September 16th, 2018, Pennsylvania
Today’s section of trail must be popular with weekend hikers as I ran into people all day long. Early on I came upon a guy staring upwards toward the trees with binoculars. “What do you see up there?” I asked quietly, now looking up myself. “A group of warblers,” he whispered back. “They are migrating during the day and must have stopped here for the night.” I thought that was cool but couldn’t see them myself so hiked away quietly in case they were still sleeping…
Then, at a section of trail called “The Knife’s Edge” I met a mother and son backpacking duo. She said this was her son’s first overnight trip and they were heading back to the car now. Her son was probably nine or ten years old and was making his way down the Knife’s Edge with his large backpack. After they were down I made my way up and along the sideways leaning rocks that give the feature its name.
Before I left the shelter this morning all the others said they were planning on stopping at Eckville Shelter for the night. This is a real cabin with toilet, shower, bunks, and a caretaker. But I reached the road for the shelter at 2:30pm and decided I needed to use the rest of the day. So I continued hiking for a few more hours. I ended up just over 9 miles from the next town. Hamburg has a Walmart less than a mile from the trail so I plan to walk there for resupply tomorrow, then probably straight back on the trail.
Late in the day I happened upon three people painting with what looked like watercolors. They were set up with portable easels and painting away. They were a good way from the road so hiked in to the spot they chose. The place didn’t look special to me but the late afternoon light was kind of dramatic.
Finally I reached “The Pinnacle” and took the short side trail over to see the view.
There were about a dozen others up there and the view of the rolling farmland below was beautiful.
There was also an enormous, man-made pile of rocks nearby. I had heard about this rock pile and that it was a tradition for people to each add their own rock to the pile. Most of the reasonable size rocks in the vicinity must already have been up there because I only found boulders, partially buried rocks that wouldn’t come out, and gravel-size bits and chips of rock. I picked a small piece and tossed it up. I don’t think there is a rock size restriction for the tradition.
