September 18th, 2018, Pennsylvania
I got back on my way from the hotel around 1pm. I walked along the road for a while then rejoined the trail which went through a neighboring town, Port Clinton. The trail crossed Reading Railroad property, complete with coal company logos and giant example boulders of their product. Each company’s giant lump of coal looked a little different from the others.
As I was leaving Port Clinton I came across another hiker. His name was Morris and he was hiking from New Jersey to somewhere in North Carolina. I noticed he had shoes tied to the back of his pack but was currently barefoot. He said he liked hiking barefoot and I didn’t get to ask him any more about it. We reached the point where the trail re-entered the forest. I took off my pack to rearrange some things and Morris continued on ahead. Later, up the hill, I caught up with him and passed by. He was proceeding slowly on the small, somewhat sharp rocks.
The trail went back uphill then leveled off and, by 6:30pm, I arrived to an unofficial tent site around 10 miles from town. The afternoon sky had cleared nicely after the rains and the next few days were supposed to be dry.
I hope to reach Duncannon, my next resupply point, within 3 days and, thankfully, the weather forecast appears to support that. I also heard that the number of rocks on the trail tends to diminish after Duncannon, which I’m looking forward to.