Tuesday, April 26th

Cove Mountain Shelter (1145.9 mi) to Peters Mountain Shelter (1160.9 mi)

Hiking Miles: 15.0

Total Ascent: 2,095.8 ft

Total Descent: 2,015.4 ft

Total Grade: 276.2 ft/mi

Steps: 38,105

I got up at 4:03 am to pee and fell to the ground jumping out of the shelter (remember no steps!). I was fine, and frankly more concerned that I would run into a porcupine that stayed close by. When everyone in the shelter started getting up, I joined them for breakfast and had a cliff bar with peanut butter (protein) to hold me over until we got into the town of Duncannon where we could both enjoy a larger breakfast.

We arrived at the quaint town of Duncannon by 9:00 am, and stopped into a very friendly Sunoco station where we bought coffee, egg & sausage biscuits, powdered donuts and Gatorade. Delicious!!

After that heartier breakfast, we walked through the town and stopped in “Kind Of Outdoorsy”, a popular resupply shop that also had several bunks (each bunk had a name of places along the AT – a few were “Dragon’s Tooth Bed” and “Max Patch Bed”) in the back for hikers to stay overnight. We thought how nice it would have been to stay there for a night, and if there was a “next time” that we would plan ahead and book one. We purchased a small resupply to complement the food we had, and I contemplated buying a fuel canister. The ones we had were getting very low, however I decided not to in order to conserve on weight. We also met a young girl there who had injured her knee on trail; she booked an overnight stay to rest and heal. She had been driven there by a nice couple who she met on the trail. Trail Angels!

Today’s weather was both cool and warm depending on the elevation and distance hiked, but it also rained which made it quite slippery on the rocks. I actually slipped and fell four times throughout the day.

Towards the end of our hike for the day, we caught up with a young lady who was also hiking northbound. She had stopped for a break, and we passed her only exchanging “hellos”. Shortly after, she hiked passed us; she was clearly a strong hiker, and we figured with the light rain falling that she was moving swiftly to get to the Peters Mountain Shelter for cover, like we were.

When we arrived at our destination, there were other hikers setting up in the shelter, but there was plenty of room. Stevie and I shared the upstairs loft with the girl we met on trail – her name was “Flower Power”, and she was hiking the second leg of her flip-flop through hike. From September to November of last year (2021), she had hiked southbound from Harpers Ferry to Springer Mountain in Georgia, in just 60 days. Incredible! That had been a perfect time of year to hike that section to avoid the southern summer heat. Now she was finishing up the northern section from Harpers Ferry to Mount Katahdin.

The other hikers were Marc from Poland, another Mark, and an older gentleman called Papa Grinch. Stevie was nice enough to walk down a steep hill and bring two of the hikers water back from the stream.

The previous evening, a bear had visited the shelter; you could see the claw marks on the bear box where it was trying to scratch his way in. We were happy that we set up on the second floor, however I wasn’t looking forward to exiting the shelter each time nature called during the night. We hung our clothes over the balcony to dry off; the air was cool and it was extremely windy. I thought to myself that I wouldn’t be surprised if my clothes blew down to the first floor during the night. I video chatted with Teresa – she said she was doing well and sitting with both Tuffy & Lakeyn (two of our cats).

During dinner, Stevie’s fuel canister ran out so we shared mine. However my canister was also on its last puff (from my math calculations). We would have to conserve on gas until we reached another resupply store. At this moment, I was regretting not purchasing one at Kind of Outdoorsy earlier.