September 15th, 2018, Pennsylvania
It was a bit of a slow start for everyone although I was the first to finish up at camp and depart. I said my “see you laters” and set off at 7:30. The trail today alternated between short nice sections and extremely rocky areas.
I noticed one water source was listed as “emergency only” in the trail guide because it was contaminated with “heavy metals.” Then I came across some signs that helped explain the story. It seems there is an old zinc mining operation that is now closed down. The sign explained that it is now an EPA Superfund Site and is undergoing reforestation. The trees in the area did look like they were struggling and many young trees were already dead.
Later there was a long descent down a rock slide with large boulders.
At the top I passed a middle aged lady in street clothes. I said hi as I passed and she joked, “that was so steep I’ve been praying for a bear to eat me up here so I don’t have to go back down!”
It was a good climb down and, about halfway, I came up behind another hiker. He said he was a SOBO thru hiker and was called “Du Jour.” We hiked together the rest of the day and I enjoyed the company. Du Jour was a youngish guy from northwestern Scotland and had come to the US to hike the AT.
At one point during the afternoon there was a copperhead snake hanging out in a leafy area below a rock on the trail. I was hiking ahead of Du Jour and we were talking as I stepped right over it. The snake started moving and thankfully Du Jour saw it and didn’t step on it as it started to move off trail. That was quite exciting and we found ourselves alert for the rest of the day.
I arrived to the shelter before 6pm. Another SOBO hiker called “Heart Eyes” was already at there and waiting for Du Jour to arrive. They had been hiking together for a while. Then a section hiker called “Shawnee” arrived. He is a surgeon from Pennsylvania who lives and works in Salt Lake City. And finally Griffin made his way to the shelter. He said he doubted the others from the shelter last night would make it this far today. There were lots of complaints of sore feet from the rocks this morning and Griffin thought they would probably take it easy today. In the end he was right and no one else showed up.