Day 90!
We woke up this morning to awesome trail magic from Testament’s friends- Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and a dozen donuts! We were eating when several hikers came by - Bonk, All Balls (who I knew as Ryan and hadn’t seen since day 10!), and FatherMan! We gave them all coffee and got a late start, about 9 am. We walked to the historic iron bridge and then started a climb up under I-81 and then up a steep hill to our PA staple - green ridgeline. It was a little rockier today, but it still wasn’t too bad. Nokey was about 0.1 miles in front of me on the climb and he saw a bear on the way up! I was pretty jealous that he was gone by the time I caught up. We headed on the ridge to the William Penn shelter and had lunch at a picnic table, which is a luxury out here as we usually have to eat lunch on a rock! From the shelter, we had a nice level walk on an old roadbed and our hike was quick. We walked through a gap and then crossed a road, but the trail quickly turned rocky and we got a little slower. We passed a few lookouts and a hang gliding meadow before coming to PA-501. We planned to go to the 501 shelter for showers. The 501 shelter is on private land and has a caretaker and showers! We got there right around 3 pm as a car was pulling up. Turns out, it was trail magic from a 2011 hiker named Amish! We helped her carry in all the food, got showers, and then ate so much! Burritos, donuts, fruit, homemade cheesecake! There was a huge group there by the time Amish headed out. We weren’t planning on staying as we only did 13 miles, but it was a no-brainier since so many awesome people showed up! We set up tents and slept great under the stars for a cool night. The photo is from the 501 shelter- Amish had a pet bunny named Buttercup we all got to hold.