Today was a long but good day. Started off from tumbling run shelter which again is a very nice shelter with excellent water. There is a 1000 foot ascent out of tumbling run shelters which was very challenging for me. My target was South Mountain Pennsylvania where I picked up Kathryn, Seth and John Robert.
John, so far is doing great. He likes to see everything in the woods and play with rocks. I think it’s good that he’s getting this kind of exposure to nature this early. He sleeps a lot while his mother carries him. We don’t have to worry much about food for him because his mother is his food, plus he eats whatever we happen to be eating as well.
The only challenging part about the day was the hike into South Mountain along Pennsylvania Highway 233. It’s about a mile and a half very hot with the heat from the road coming up. Hiking along road is not very nice. But I was able to make it to the post office, resupply with food, drop some other food that I didn’t need and gear off and mail it back home to Allyson. Then we had to hike back up from the post office to get to the trail which was about another 1.5. That added 3 miles for the day, which, for me, was already starting to turn into a long day.
We were able to get those chores done, and make it to the trail, which was an ascent, but not a very challenging one up to the ridge another 2 miles to the shelter. According to the notebook, the shelter has “the best smelling privy since Georgia.“ I don’t know if that’s true, but it is nice. I’ll talk about privies another day.
Overall an excellent day. I’m glad to be with my kids and to hear about everything that’s going on at home. Having them here is a joy and blessing.
Today’s mileage: 8.6
Total trail miles 56.5