Today we resumed hiking outside of Duncannon, where we got off the trail last week when Trippy got hit by the Lyme truck. We took the Shikellimy Trail back up to the trail from off of PA 325. Pretty much within a mile or two of getting on the trail, we saw a fairly large black bear. I couldn’t get any good pictures unfortunately, but it wasn’t overly afraid of us and just kind of moseyed along. That was the first one we’ve seen on the AT in PA.
This section is definitely one of our favorite sections in PA. It’s not as rocky as a lot of other nearby sections and it has a lot of nice forests to amble through. We section hiked this area last year.
It also has some delicious PA water…
We also had a number of snake sightings today. The first was a large rattlesnake that was straight chilling by the trail. It did not give a flying crap about us or my papparazzi actions.
The next interesting encounter was a fairly large black snake. It was also chilling on the trail, but decided that the safest place away from obnoxious hikers was up the nearby pine tree.
This was pretty cool to watch it climb. I’ve seen them and their skins in trees, but have never actually seen one climb up one. It was pretty fast.
The rest of the day included some pretty easy hiking and a few minor climbs. Tomorrow we continue hiking through this section towards Port Clinton. Thanks to Ma and Pa Heiser for providing slackpack shuttle services! It’s a lot nicer to eat some pizza at the end of a long hike instead of our normal dehydrated gruel.
Vital stats:
Miles hiked today – 18.6 (plus a bonus .9 on the Shikellimy Trail)
Mood – good
Physical state – good
Smell – wonderful
Song stuck in my head – Dammit by Blink 182
Hmm. Showers everyday and the snakes are following. No showers – no snakes. Hmmm. Is that bottlable?
gonna say clay sept 22 preseason baby just sayin
Perhaps AL is onto something here…skip the showers! That wonderful “outdoorsy” smell is scaring off the critters! 🙂 Glad you’re getting back to hiking and ticking off the miles. You are awesome!! Take care; take your time while Trippy returns to full good health. Stay safe. Sending smelly thoughts to ward off the critters, prayers and lots of love.
That rattler must have been a Flyers fan and too depressed to move.