Monday, April 25th

Lisa’s Hostel, Boiling Springs, PA (1124.3 mi) to Cove Mountain Shelter (1145.9 mi)

Hiking Miles: 21.6

Total Ascent: 2,742.8 ft

Total Descent: 2,163.7 ft

Total Grade: 225.0 ft/mi

Steps: 47,789

I woke up relatively early after getting a restful night’s sleep. I ate cold pizza and a piece of chicken, and strolled quietly around the grounds (Lisa’s backyard) while taking a few pics and a video. Stevie and I had chatted about how nice this property was to raise animals and to live on, especially with it being so close to the AT.

We waited for Lisa in her driveway because last evening she was very clear that we needed to be ready to go at 7:30 am. We chatted with another hiker named “HOBO” who stayed in Lisa’s trailer last night. He was a pretty cool dude and he told us that his trail name was an acronym that stood for “Hiking One’s Boots Off” or HOBO. He joined us in Lisa’s car while she gave us a ride back to town on her way to work. Lisa was very industrious as she stated she was a PA, an EMT, a hair dresser, a hostel owner and a few other professions. A stethoscope was wrapped around her driver’s seat headrest. And when we got out to collect our gear from the back, Lisa pointed to a hawk flying above that had caught a fish from the pond.

We hiked 21.6 miles today, with the first 12 of them flat (actually flat!). The rest were the typical hills and rocks! The only time we stopped was to have lunch at the Darlington Shelter.

We stayed at the Cove Shelter for the night with 5 others (Pork Chop, Poppins, Tin Man, Guya, and Marc from Poland who had no trail name yet). The shelter was interesting in that the steps leading into it were intentionally removed to keep porcupines from invading it at night while they rummaged for food. So there was a deliberate climb (big step) to enter the shelter. And you could see the claw marks around the outside of the structure where the porcupines tried to get in so we figured we were in for an interesting evening.

It was a long way to walk downhill to fetch water from a pipe, but we needed it for dinner as well as replenishing our bottles. We cooked dinner, and shortly thereafter got into our quilts for the night. I slept on the second level of the shelter and Stevie stayed below on the base floor.

Shortly after dark, you could hear the porcupines chattering and clawing at the back of the shelter. Their claws screeched on the metal sheathing that was installed around its base. Guya, who was also sleeping on the bottom floor, shined her phone light through the cracks of the shelter, and luckily that scared them away.