Day 72 Alone

Today I hiked 27.3 miles mostly alone while Spencer and Tyler went into town. 


We got an early start this morning, left Nancy’s house and were hiking by 6AM. Spencer’s fiancée Brooke and Tyler’s girlfriend Kristina drove down today to meet them in Port Clinton PA and spend the weekend together. So Spencer, Tyler, and I planned to hike the 18 miles from Nancy’s house to Port Clinton before 1PM to get there as the girls show up. 


Ashley is driving down tomorrow afternoon after attending her roommate’s bridal shower. She and I will spend Sunday and most of Monday together. Since Ashley was busy on Saturday morning I needed to get a day ahead of Spencer and Tyler so that when they are hiking on Monday they will catch up to me. 


Anyway, we woke up at 5:15 and were hiking by 6AM. Tyler and Spencer were only hiking 18, and I planned to go 27 so that Saturday will be a short 17 mile day for me. 


We hiked through a few year old burn area in the morning and ridge walked pretty much the whole way into Port Clinton. 



Around 10AM Spencer and Tyler decided to walk the pre-2013 Appalachian trail route which is a gravel road. The road avoids a lot of the rocks on the official AT and has some better views. In 2013 the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) in their infinite wisdom decided to reroute the AT through the woods instead of on the road for no reason other than to make that section of trail harder. The woods path isn’t significantly harder but it could be argued that it’s less scenic than the road. Despite thinking the ATC is dumb, I decided since we were going to split up anyway I’d rather walk the official AT even though it’s probably less scenic. I don’t know why but I just prefer to walk the official trail as much as possible. 


So we split up at 10AM and I hiked the next 18 miles alone. I definitely prefer the company of my friends to hiking alone, but there was something cool about relying completely on myself while still hiking a significantly long day. Before the very steep descent down into Port Clinton I hiked through a beautiful hardwood and fern forest. 



I then stopped at an overlook for a short break. 


Port Clinton had an old Reading Railroad station and a river called the Schuylkill River.




I didn’t stop in town and hiked right back up into the mountains. On the way there were some beautiful flowers.




At the top of the ridge was an overlook called Pulpit Rock.



After hiking 27.3 miles I made it to camp around 5:30PM. It was incredibly nice getting to camp so early. I was able to eat dinner at my leisure and hang out in my tent enjoying the wind and looking up at the sky through the leaves. 


Tomorrow I plan to wake up at 5:30 and make it to an eastern overlook called The Pinnacle for sunrise. It supposed to be one of the best views in PA. After catching the sunrise I will hike 17 miles to a trailhead then shuttle into Allentown PA and wait for Ashley in town. 


Goodnight,

Walker 





If you want to follow Tyler or Spencer, here are their logs as well:


Tyler: https://tylerat2024.blogspot.com/?m=1


Spencer: https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

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