Wednesday, April 27th

Peters Mountain Shelter (1160.9 mi) to PA Rte 443 – Green Point School Road (1182.9 mi)

Hiking Miles: 22.0

Total Ascent: 2,904.9 ft

Total Descent: 3,497.4 ft

Total Grade: 289.8 ft/mi

Steps: 51,786

It was a very cold and blustery night and I got up twice and climbed down the vertical ladder of the shelter to go to the bathroom. For the second straight morning it was frigid cold and very windy, and last night one of my shirts that I was air drying indeed flew off the balcony. I ate a Cliff bar with a big squeeze of peanut butter on top for breakfast. We ate in our puffy jackets and warm hats.

An hour into our hike, we reached our personal 300-mile milestone (remember – we started mid-way on the AT so until we reach around 1500 miles overall, we will be making up our own milestone markers). We actually used rocks (very fitting for PA) this time to form the “300” for our pic.

The goal today was to hike 18 miles (very rocky terrain, but expected) to the Rausch Gap Shelter, however we made excellent time and arrived there at 3 pm. So we talked and decided to push on for two reasons: 1) to locate a spot where we could receive cell service and 2) perhaps call for a shuttle pickup to take us into Pine Grove for dinner and a night’s stay.

On our way, we approached a sign/juncture where we could either take a 1.6 mile “dry” detour (0.4 miles more of hiking) or proceed on the marked trail and deal with a beaver dam that was “high” due to the rain. We chose the dam (at this point we were like “NO DETOURS!”) in our bare feet and rolled up pants. We endured cold water, many sticks, rocks and water creatures. We crossed safely, however it was painful on the feet. I don’t think my feet ever felt that bad (yet), especially with it being so cold.

We did manage to find cell service and we called a shuttle driver named Roger who picked us up at Rte 443 where we finished up at 22 miles for the day. Roger dropped us off at a Comfort Inn that was within a short walking distance to a Dollar General, local convenience store, and a McDonald’s in Pine Grove. We resupplied with essentially “non-cook” food since we were unable to purchase a canister at either store. Lesson learned (we are still learning) that we should have bought a canister at Kind of Outdoorsy yesterday when we had the opportunity. We now have a plan for always packing at least one spare canister for the two of us.

On the bright side, we did buy ourselves a huge McDonald’s dinner and ate it in our warm motel room, which was AWESOME!

I called and video chatted with Teresa and the cats, and Stevie called Christina. We were well fed and were so ready for a warm night’s sleep.