September 17th, 2018, Pennsylvania
From my camp near The Pinnacle it was about a four hour hike to the road to Hamburg. It was misty with occasional drizzle so the trail was almost empty. The Appalachian Trail allows dogs to be walked off leash. Quite a few people hike with well behaved dogs off leash. Some dogs run along with their owners. Others walk on a leash. Today I passed an older man on the side of the trail with his dog leashed and tied to a tree nearby. As I approached and said “hi” his dog started barking, then pulling on the leash, then growling and snapping as I tried to pass. They owner said, “he’s friendly, I swear.” The dog was now thrashing and twisting trying to escape the leash in order to be friendly to me. I hurried along. Almost all the other dogs I’ve encountered have been well behaved…
I reached the road and continued another mile or so to Walmart. I bought food for the next few days on the trail, enough for about four more days, plus some fresh food for this evening. I carried it all over to the Microtel where I had made an online reservation earlier in the morning. I was glad the Microtel had a coin laundry in house and got everything cleaned up.