Thursday – 19 September

Destination: Turnpike Shelter Area (MM 38.2)
Start Location: RT. 30 Shelter Area (MM 46.5)
Today’s Miles: 8.3
Trip Miles: 31.9

Last night after we crawled in our tents I heard an owl in the distance. When I got out of the tent at 11:30 the moon glowed bright and clear. Bob and I awoke to a misty morning. Tents were wet and we wiped them off as best we could before packing up and hiking at 7:30. A solo hiker headed out of camp a few minutes before us but he was not very talkative.

Shortly the sun came out. We saw a mountain biker sail by on a cross trail. Bob and I questioned if it was an ebike? After walking through a rock maze we came to Beam Rocks which was a huge rock cliff. We saw our first stand of hemlocks.  Most of the woods have been oak and it looks like a bumper crop of acorns. We also crossed our first running streams.

Bob and I arrived at camp around 1:30 and found the picnic table. There were no good tent sites nearby so we are near one of the shelters to cook. Tents went up to dry out. The pump and toilets are not far but down a steep hill. This water pump is much, much easier than our last two but the water is orange with iron. Filtering helps but not a great taste.

Dinner, hang our food and a campfire are the plans for tonight. Tomorrow is a big day. We will cross mile marker 35 which is the halfway point and stop at Highland Market for lunch and a sandwich to take for dinner. It will also be our longest day at 14 miles. We follow that with a 5 mile day to recover. Weather looks good for the rest of the trip.

Someone showed up who had reserved the shelter Bob and I were planning to cook in. That meant dinner cooked and eaten around the campfire ring. We played with a fire for a little while before turning in. Not much luck with damp wood.

Still no photos. Cell service barely gets the text out for the blog. Hoping to be able to upload pics tomorrow if the market has Wi-Fi.