Wednesday May 8, 29.0mi/46.7km

Duncannon (1149.1) to Rausch Gap shelter (1177.8) (PA) +0.3mi side trail

I woke up in the church basement, and had a nice hot shower to start the day. There was even a little kitchen to prepare breakfast, but I only have non-cook foods for breakfast. I walked out of town shortly after 7:30am, crossing the Susquehanna River.

There was a climb back up to the ridge, which was surprisingly not rocky, just had a lot of rock steps!

Up on the ridge, there were only a couple of views all morning.

Looking northwest.Also northwest, but with powerlines!

I passed a shelter early on, so I didn’t stop, but it had a funny sign. Someone has been putting these eyes on signs for the last 500 miles!

Most of the day was a green tunnel.

Even when the trail followed a nice mulch road for a mile, it was still a tunnel.

I stopped for an early lunch at a shelter. This one was huge, two floors!

I hadn’t seen any people all day, so in the afternoon I listened to podcasts for some human voices. It was mostly a nice walk in the woods, with surprisingly smooth trail. I know the rocky trail is coming, but I’m grateful for every day that I can cruise along on a smooth one.

There was a trail junction, and it had pink blazes! Now I know what all this “pink blazing” is about… 🙂

Many of the water sources in the afternoon looked like this. Kinda orange, maybe some kind of mineral?

And there was a cool landmark at the end of the day, a monument marker for the western terminus of the Horse-shoe trail. It’s a 120-mile trail that starts near Philadelphia, in Valley Forge NP. I had spent some time hiking on it like 10 years ago, and forgotten it existed.I cruised another 5 miles, and arrived to the shelter at 6pm. There wasn’t any flat spots for a tent, so I slept in the shelter with 4 other dudes. One of which was Bob! I caught up to him!