Day 72 - Birch Run Shelter (June 19)

I did another 23 mile day to get here from the Deer Lick Shelter. It was an easy day with a stop in at an Italian restaurant for lunch. The medium calzone was so large I could only eat half. I saved the rest for tomorrows breakfast.

I hiked most of the day with Vachon and Timeless. Both are here at this shelter along with Doctor who is a psychologist. Vachon is a recently retired dairy farmer. He just sold his half of the dairy farm to his brother. He seems to be very happy to be out of the business. Timeless has been working at ski resorts in the winter in order to get a ski pass and national parks in the summer. He said he will likely move to the ocean to try surfing.

The shelters in PA are the best we've seen with only a few exceptions. So far, there are no sign of the rocks everyone talks about. I hear the rocks start after Duncannon.


I've had no pain in my ankle the last two days. My cough is slowly getting better. My sore throat is mostly better. I'm just feeling a little more tired than normal. It was a very cold night last night, and we all slept in in the morning. I really needed the rest.

I'm doing mileage in the 20s very comfortably for a while. Timeless has been doing the same mileage or maybe even a little less. He has yet to take a zero and expects to finish on August 12. I need to be careful with the number of zeros I do.