7/7/1999 ~ Eckville Shelter (9.5 miles hiked)

Eckville Shelter is behind Lazee's house and has a shower and a flush toilet! I believe he's a former thruhiker, judging by that name. He also keeps sodas and ice cream sandwiches in the fridge on the porch for donations. The attractiveness of all this helped me quit here today even though it was only 1pm. I'm sure my knees will thank me in the morning.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler than today, which means that I'm going to make it a longer day tomorrow. It was decent today until about 2pm when the sun got wicked hot until about 7pm. I started at 7am this morning, so I had pretty enjoyable temps today after I climbed up from Windsor Furnace.

The views today were great. The first climb was to Pulpit Rock and the second view was The Pinnacle. Somewhere in the 1.5 miles between the two, I fell down. I really thought I had caught myself, but there I was on the ground with an infamous PA rock poking my knee (I have a bruise there) and my hip. I now need new sport tights.

I'd like to have slept in the shelter, but it's got fleas and the flying bugs here are very bad, so I'm tented in the field across the street. By The Numbers, Courtdog and Woodpacker stopped here, but moved on. Too Obtuse, Slugger and Bronco pulled in really late. Bristlecone left the trail at Port Clinton and surprised a lot of people. Everyone thought he'd finish. I heard he was bored. Too bad -- I was looking forward to seeing him at some point in the future.