Day 20: Nero at Rock ‘n Sole

Summary 
May 16th

PA 183 to Eagles Nest Shelter

NOBO mile#1208.8 

Tolmann’s daily miles 5.8 

Tolmann’s total miles 185.1

Had a wonderful stay at the Rock ‘n Sole Hostel. The hosts, Craig and Jody, were the best! Excellent food (grilled hamburgers, macaroni and cheese and steamed broccoli for supper, and egg bacon and cheese breakfast sandwiches on bagels with fruit salad this morning), beautiful property, generous and enthusiastic hosts; thank you to Craig and Jody, and to their wonderful children! 

I don’t think I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that Chainsaw and Half-blind were at the hostel last night as well, and a woman going by the trail name of Bangles. It’s a great group of folks, and it feels like we will continue to bump into each other. 

Last evening before supper we had a little impromptu jam session; Craig’s son, Chase, offered to let us play his Fender dreadnought, which sounded great, especially in comparison with the Backpacker. It was fun and all the kids came over to listen. There were plans made to have a campfire and sing along which never really materialized when everyone kind of scattered after supper. 

 This morning our plan was to do a resupply at the Walmart in Hamburg; Chase brought us over. It’s this big shock to go from trail life to town. Everything moves too fast. Everything is loud. The cars move too fast. But the benefit of a short ride compared to a loooooong walk is undeniable. And… there was a Dunkin’ Donuts ice coffee!!!!

It took the remainder of the morning to get food sorted and bagged, collect some unused items to send home, as well as some other chores. But Tilly, Hops and I were back on trail by noon. 

The concept of a Nero is pretty simple: it is “nearly a zero”. And with the miles I’ve been able to put in recently, the 5.8 to Eagles Nest Shelter is a short day. 

Not only was today short miles, they were pretty much a level walk. There were a few stretches of rock scrambles, and a section where a prescribed burn had been done back on May 4th. But I got to the shelter by 2:30. There I met up with Shellelagh, who I had met at Doyle in Duncannon (through-hiker who started at Springer in February) and we chatted for a while. I asked him about his most memorable moment on the trail so far, and he told of how he helped get another hiker with kidney stones evacuated on Siler’s Bald. He said it took 16 hours to finally get the Blackhawk helicopter in to pick the man up. It made him wonder about what the outcome would be for a more serious, time sensitive problem. 

Later Tilly and Hops showed up, and we met a flip-flopper from the UK named Bearbait. Bearbait plays ukulele too, so we had a great conversation over dinner (mine was instant 3 cheese potato with spam). 

As the sun was shining into my hammock, and I could see it nearing the horizon, I remembered that this shelter is supposed to have an overlook, and I thought that might make for a great photo opportunity, I jumped out of the hammock to find the overlook. While moving more quickly than was prudent, I caught my toe on one of the infamous rocks and took a true header. I landed square on my chest and even hit my head on the ground; my phone went flying and it took me some time to find it. Apparently I lost my little glasses, too. Luckily, I have more than one pair of glasses! 

I picked myself up, picked the leaves out of my clothes, then swung by the shelter to see if there was any directions on finding the overlook. There, I saw that Jackie (“Pen Mar Girl”) is here for the night! I haven’t seen her since Trail of Hope Hostel in Fayetteville. So we took a few minutes to catch up before I followed the blazes to the “overlook”. Underwhelming, just a thinning of the trees where maybe an overlook once existed. But the excursion gave me the chance to talk with Jackie again. This trail community is pretty cool!!!  

Tomorrow: Port Clinton and beyond, and the possibility of hitting the 200 mile mark!