Day 13: The longest day ever

Night 12 ended with thru-hiker storytelling night at the 501, with Mississippi, Goof and Mr. Buffalo Man on one side of the fire and the Eagle Scouts and their masters on the other. I listened from the picnic table for a while, and it made me nostalgic for people I never met on the 1,000 miles I haven't yet hiked.

I gunned hard for Port Clinton, the third of Pennsylvania's four trail towns. Not long after I started I got sidetracked by a blue blaze trail that went straight down like 500 feet in elevation, called the Shower Steps. I hadn't had my coffee, so I didn't have the sense to turn around and I kept convincing myself that the trail would turn into the Trail.

It never did. I got to a highway and almost called for a shuttle. But I turned around and clambered straight back up these things:



My 23.7 mile hike took me over miles of aggravating little rocks. When it got dark, I put on my headlamp and sang Beck's "Satan Gave Me A Taco" over and over again to make noise, just in case bears were foraging in the friscallating dusklight.

At about 10 p.m., after 14 hours of hiking, I staggered into town and walked down Penn Street. I bought a Sprite and a Powerade from a soda machine and went to the Port Clinton pavilion, where I found a room full of people horizontal on the floor, on little platforms, and clothes and food bags hanging from the rafters.

"Is that Ink?" Hulk, a section hiker from Florida, said.

"About time, Ink," Goof said.

It was good to be home.