Miles: 1117.5 | Clear skies bring relentless rock-hopping through Pennsylvania, punctuated by a detour to a general store for an indulgent lunch and a first meeting with a Flip-Flop hiker. Sore feet and sharp stones define the afternoon, but an early dinner provides just enough fuel to push into the night. Confusing blazes, a rare clean water source, and the unexpected magic of fireflies light the way before rain returns and the day ends tucked into a shared tent.
We headed back out to the trail after a sandwich, milkshake, onion rings, coffee, and a few pepperoni sticks. The trail was rocky and it pounded the bottoms of our feet painfully.
We stopped by a stream early and made dinner. The dinner fueled us to hike into the dark. As the sun went down I did the last rock scramble of the day with terribly confusing blazes. Eventually, the trail turned back to small, sharp rocks.
We woke up to clear skies and sun! We walked over rocks all morning and came to an intersection under construction. 0.3 miles up the road we visited the general store and got lunch. There we met Hard Hat, the first Flip-Flop hiker we’d met!
Near a road, just after dark, we found a clear, clean stream. There haven’t been many good water sources since the beginning of Pennsylvania.
We stopped and used our headlamps to gather a few liters of water. For the first time on this hike, we saw fireflies. Tons of them surrounded us and flashed independently. They were beautiful.
We made camp not long after that and shared Miles’ tent as the rain fell in the night.