Day 55 - Hog Pen Gap (June 2)

I was hiking with Jet Ski again today. We started at Punch Bowl shelter and hiked about 17 miles to Hog Pen Gap. Hog Pen Gap is a beautiful field. There are many people here tonight. I was surprised by some old acquaintances who are here.

Crutch who ran Cloud Nine hostile is here. He started his third thru hike a couple days after Sonic and I left Cloud Nine. The last time I saw him was in Franklin the day after Sonic left the trail. He is doing trail magic this year. He took orders for pizza and beer, and went to town. He said that he did not get paid for his work at Cloud Nine, and he is not taking any money to drive to town for pizzas and beer. There are a few people on the trail without an obvious source of income.

The biggest surprise is that Landfill is with Crutch. I met Landfill in the Smokies. He is about a hundred pounds over weight. I've been wondering what ever happened to him. I really admired him for doing the trail. He had nearly 200 miles done when I met him. I can not imagine how hard it must be for him to do the trail. We are all struggling with 30 to 40 pound packs. Landfill has much more to deal with than that. He met up with Crutch some where, and have been doing trail magic and trail maintenance projects together ever since.

Hanna aka Bandana aka Blue Tongue is here too. She was at Cloud Nine with us, and spent a lot of time talking to Sonic. Her boyfriend, Beaker, had to go back to work. She yellow blazed here to meet someone in Waynesburg. She said that she will go back to where she started her yellow blaze next week.

It was a relatively easy day today. We only hiked about 17 miles, but we had a 3,000 foot incline followed by a 1,000 decline and incline.

I would love to know what the Federal Government's guidelines are for building trails. Much of the today's inclines did not use switchbacks. It was steep, and unlikely to be used by non thru hikers. Crutch was also telling use about the roller coaster, which is coming up. The roller coaster is a series of about eleven peaks in a row. However, the peaks might go up the same mountain three times. Trail terminology for this is PUDS (pointless ups and downs). The trail has a surprising number of PUDS.

I was talking with other people who met the 3 kids last night. None of us believe their story. They just showed up on the trail in the middle of nowhere. It will be interesting if anyone finds out more about them.