed seeing both sides of the river as it made a horseshoe bend and as we traversed, had vistas on both side.

We arrived at Clark Ferry shelter for a food break, and many maintenance crew arrived up a deer path trail carrying supplies and tools. They disaasembled a picnic table in two minutes and were planning on putting up a new one. Another crew was updating parts of the privy that porcupines had been gnawing on.

 

The views were good and actually not hazy as we kept on going along the ridgeline

Peters shelter would have been great in summer for the cool breeze coming up the mountain, but today, not so much. Found a less breezy corner on the second floor, a set of couples arrived and took the bottom floor. Dood who we met in Duncannon, completed the top floor for the night.

Well we didnt think we could make it to the next shelter five miles away, so we camped at Yellow Springs. Our tents, bear hangs, and camp chores were all done by darkness, but it was a close thing.

Rausch shelter was a cruisy flat blue blaze side trail and a cool place for lunch. Running water right there too!

Zuko has a large nasty open blister, and a foot injury from a PA rock, so I thought that submerging it in water wiuld cause more issues. Little did I know that when we stopped for a break, ants were all over Zuko’s log, so we hightailed it up a little higher up the hill all the time she was brushing off real and then imaginary ants

So tonight Dood and Zuko are getting off trail because of their respective foot injuries. I’m gutted to say the least. I planned on being solo, but knowing someone has your back on the trail or is with you, even if its 15 minutes ahead or behind, is reassuring. I do have my Garmin in reach mini, so Im not totally off grid. But the companionship and conservations have been so helpful. We both hike similiar paces, and when we were almost to Toms Run shelter we started quoting lines from “Better Off Dead” I knew it was a strong match of kindred spirits.