Summary: Peter's Mountain Shelter: 1158.2 Random Campsite: 1179.8 Total miles: 21.6 It rained over night, but not enough to do much beyond making sure that our rainfly was wet. Just as we were getting ready though, it started sprinkling. We weren't sure what to do with our ponchos since it still seemed to warm to wear them. We opted to wrap our packs and ignore the cold rain on ourselves. The first water on the map was 6.5 miles from camp (unless we wanted to make the trek down the steep trail again). The surrounding PA area was supposed to be pretty water light, but we haven't had any trouble. Until Rausch Shelter, 18 miles away, we didn't take more than a five minute break in the rain, drizzle, and mist.
Rausch Shelter was already full of eight hikers when we arrived at 5. The only familiar face was Ducky, the fellow Mainer! Since we hiked through lunch, we ate a lunchdinner hybrid and a few snacks while at the shelter. Just before leaving, of course, the rain got significantly heavier. But, we ventured out anyway.
Luckily, the rain only lasted about a half hour as we finished up the miles. We found the stealth spot exactly where Guthooks said it would be. Dean headed to bed early (still way behind on sleep). Emily and Grant tried to get a fire going in the wet, but couldn't quite get it to catch this time. It sure wasn't for lack of trying. Tyler tried making sassifrass tea, but apparently the steep time was significantly longer than we had fuel or patience for, so despite some nice smelling steam, we got no tea. We headed to bed with no tea and no fire.
