I woke up early feeling great! I had my camp packed up, had pop tarts for breakfast, and was on my way by 7:30am (6:30 Texas time). I felt good and the trail was easy and level. Rain was threatening all morning but it held off until around 1pm.

I spent my morning noticing how the forest was changing. It has a different character here than it did 10 miles back. Here it has more pine trees and they are large and some are huge. I wish I knew how to tell how old they are (without cutting them down and counting the rings of course) and just talk to them and ask for tales of things they see. This forest is going to turn me into a Druid (without the human sacrifice of course).

At 10am I came across a note: If you are a thru hiker, there is magic ahead! Just around a bend in the trail there was a couple, Jennifer and Bruce from Delaware, they set up a full cookout. They had a grill, coolers, camp chairs, along with tables filled with snacks and goodies. They asked me if I wanted a hamburger or a hotdog. So I sat down in a soft chair with a back to lean against (a true rarity on the trail – the soft and the leaning. Picnic tables, benches, rocks, and downed trees just don’t offer that!). I ordered a venison burger. Plugged my phone into their portable charger and drank a Coke in my comfy chair. It was divine! As a thru hiker there is something truly magical about coming upon people who are generous and supportive of your AT adventure.

Jennifer and Bruce rented a cabin from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (apparently there are 40+ cabins) that is right on the trail and that they could drive to. They loaded up the grill and coolers and headed over from Delaware to do Trail Magic. They are cross country bikers and have received lots of trail magic over the years and just wanted to pay it forward.

I left when a new hiker needed my chair feeling even better. The rain held off for another few hours, the trail was not rocky by some miracle, and the temp was perfect – until.

A little after 1pm it started raining. I have learned not to even bother putting on my raincoat because then I am wet with sweat instead of rain. I swear it acts like a wearable sauna and I’m just as wet when I wear it as when I don’t. The truth is you can only get so wet. Once you are soaked through, you are as wet as you are ever going to be. The problem isn’t that you are wet and hiking in 60 degree weather. I’m still sweating as I hike in those conditions. The problem is when you are wet, it is 60 degrees and you stop hiking. The chill sets in quickly. So you learn to take quick short breaks and start moving again as soon as you start to feel chilly.

I made it 12 miles to my intended camp site about 2:30pm. Someone said there was a hostel (all I heard was hot shower) about 3 miles down the trail. I decided I was already wet to the bone and I could stop hiking and set up my hammock while I shivered or I could hike another 3 miles and get a hot shower.

Hot shower were the magic words I needed to hear to manage those last 3 miles. I figured no matter how slowly I hiked I would get there in time for dinner and a hot shower. AND I DID!

I stayed at the Ironmasters Mansion Hostel owned by the PA State Park System. It is an old rundown mansion with 2 bunk rooms with about 14-18 beds in each room. They also have a private room/bath combo for $60/night, but it was booked for the evening. There are common areas and dinner is a frozen pizzeria that you buy for $3 and wait your turn to cook.

Everything is self-serve. You check yourself in by filling out a form, wrapping it around your cash and stick it through the slot of the innkeeper’s door. You get your own clean towels and bed linens, choose your bunk, make your bed, and wait your turn for a shower in a shower stall so gross that I pretty much changed my mind about taking a shower.

However, I got lucky! during my time waiting for a shower I made friends with the innkeeper and showed her how to use Uber Eats and confirmed that they would deliver out here to the hostel. I guess since I was nice to her, she was nice to me. She told me that the people who had reserved the private room weren’t checking in for a few hours and I could use the private shower up there. The CLEAN shower with a limitless supply of hot water (in the downstairs bathrooms, you have to run the shower and the sink on full high for 20 minutes and then the entire time you are showering for a lukewarm shower). It was one of my best all time showers!

I also got to wash and dry my clothes (included in the $25/night). For dinner I chose from my own food supplies (tastes better and lightens my load). Sat in the dining room and talked to people. I meet Cody an accountant from Iowa, who quit his job and sold his house to do this hike. I met a guy who was methodically using a transfer gadget to empty all the left behind gas canisters (the little ones you carry for your camp stove). After a couple of hours he had managed to get half a canister of gas from about 30 almost empty ones left in the recycling bin. A win-win because he got something for free and the innkeeper can now dispose of the empty canisters. There is a guy who is not a hiker who is just walking around asking if he can have things. There are guys on the patio smoking weed. Many people in the house who are on their phones or already asleep. Truly the people doing this hike are the most interesting people to talk to. There are two other women in the house, both retired. One is hiking with her husband. One is hiking solo, but has a Tramily (trail family) that she is hiking with. Neither of them took showers either until I shared the upstairs shower secret (I couldn’t in good conscience keep that to myself).

Breakfast is from 6am – 7:30. No idea what they serve because I was will not be waking up that early for a breakfast that I assume is comparable to the frozen dinner for pizza.

I got my laundry done around 9pm and snuck into the bunk room filled with snoring hikers – which is good news because it means I don’t have to feel bad about adding my snore to the mix!

So I am going to bed clean, with clean laundry, and no worries about how much more my rain soaked gear will weigh because it isn’t rain soaked! Plus i completed my first 15 mile day!