June 14 - 23.5 / 1,230.7

I woke up thinking that everyone else would be up. However, I rolled over in my sleeping bag, but no one else was even stirring. It was around 6, and I knew the post office didn't open until 7:30. I figured that they must be waiting for it to open too. I went ahead and ate breakfast while the others started to move around. I went to the post office once it opened and shipped my Salomon trail runners ahead in case my new shoes don't work out. I left town with Hopi. We were walking through Windsor Furnace when a lady offered us some chocolate. We both received two Hershey Dark Chocolate bites. We left from there and headed up to Pulpit Rock. As we were resting there, Fusion showed up. Pulpit offered a decent view of the farmland below. Also up there was an observatory and an outhouse. I made use of one of them.

The next few miles brought many more rocks and a few views of the same farmland. One of the named views was The Pinnacle. Recently, the rocks have torn up my feet. Again, this is the worst I have felt on the entire trail. It is hard for me to go more than 3 or so miles without stopping to rest the poor little puppies.

The three of us walked down the ridge to Hawk Mountain Road. 0.2 miles down the road was a shelter with a caretaker. We decided to go rest there for a little bit before heading on. We were met by a few section hikers who had already claimed spots. While resting, Hopi decided he wasn't going to go any further. Fusion and I knew if we did more today, then we would have less to do to get into town. We snacked for about an hour and even claimed some more trail magic. This time it was snickers, pretzels, and cokes. Fusion and I left the shelter around 5 and began the climb up to Allentown Hiking Club Shelter. Guess what? We hiked over more rocks. Our pace had slowed down to about 2 miles an hour instead of the normal 3. It seemed like the day was never going to end.

We were about two miles from the shelter when I about crapped my pants. I came around a bend in the trail and was starring straight at the largest black bear I have ever seen. I think it was 550 to 600 pounds and could have easily been more than that. I think I said a few choice words and froze in place. The bear and I met eyes. He then lowered his head, turned, and headed into the words. I was glad that the outcome was not something else. Fusion and I raised our voices and banged our trekking poles together just to make more noise. We began to hike again once he moved far enough into the woods.

We arrived at the shelter some time after 8. El Hefe was in the shelter and a father and son had set up their tent off to the side. It was the first time I had met El Hefe. He is hiking from Harpers Ferry to Katahdin. He hiked from Springer to Harpers Ferry last year. We spoke with him for a little bit as we ate dinner. I was too tired to heat anything up so I just ate pop tarts, a Nature Valley bar, and some gummy bears/peach rings. Afterwards, I threw my bear rope over a tree, but it got entangled in a branch. Both Fusion and I took turns in trying to get it down. However, it was not going anywhere. We threw his rope over a limb and left my for the morning.

It was some of the deepest sleep I have had in a while. I did wake up a few times though with my legs throbbing in pain. Advil isn't even working now.