Project Eveningland

6/13/2023 Tuesday

I don’t know when the rains ceased but they had long passed by the time I woke at 4AM. My tent had nearly dried in the morning breeze. That privy though.

I would build a “toilet chute” such that it widened, not narrowed, for what I feel are obvious reasons. I had to wedge the heavy wooden door wide open with my trekking pole to be able to breathe.

We enjoyed chatting with Nutella and Bane, the couple from Austria, and Electro, who did opt to take the break he’d been contemplating.

Neil and I walked down a gentle incline to a bridge and a decision point. Take the alternate or wade through beaver ponds the day after a torrential rainfall? Not hard, IMHO, but plenty of folks took the Beaver Route. We took the alternate and walked a gravel road with a few big construction trucks going back and forth then ascended a very old, rocky, steep road cut into the forest. We took a snack break where the trails rejoined.

There was very well-organized trail magic that began with “pre-magic”—a cooler with cold drinks .75 before the actual trail magic, with a note explaining that you can drink the drink on the way and then have food at PA 443. Jinx had root beer floats, bananas, watermelon, two kinds of brownies, and a variety of chips. She’d met Wedge and recognized me after a bit from his YouTube videos. We stayed for a long, humane lunch break.

We crossed Swatara Gap on a gorgeous old metal bridge built in 1890. The decking was made of narrow slats of sun-bleached wood that were soft underfoot. I could have walked that bridge for an hour. We crossed under a superhighway in the sky built on thin concrete legs. It was far, far above us. It looked delicate.

After the crossing we began a long, brutal, rocky climb in the heat of the afternoon. Once we gained the ridge we’d walk to William Penn Shelter, things turned rockier. The rocks got pointy. But sometimes there were smooth sections, where the trail parted seas of ferns, elegant in their uniformity and a welcome break from stuff that either is or looks like poison ivy.

The last few miles were slow. We stopped for a quick break before the last three miles. William Penn is an unusual shelter! Newish but goth in a fun way. It’s all tall and dark and imposing with walls made out of tightly fit wood that is treated with something on the inside that makes it dark, like railroad ties. I kept thinking Addams Family.

The rain yesterday stacked sticks neatly against rocks where the waters flowed with debris.

Neil got the A.T. Deluxe Sampler on his four-day hike with me: a hostel stay, hot days, two trail magic experiences, old/new shelters, heavy rain, gear failures, a horrid privy, odd springs, rocky tread, crusty old men, Europeans, and now what appears to be a night with just the two of us here at the shelter. Super Deluxe would have gotten him a run-in with “ultras,” an inspirational graffiti moment, and a rattlesnake scare. Super Deluxe Platinum gets you a thwarted bear attack, a surprise meeting with a well-known YouTuber, and a waterfall.