Saturday, September 26th, 2015
Start: camping beyond Yellow Springs Village Site
End: Hertline Campsite
Mileage: 26.8 (+0.6 for water)
Last night, I didn’t have cell service. As soon as I finished dinner, wrote up my blog post, and got horizontal, I fell asleep and slept very soundly (for backpacking) until 5:30am. I snoozed until 6:30am. I then was up, packed, and on the trail by 7:20am. I made really good time today.
Today, I went over Second Mountain (1357′), unnamed overlook (1382′), Fisher Lookout (1286′), Kimmel Lookout (1335′), Round Head (1500′), and unnamed overlook (1402′). I passed by Rausch Gap Shelter, William Penn Shelter, and 501 Shelter. I got water at both William Penn and 501 Shelters.
I arrived at the 501 shelter by 4pm and left by 4:15pm. I decided to press on, both because I had a lot of day left and because I didn’t much care for the people hanging out at the shelter. It’s Saturday night on a nice weekend in September; everyone is out camping. I arrived at Hertline Campsite by 6:20pm.
I chatted with some locals and they gave me a canned IPA beer they had found that the previous night’s campers had left behind. It was cold and not too horrid for an IPA. After filtering my night’s worth of water, I set off to find a camping spot. I wandered the entire campground and didn’t find a quiet and flat space. I ended up in a very small, 1-person-tent sized stall, right on the AT, near the water source. There are at least 19 different tents set up, including a large group of boy scouts, as well as a group of late teen/early twenties local boys. There are at least 4 fires going as well.
We shall see how my sleep is tonight. But tomorrow, I only have 18.5 miles into town!
Transcending Mountains 