Summary Random Campsite: 1233.1 George W Outerbridge Shelter: 1256.8 Total miles: 23.7 Grant and Dean were still at the camp when we woke up. The night before, Grant discovered that he had lost his credit card and his AAA card, but the guy who found it got in touch with Grant's dad and said he could drop off the card to Grant at 6:30an at the trail on the way to work. The guy also brought Grant coffee and donuts. He only asked that Grant send him a picture from the top of Katahdin as thanks. We got to enjoy one of Grant's gift donuts, it was exquisite.
* Pennsylvania trail
We all headed out from camp together. We were making good time, but Tyler in particular, was feeling low morale. Sometimes it just feels like we are working real hard every day and never get anywhere, even if we have gone 1200 miles. But the rocks are getting bad and our pace is falling off as a result. Virginia Blues all over again but this time in Pennsylvania. We stopped for lunch at the next shelter and met Blitz, a German fellow from the black forest and real friendly dude. All the German hikers seem to hike sunup to sundown, though. It's tough to keep up with the sunup people. So if we don't see him again we say viel Erfolg. We walked along a road for several miles, then the rocks started again. Well, by rocks this time it was boulder fields. We climbed over a section called Knife's Edge, which was not as precarious or as long as the one in Baxter, but still kept us slow. A section hiker we ran into afterwards told us that we hadn't seen anything yet of the rocks. Of course, he has no idea what we've seen so his assumption that the rocks would be even worse coming up just sort of made us angry and confused. As it turned out, the rocks he warned us about were not as bad compared to what we had done just that day in the previous sixteen miles. Still, it was getting late again. We had already passed the point where Dean was going to stop for the day. We had seven more to go. With three left, Tyler kicked up the pace to get camp set up and dinner made so we would still be able to eat while the sun was still out. We both also caught up to Grant picking a pint of blueberries from a field. He wasn't going to get his crazy thirty miles in, so he figured he would camp with us one more night and lucky for us, share his blueberries. They tasted like candy. Across the ridge right before where we planned to stop were some of the most beautiful campsites we've seen in our journey. But there was no water. So we had no press on. There was a campsite with space for three or four tents a hundred yards from the shelter. The spring, and it is apparently the last reliable spring for thirty miles, was just beyond the shelter. We made it to camp at a reasonable time and relaxed after a dinner of Mac n cheese. Despite the rocks, Tyler's feet didn't hurt which he figured was due to Grant's magical foot massage. Emily, wanting to test the power, asked for one as well. Grant obliged even though he wanted to wake up at four to get thirty six miles all the way to Delware Water Gap and out of this horrid state. He is a brave soul.
